Job to do

Steve Jobs said in his speech at Stanford in 2005, where he talks about three stories of his life,( I searched out this transcript specifically for Ramu...he might have read it already though) that,

"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"

And that he had read somewhere that if you live each day like it were the last of your life, someday you will most certainly be right.

I remember Dr Deshpande, our teacher in Physiology, a cute looking lady ( I detest the word, but she was ...cute) - who used to tell us, while we grappled with the weight of Guyton and Gray's anatomy on our 'guide' mo(u)lded brains, to "keep an attitude to 'studying' in medicine which is unlike what your colleagues in engineering or in any other course might have. Imagine you have an exam the next day...... everyday. For every patient is an exam, and you cannot be caught unawares or afford to fail."

In hindsight I feel thats one of the lessons that medicine teaches you which you can extrapolate( I love the word!!) beyond the corridors of the hospital.To want to do each thing so well that you want to justify the title you prefix your name with, something your engineering friends cannot do .And there are no measuring scales, no standards here....but a desire to live upto.....what- Schweitzer? Capecchi?Kotnis? Farmer? Bang? Sudarshan? Hegde? Arole?Patch Adams? yourself?

So often we fall hopelessly short of this standard!!!

Jobs' idea seems difficult to imagine. My friend told me once that " kranticha vichaar kshanabharacha asto"- a revolutionary thought stays for some time.You have to cherish it and grow on it. Those who work on it as a way of life end up as the names mentioned above( except the last) When faced with a situation where you do not know blue pill or red pill , do you play it safe, or do you aim for something more?

There is another take to it( Krishnamurti / Bertie ?...don't remember) ...many years down the line, when you sit back on your easy chair and think about how you did, beyond earning and spending, beyond loving and being loved, beyond being 'successful in life' - often in other people's opinion more than yours, think if you gave your best shot even if you did not end up the best. And a smile lights up your face when you realize you did. This is a fictitious moment.It might never come, it might never be. But can you live up to the expectation of that moment?