Vanishing Stars

I was in the gym when I got the text message from my friend Varun. "Steve Jobs no more" it said. To be honest, his demise wasn't something unexpected. He had been frail for a long time, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But its unimaginable impact on self was. I did not expect, that with millions others like me, the loss would feel personal. But for some reason it did. I tried to continue cycling , but the TV screen in front of me played news of SJ's demise again and again, and I could not any longer delay the sinking feeling in an attempt to burn some more calories. SJ definitely commanded at least two minutes of cycling silence from me. I just went home. I had a sense of some injustice taking place, some error happening on the Creator's part. I was not really angry, but rather disappointed. There was almost a selfish streak to my disappointment, because along with sadness, I had a feeling of  "Damn..now who is going to come up with those great designs ..". And I was further ashamed of bearing that selfishness.

Moments like these, makes us realise how much someone so remote has touched our lives, and how much we actually owe to that someone. Let me tell you "my" Apple story. I was never a Apple guy. I wasn't one of those guys who went to a coffee shop because I had a cool looking Mac. I was a Windows person, and am still a big advocate of Windows in our day to day lives.

But then iPhone happened. And it changed the way how I marveled at technology and simplicity.

It changed the way I thought of Apple. It introduced me to a phenomenon known as Steve Jobs. Although I knew who SJ was before iPhone and his various other accomplishments, I did not bother to be impressed. I regarded him as just one more silicon valley knight. But since I owned an iPhone - SJ, iPhone, iAnything and Apple have become synonymous with each other for me. I cannot isolate talking about SJ from talking about Apple or iAnything.

Apple changed the way how I judge an invention, any progress, any technology. Apple forced me to search for simplicity in things.

Why SJ was great was because he brought intuition to complex products. My amazement at SJ comes from my amazement with iPhone.To keep something geeky is not too difficult #Android. To make something human takes inhuman efforts. Right from the moment an iPhone touches your hands, it talks to you in its own unique body language. You don't really need to understand it to start using it. Its simple. It seems to read your mind like an old time lover. It seduces you by its touch. It leads you to discover her and amazes you more and more as you explore her. The more you know her, the more you are captivated, enchanted and you know, that you are not going back to anyone else again. She has you in her spell.

I have often had "friendly" arguments with my buddies, bordering on war, about an iPhone vs an Android. Its almost like a fight we see these days because of a religion. But then, is what SJ created any different ? Isn't he like a messiah?. Think about it - Apple binds people to a discipline, a thought process. People say that Apple only allows you to operate in its own rules. It controls how you use it. Unlike other devices, which I think don't have any form or function integrity, it gives us freedom, by binding us. It shares its love with everyone,without bias. It has caused wars, as I mentioned above. But its the interpreters, the practitioners who do that. It in itself does not intend it. Not to mention people are against it without understanding the genius behind it. The thought behind it. The philosophy behind it. They tend to label it too fast. Some fear it might destroy their originality if they accept it in their life. Some feel threatened to an extent that they are ready to accept anything else. Now, isn't that already becoming a  religion? May be, it does boil down to faith in some way.

Android is because iPhone is. Apple created the competition, and they beat it. SJ was a proof that an idea can be powerful. How many industries did it create? Plenty. Companies exists because iPhone exists.One might say Apple copied other things. iPhone was not original. Fair enough. May be it is right. The question is not really about being original. The question is about what one did with what one knew. Touch screens were not new. But did anyone else master the "touch" ?. I am not against Android at all. I think it is itself a well deserved technology feat. What I don't like is someone faking their un-marvel at iPhone. I think one of the signs that a product has really touched peoples' lives is if it becomes a verb, or a descriptor for a group, or an adjective. Like Google. Google this, google that. Or Xerox. Can you xerox these documents? Or Kindle. Or  iPod. Or iPad.

You either hate Apple or you are in love with it. Either way, you are touched by it. But there are no two ways about SJ. There is no other emotion but immense respect for him. I am appalled at people who are trying to prove how iPhone is a piece of shit or how they don't approve of Apple. Frankly its an insult to SJ. If its a friendly argument about why someone loves their Android more than iPhone, its fine. One is free to choose his or her phone. But really, does one need to go the lengths of disgracing the genius behind iPhone just to feel a tad better about their Android ? I think by doing this, iPhone has already won, SJ has already been proved right, again. Apple doesn't even need to try. How many non Apple commercials do we see which try to compare their product with Apple and poke Apple to market themselves.? And how many do we see the other way around.?

