Two individual journeys that changed destination of millions

Our first hero's journey!

Traveling around is considered to be a great educational experience. But some times even one journey could be the turning point in your life. Here I am going to write about two such journeys in the life of two remarkable Indians that changed the course of not only their own lives but transformed the lives of millions.

Year 1893. The place, South Africa. There sat in a very cold wintry night of South Africa a man without adequate warm clothes in the waiting room of a railway station. Nothing is extraordinary about if this wait was by choice, nay but it was by choice in a way. The story (real) is this.

Before our hero lost his belongings and found himself in the waiting room of a railway station, he boarded the first class compartment of a train from Durban to Pretoria. When the train arrived at Pietermaritzburg (also called Maritzburg) at about 9.00 p.m. a white passenger seated in the compartment did not like our hero who being Indian was ‘coloured’. In those days the whites and the coloured were segregated in every walk of life in South Africa. When asked to go out of the first class and board a van compartment at back of the train, the ‘coloured’ man refused. He was then forcibly taken off the coach but still refused to board the van compartment arguing that he had got the first class ticket so he had right to travel by first class. In the process the train left and our man found himself waiting in the cold night at the Maritzburg station. This man was none other than M.K. Gandhi, who would later become the hero of India’s freedom movement and get India independence from the British in 1947.

What happened to Gandhi that night on Maritzburg station was a transformational experience. Gandhi was new in South Africa and had gone there to develop his career as a lawyer. The physical hardship that he faced during this journey is nothing compared to the humiliation he felt being discriminated against because of the colour of his skin. He resolved to fight the ‘disease of colour prejudice’ as he calls it in his autobiography. This is when a big turning point came, Gandhi decided to take up a public cause and the great leader started one of the several battles that he won without resorting to violence and ultimately won India her freedom.

Our second hero’s journey!

Year 1974. Place Nis, a border town between Serbia (at that time it was part of Yugoslovia) and Bulgaria. Both were communists countries at that time. A young Indian was hitchhiking has way all the way from Paris to Mysore in South India!

It is a coincidence with the previous story but here also it was about 9.00 p.m. when our hero of this story was dropped at Nis station on Saturday night. The restaurant was closed and with no local currency and the banks to open only on Monday, our hero slept on the railway platform till next evening 8.30 p.m. to catch Sophia Express.

There were only two other passengers in the compartment; a boy and a girl. Our hero struck a conversation with the girl in French. The girl described how hard it was to live in a communist country. Suddenly there arrived policemen who were actually called in by the third passenger, the boy, who thought our hero and the girl were criticising the Communist government of Bulgaria. The girl was taken away and so was the luggage of our hero who was then dragged away and put in a small room of 8x8. The room was cold with stone floor and a hole in a corner to be used for calls of the nature. Our hero was left in that room to cool his heels for 72 hours without any food or water. Then he was dragged outside humiliatingly and locked up in the guard’s room on a freight train going to Istanbul where he was to be released after 20 hours. When finally he was let off in Istanbul, the guard’s parting message meant that he was let off because he was from a friendly country! India during 1970s was close to coming to communism having nationalised banks and other industries and increased the role of state in the economy. India had adopted Soviet styled planned economic development and heavy regulation of the economy since early 1950s. Anyway, our starving hero, who did have some Left leaning views at that time, had been without food for nearly five days and was shaken from inside out, literally!

Thirty five years after this life transforming long, lonely, cold journey from Nis to Istanbul, our hero writes this in his book, “ Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.” Yes, our hero of this story is N R Narayana Murthy and he writes the above in his book A Better India: A Better World published in 2009. Set up in 1981, one of the giants in IT companies in India, Infosys today has revenues in excess of $3 billion, net income of close to $1 billion, market value of over $28 billion, has created more than 70,000 well paying jobs, 2,000 plus dollar millionaires and 20,000 plus Indian Rupee millionaires.

Two journeys that changed the destinations of millions, didn’t they?

15000 hours and success in life!

Everyone wants to know the formula for success, whatever way you may define success. Latest among the several people who have tried to come up with the answer is Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the book Outliers. Gladwell is author of other popular books Blink and the Tipping Point. The title of his latest book ‘outlier’ comes from language of statistics. In simple terms outlier would mean someone outside the normal range of distribution therefore, someone who has been more successful than others. Bill Gates in getting rich, Beatles in music, Pele in football and Sachin Tendulkar in cricket are outliers in their respective fields. What makes these people so successful? Gladwell argues that most of us could be successful if we worked hard, avail the opportunities that come our way and be well networked mentally and socially. Gladwell’s thumb rule on hard work is 15,000 hours. By illustrating through lives of Bil Gates, Beatles, Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) and many others it is argued that most of these people put in roughly about 15,000 hours of hard work in their field of work be it programming, music, sports or writing to achieve the level of proficiency that sets the scene for launching into successful journey..but the argument also assumes that you have bit of luck, social skills and connections as Gladwell shows beautifully. I think 15,000 hours (read hard work) is a plausible and useful idea. It may not be sufficient but it definitely is necessary. There is no short cut to success as they say. Try it out and see the results. I think most authors, athletes, business people, communication experts or sales people or teachers and others would be receptive to this thumb rule.

Now if you were to pursue a new hobby or career or activity that you wish to excel in and you are struggling to find time for it what do you do? Let’s say you want to learn to be very good keyboard player and don’t find time to practice it. Is there a way out for you? If you have patience to read I promise to help you find secret to spare nearly double the thumb rule time of 15,000 hours assuming you are healthy and not very old.

I found this secret in one of the most curious books I have ever read. Published in 1890 the book is called Enquire Within Upon Everything, a strange title you would agree. The edition I have got is a 2003 edition printed in India while the original one was printed and published in London. The book does not have any specific author because it is collection of various entries listing good practices that people were encouraged to adopt to lead a good life in Victorian Britain. In late 19th century England industrial revolution had helped with increasing wealth of common people and there was increasing desire to find about new things and so on. But there was no TV or internet. So the book Enquire Within.. was a best seller. It has sold more than one million copies. The book contains 2,775 short pieces on topics ranging from child care to food to home economy to good business practices. There are entries like how to train parrot, how to save money (‘one way to increase your wealth is to reduce your desires’ is one the quotations although there are genuinely smart non-renouncing type tips too), how to make Indian curry powder and so on. Any way before digressig more, here is the secret to find time found in the entry titled Early Rising and in my view one way of how you can find time to become great keyboard player or whatever else you wish to do:

The difference between rising every morning at six and eight, in the course of forty years, amounts to 29,200 hours, or three years 121 days and 16 hours, which are equal to 8 hours a day for exactly 10 years. So that rising at six will be same as if 10 years of life (a weighty consideration) were added, wherein we may command eight hours for the cultivation of our minds and the despatch of business.

Let’s end by noting another entry from Enquire Within.. which contains many hints on Home Comfort but I have chosen only following three:

· Eat slowly and you will not over eat.
· Between husband and wife little attentions beget much love.
· Whatever you choose to give away, always be sure to keep your temper.