When I look back at my life especially the relationship with my dad, for most part of it I can only recollect clash of opinions. Oh don’t mistake me I have a huge affection towards him and he is one of the persons I admire. However I do not express it that much. It has always happened that the way I see this world and his take on it varies so different from each other that any discussion ends on a sore note. Partly because I lose my patience and assert how things should be seen. Who’s right or who’s wrong is not the matter but it is about two conflicting interests. While I think I completely understand his line of thought the rebel in me has never accepted it and has always stuck to my stand and how I see the world.
It is natural that no two people’s interests and lines of thoughts always align. And I am not the first person on the earth who has this problem. Every man on this earth will have one or the other story about the relationship with his father. And there are sons who have adored their fathers and throughout their lives had been very affectionate to them.
One may be thinking that what does this have any relation to the title of this blog? It has.
I had recently completed reading Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson. It was so interesting to see through the life of a successful person who had built a huge fortune and has given this word those wonderful products ¬– the Mac, the iconic iPod, iphone and the iPads. He had his problems with many of his relationships in life. He just couldn’t fit himself with many because of his binary vision of this world. Either something or someone is good or ugly. There was no mediocre or a ‘chalta hai’ version of person or thing in his life. It was so interesting to read his biography on how he viewed things and his quest to give the world products which give a truly great experience. It would have been very difficult for his colleagues and friends to have managed him but under that I was moved by the soul that thirsted for something which was unique, is not a clutter and is pure. May be this thirst for purity in anything he saw made him a rebel and a difficult customer. But I loved the beauty with which he found his way through to create something unique no one has ever thought about.
There are some aspects of his thoughts which I think I also have especially his belief in the Bauhaus philosophy of ‘Less is more’. I have an aversion towards anything that is a clutter, any aspect of product which is there with no value to the user, any communication that speaks more than what it has to etc. I have had my own share of friction with many (including my wife who thinks I am stupid and lack taste because I choose dresses for my kids which are very simple and I always think they look great in them), but I don’t regret because everyone has his own right to be himself and I am just being myself.
My favorite portion of Steve Jobs’ biography is actually towards the end of the book, page 556, where Jobs tells the author on why he had asked him to write the biography. I was disturbed and moved by those words and realized how true those were. To quote from the book, with all due diligence to the writer and the publisher:
“I wanted my kids to know me”, he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did. Also, when I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn’t know anything. They’d get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say.”
This started a very strong thought process in me and I realized how true those words were. I started to recollect my relationship with my dad and how every discussion we start ends up in a very sore note. And, most often it is me who would inflict a wound. Also in relationships, I have always had problems in expressing my actual feeling towards the person and when I attempt I make a mess of it.
These thoughts really stared at me looking through my eyes and shouted ‘how do you expect your son and daughter understand you?’ I started to understand the term ‘generation gap’. Yes, I can’t discuss with a 5 year old (my son) and a 3 year old (my daughter) on how I view things in this world and why I like something in a particular way and why clutter beats the shit out of me and I get confused!
I had a strong urge in me that I have to leave behind something which should speak to my kids when I am not around. It has to be my own voice – I am not that great yet for someone to write my biography (ha ha). I have to let myself open to them so that when they are at an age when they discern between relationships, they know me better. I can see that my kids would not have the same way of thinking I have and I am quite prepared for that. My son or daughter would one day tell me how my view of this world is so skewed and wrong. How I always do not understand things. How my taste and choice of things suck! It’s alright history is just going to repeat itself and this time I am going to be at the receiving end.
So, I am going to write whatever I think about anything the way I see it – unaltered. I know that someday, my kids will have a chance to read my blog and know why I was the way I was!!!
This post is dedicated to my son and daughter who haven’t learned yet how to read. When they do read, I just hope they enjoy.
It is natural that no two people’s interests and lines of thoughts always align. And I am not the first person on the earth who has this problem. Every man on this earth will have one or the other story about the relationship with his father. And there are sons who have adored their fathers and throughout their lives had been very affectionate to them.
One may be thinking that what does this have any relation to the title of this blog? It has.
I had recently completed reading Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson. It was so interesting to see through the life of a successful person who had built a huge fortune and has given this word those wonderful products ¬– the Mac, the iconic iPod, iphone and the iPads. He had his problems with many of his relationships in life. He just couldn’t fit himself with many because of his binary vision of this world. Either something or someone is good or ugly. There was no mediocre or a ‘chalta hai’ version of person or thing in his life. It was so interesting to read his biography on how he viewed things and his quest to give the world products which give a truly great experience. It would have been very difficult for his colleagues and friends to have managed him but under that I was moved by the soul that thirsted for something which was unique, is not a clutter and is pure. May be this thirst for purity in anything he saw made him a rebel and a difficult customer. But I loved the beauty with which he found his way through to create something unique no one has ever thought about.
There are some aspects of his thoughts which I think I also have especially his belief in the Bauhaus philosophy of ‘Less is more’. I have an aversion towards anything that is a clutter, any aspect of product which is there with no value to the user, any communication that speaks more than what it has to etc. I have had my own share of friction with many (including my wife who thinks I am stupid and lack taste because I choose dresses for my kids which are very simple and I always think they look great in them), but I don’t regret because everyone has his own right to be himself and I am just being myself.
My favorite portion of Steve Jobs’ biography is actually towards the end of the book, page 556, where Jobs tells the author on why he had asked him to write the biography. I was disturbed and moved by those words and realized how true those were. To quote from the book, with all due diligence to the writer and the publisher:
“I wanted my kids to know me”, he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did. Also, when I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn’t know anything. They’d get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say.”
This started a very strong thought process in me and I realized how true those words were. I started to recollect my relationship with my dad and how every discussion we start ends up in a very sore note. And, most often it is me who would inflict a wound. Also in relationships, I have always had problems in expressing my actual feeling towards the person and when I attempt I make a mess of it.
These thoughts really stared at me looking through my eyes and shouted ‘how do you expect your son and daughter understand you?’ I started to understand the term ‘generation gap’. Yes, I can’t discuss with a 5 year old (my son) and a 3 year old (my daughter) on how I view things in this world and why I like something in a particular way and why clutter beats the shit out of me and I get confused!
I had a strong urge in me that I have to leave behind something which should speak to my kids when I am not around. It has to be my own voice – I am not that great yet for someone to write my biography (ha ha). I have to let myself open to them so that when they are at an age when they discern between relationships, they know me better. I can see that my kids would not have the same way of thinking I have and I am quite prepared for that. My son or daughter would one day tell me how my view of this world is so skewed and wrong. How I always do not understand things. How my taste and choice of things suck! It’s alright history is just going to repeat itself and this time I am going to be at the receiving end.
So, I am going to write whatever I think about anything the way I see it – unaltered. I know that someday, my kids will have a chance to read my blog and know why I was the way I was!!!
This post is dedicated to my son and daughter who haven’t learned yet how to read. When they do read, I just hope they enjoy.
Nice post, things explained in details. Thank You.
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