If nothing else is available, people start blaming SJ's taskmaster character. I don't care about how he was in his personal life. I really want to know to whom does it matter? All he did was never let his focus off the customer. He sincerely loved his customers.If you probe any person deep enough, you are bound to find inconsistencies. Frankly, thats human. It's not that he committed a sin. He just had unfaltering ideas of perfection. I have not read his biography, nor interested in knowing anything more about him. The image of SJ I have is sufficient to make him my hero, my inspiration. I don't crave for any more details.

But its not only SJ that we lost last year. 2011 seems to have been terrible. Too many gems lost. Jagjit Singh, Shashi Kapoor and Bhimsen Joshi to add a few. Is this a sign? Are the legends making way for the new ones, or are we entering a starless time? Or are we really facing the end of the world? That would explain why HE is calling all his favorites back to HIM. Very selfish of HIM if thats true.

Sachin Tendulkar. Cannot even imagine the impact on me the day I hear he is no more. I am going to go cold turkey. I am going to go into deep silence. Or maybe, that's when it will start sinking in, that the honeymoon phase is over, and life sucks. The fairy-tale has ended. Forget the time when he passes away. His retirement, which is now near, will equally hurt. I tend to shun imagining these moments. I was never introduced to cricket and then to SRT. I go introduced to the aura known as SRT, and then to cricket. I don't think I will follow cricket after the time of SRT.

These stars, they abstracted what they did, from what it really is and made it into a beacon for human achievement. SJ took "design" to the next level. Any study of a good design will not be complete without being in reverence of SJ and Apple. Any lesson in sport and sportsmanship will not be complete without being in awe of SRT and his discipline and dedication.

But its not only those faraway stars that I miss. My grandfather, a hero to me, also passed away last year. 90 years of  treasures just faded away. Someone who saw the second world war, the uprising, the British, the freedom that we earned, the freedom that we gave away, the corruption, the India shining, the Bombay, the Mumbai, the television, the landing on moon and also an iPhone during his time on earth just ceased to exist one fine day. 90 years is not a short time.And to live them in an exemplary fashion, to influence generations to come, is a basically a story of great struggle. What he left behind though in a family, as a family, only a star could do it.

Steve Jobs was a true wonder, a gift to our generation. Like a few others stars, we are fortunate enough that he shone during our time. The way he lovingly showcased his white creations, with that black turtleneck and blue denim, will always remind us to stay hungry and foolish. How many of us manage to do that, is yet to be seen.

And one more thing....he made us into kids again. He gave us a toy, and made us ecstatic with the same scream, the same joy, that was missing within us for a long time since we were children. How I wish there was indeed One More Thing...

27th May 2012
Nachiket Mehta

Apple's home page on the day SJ died.

When a company shuns everything and just pays homage to a single person on their front page, it speaks a lot about how empty they feel due to their loss. What I also observed about these pages was the same uncluttered simplicity that SJ liked, and which is part of everything Apple.

I think this is probably the most brilliant adieu to SJ

Encounters of the Elite Kind

Sometimes, the most interesting experiences happen, in the most commonplace circumstances. Thats why probably one remembers them so much. This incident started at Quiznos at the Minneapolis airport , and ended at Newark airport's baggage claim. Now, Minneapolis and Newark might be somewhat interesting, but  me ,Quiznos  and the baggage claim, were most definitely the most commonplace things  of all. And in that order.The most interesting of all these, was a person by the name  of Azim Premji, head of Wipro. Here's how it went, completely unexpected.

I had an hour before I boarded a flight to Newark, so I went to Quiznos, ordered a sub, and sat there eating happily. After a while, I saw  two gentlemen standing in the Quiznos line, in front of me, facing me. They were suited, and had a air of command around them. They seemed very out of place at Quiznos. I could not help noticing them, because they were right in front of where I was seated. It struck me, the familiarity of the face of one of them, who would later turn out to be Mr. Azim Premji himself. I thought of him, and I discarded the thought, arguing  that why would the head of Wipro be in a Quiznos line? For the uninitiated, Mr. Azim Premji, , with a net worth of 17 billion $, is one of the biggest business stalwarts from India. I thought that even his driver's servant probably would own a Quiznos. He has no business being there. !!

But the thought did not go away. I finally turned to the always reliable iPhone ( iPhone Use # 1), and did an image search on Azim Premji. Opened a full blown picture of his face, and compared inch by inch to make sure that I was not mistaken. There he was, right in front of me, unmistakably like the picture on my iPhone. I decided it was worth taking a chance. I quickly dumped what I was eating and ran to the restroom right in front of Quiznos. Cleaned my face of any bread crumbs and tidied myself. I was thinking of some paper to get his autograph on, and I decided to use my business card. I even kept a pen ready. I was thinking, that if he is indeed Mr. Azim Premji, I want to say a  hello, and get his autograph at least.

