Precious Pearls

Hushhh… I heaved a sigh of relief when I caught my train at the Nagpur station on way back to Pune. In just two days, I had my hands more than full. As train moved, journey of my thoughts also started. This travel was part of a long journey that had begun… Thanks to the 16-hour travel, I had jolly good time to think. I was glad I didn’t choose to fly to Nagpur. It does save time but train travel does offer relaxing moments. I don’t find train travel exhausting; I feel it refreshes. I often remember words of a political leader who once told me he was happier travelling by train, as on reaching destination, people allowed him to rest thinking the journey must have been tiring. After flight visits, meetings are planned immediately as ‘there’s no question of getting tired.’ “People hardly opt for train travel. Why you?” almost everyone I met asked me this. I knew why I was doing it. I have always loved travelling. As kids, we would often travel to Mumbai from Konkan (where I spend my chil...

If a picture can be worth a thousand words, an anecdote can colour your future. A photo gives you an idea of something that you may not be able to explain in many sentences. Similarly, you may come across an anecdote that mirrors uncommon wisdom, which even a fat philosophy book may not. Myriad shades of a tiny tale sometimes make our life vibrant and meaningful. Small incidents have always paved way for major inventions and innovations. Small is beautiful, short is sweet and simplicity is elegant. In anecdotes, lesser is nicer… In childhood, all of us loved short stories, those grandma’s tales. Why us alone, such tales have also enriched the richest man of the world Bill Gates. He says he has grown up listening to wonderful and meaningful stories from his granny and today, he often makes it a point to share his experience with his grandchildren! These tales are treasure troves to cherish forever. Not every child is fortunate enough to get it first-hand from grandma or grandpa, yet, i...

  I contemplated on writing the blog on Jobs several times before this but somehow it wasn’t coming from within. Why now? His death brought him in news probably more than his life did. Suddenly, everybody wanted to know what kind of man Steve Jobs was! As a columnist puts it, ‘‘Glowing obituaries appeared moments after his death was announced. He seemed to be eulogised as Silicon Valley’s radiant Sun King.’’ His biography is setting new sales record each passing day. Not being a technology freak myself, it was unlikely of me to pay much attention to the Apple co-founder. I particularly read about him after he stepped down as Apple head and handed over the operations to Tim Cook. A few days later, I happened to read his Stanford address comprising three stories from his life. They were inspiring. Born out of a marriage that never really materialised and adopted by a lower middle class mechanist this college dropout went on to become a towering entrepreneur. I fell in love with the ...