By the time I returned to Quiznos, the two gentlemen had moved to the exit of the line, and were collecting their subs. I hurried ahead and started talking. to Mr. Premji.  

NM:                       "Excuse me sir, are you from India ?"

AP:                        "Yes I am " . (check #1 )

NM( half smiling ):   "Do you happen to be Mr. Azim Premji ?"

AP(smiling ):           "Yes" (confirmed)

NM (elated)            "Its my privilege to meet you Sir.
                               I did not believe it was you initially"

AP(smiling):             "Well do you believe now?"

(Laughter Laughter)

I asked him if he can give me an autograph. He agreed.He asked my name. I told him and I gave him my business card to write on, backside up, as I thought he would use the blank space, but he turned it the right way, and read my name. He then wrote on the same side "Dear Nachiket , All the Best- Signed AP".. I told him that  a lot of our family members are from Amalner, the place where Wipro was formed, as a soap company at that time.He exclaimed "Small world, eh?" and laughed.

I wanted to have a photograph taken with him, but he had gone  ahead to eat his sub, along with Rajiv, the other person with him. I later came to know who Rajiv was.He seemed to be his right hand man. All this while, some other Indians recognized that he was someone important, and some actually recognized him too. I was happy that I got this chance. I ran for my flight. I immediately clicked the photograph of the signed business card, and emailed it to myself, as a backup. (iPhone use # 2) .I posted this incident  to Facebook. Amen. 

I did not expect anything else to happen. Right when almost everyone was seated, I saw Mr. Premji  walk in my flight. I was pleasantly surprised, but more so, when he sat in economy. I wondered why. I thought he probably did not get a first class ticket, but it seemed unreasonable that these people do not plan so ahead of time, as to not get a ticket. I kept wondering. I tried to search for "his men", to see where they were seated. I couldn't see any.Thats when I saw a post from my friend Varun ( still hadn't shut of the iPhone), asking me if Mr. Premji  was seated in the economy class, as he is known to do. Thats when I realized that Mr. Premji is known to do that. To set an example may be. Whatever it was, I thought it was a good move.For me at least that day :) I was in 17D. He was in 14A.

The flight was pretty uneventful. He was sleeping most of the time. The Newark part is much more interesting. After boarding out of the flight, I went to the restroom. I was already happy that I met him, and I would have a story to tell to my sister, whom I was visiting.I was washing my hand at the sink, when he walked in. I kept washing my hands.He came to the sink next to me. I still kept washing my hands. I wanted to see if I have one more chance of a conversation. But the place seemed inappropriate.

We both turned toward the towel machine. Now, this might sound weird, but this machine has an important part to play. The machine was not automatic, and it did not have a clear lever to force the paper out. The lever was part of the front plastic panel itself, and because it was the same color, it was hard to make out the lever from the machine.I could , he could not.I operated the lever for him. He said thanks, and we both walked out of there. After this newly formed acquaintance, I was a bit more confident of talking to him. I was surprised that he did not have anyone else walking with him. I grabbed this chance , and started talking to him. .Some excerpts from what we talked.

I said "Sir, can I ask you a personal question ?", AP said "Depends on what the question is" and laughed. I asked."I always wondered if you were a Gujarathi?" . The reason I asked this was because I knew, Amalner (MH), one of the roots of Wipro, is densely populated by Gujurathis. He said "Well, I am from the Kutch region.So yes, I am a Gujarathi. I understand, but I do not speak much. ". I told him my family was from Gujurat too, even though I am from Pune. He asked from where. I told him Mehsana. he asked me if it was near to Surat. I told him it was probably nearer to Baroda.

He then asked me what I do. I told him I was a Systems Engineer at St.Jude Medical, a medical device manufacturing company in Minneapolis. He asked me what does St.Jude do. I told him we make devices to correct arrhythmias of the heart.I told him that I had worked in the IT sector in India, at TCS for a while before I came here for higher education. I told him that I am an electrical engineer by background. He then exclaimed  "I am an electrical engineer too. Remember, there are only two kinds of people in the world. One, who are electrical engineers, and others , who aspire to be ".

The identity crisis-ed electrical engineer in me wept and finally rested in peace.I told him that I will remember that line forever. I even told him, that my roommate used to work at Wipro, and he also got some kind of award from him (Neeraj Gaur). I told him, that probably,  even though I might look too young to comment, but if it does count towards anything, we the youth of India were very proud of what he did, and wished him success towards his every other endeavor.He said he really appreciates the compliment and thanked me. I had said this as I sensed these would be my final words. As ahead, down a small escalator, I saw a person waiting with "WIPRO" banner, obviously to receive him. Once there, I joked, "So, it seems here's where we part  Sir. It was nice meeting you ". He laughed too. I went towards baggage claim. I saw that he spoke something to the person who came to receive, and it seemed something to the effect that he would receive his bag, and join him, and he told the person to wait outside. He started walking towards the baggage claim, where I was already waiting.

I was delighted at some extra time with him. The story even gets better now. He wanted to read the flight number on the baggage claim carousel. He tried to find his glasses. He searched in his jacket, and then he searched in his executive bag. He couldn't find it. He was suddenly worried. He handed me his baggage claim ticket, and asked me if I could verify if that carousel was ours. He was still searching for his glasses. He then exclaimed that he must have left them in the flight. He was telling me that this is the first time he has checked in a bag for such a flight. He also told me that he usually never sleeps in the flight.He was visibly worried. He said he cannot read anything without his glasses. He mentioned he probably left them on his seat in the flight.

I offered to help him. I told him, that if he does not mind, I can run back to the flight and search for it. He looked at me and considered my offer. He said "Can you really do that?". I said "Of course, I will run and be back soon". I gave him my carry on backpack to watch, and I ran. That was the best sprint of my life. I went back through the escalator, through the walk ways towards the flight.

Now, I was so excited, that I did not know and read the sign, that I cannot enter back. Its a "Exit only" zone.I accidentally ran a few steps inside that area, before the attendant there shouted and stopped me. She did not understand why would anyone break that security line. I told her that I was looking for glasses. I just came from a flight from Minneapolis , and the glasses might still be in the flight. She told me she cannot let me go beyond that point. At that time, the pilot of our flight was exiting from there, stopped and asked what was happening. Even before I could speak, he asked me "Are you looking for a pair of glasses? ". I said "yes, they are my uncle's. He was on 14A". The pilot spoke to the attendant and told her, that he knows that I was in his flight (we had exchanged greetings while exiting, and he was a funny pilot, full of jokes), and offered to take me to the flight, so that I go under supervision. I was surprised by her reply. She told him she cannot even let him go back.!

Now another attendant came up and asked what was happening. He and the pilot spoke. The attendant then offered to go and search for the glasses. He said that he would send them down the baggage claim, in a tray. He asked me for my  "uncle's " seat number, and I told him 14A. I ran back to the waiting Mr. Azim Premji. 

Now, while we were waiting for the baggage carousel to start, I asked him, sensing my last chance, for a photograph. He did not seem to mind it. I found a guy next to me, and asked him if he can use an iPhone ( dind't want a single opportunity I had got , to give me a blurred picture). He said yes, and took a picture of me and Mr. Premji next. I thanked AP a lot for that. I joked, that this is so precious, and this is going to make me famous on Facebook. We both laughed.

I got a couple of calls from my sister  asking if I was done, and if I got my bag. I told her that I was still waiting. I did not mention about AP, because I was talking in Gujarathi, and I thought he would not like me mentioning him. We talked about a few more things. I asked him where is he usually stationed, and he mentioned Bangalore.Thats when we heard an announcement for the "party who has lost their glasses" to come see the Delta office. I found where the office was, and we both walked towards it. There was a different person inside, and they said they had the glasses with them instead of sending it through the baggage carousal. He handed the glasses to AP, and mentioned that "one certain gentleman" almost broke security to retrieve them. I was behind him, and I smiled. I raised my hand to him, and exclaimed guiltily "That would be me " . He then mentioned that they found it , not on the seat, but in the restroom.

We both came out of the office, and by that time, some more people had recognized him. They handed me their cameras this time, to click a picture. I joked "Oh....you got him with his glasses on ". Later, we both walked back to the baggage carousel, which had started by then. I got my bag, and he was still waiting for his. I wished him all the best for the rest of his journey. I asked him if he is heading back to India. He mentioned he is in New York for 4 more days , before he heads back. I once again told him it was my pleasure meeting him, and I would always remember it. He mentioned that he really wanted to thank me, for what I did, and that he really appreciates the gesture. We smiled and parted. I emailed that picture to myself immediately.(iPhone use # 3, in 3 hours). Met my sister outside. She asked "What took you so long?" . I smiled. I had a story to tell.

So, that was my encounter. Bucket list item # 37. "Meet an iconic celebrity at the airport, click a picture and get an autograph". Check. 

Seat #'s 14A and 17D :)

Nachiket Mehta

7th Day of Sept 2010.