Legacy: Letters from eminent parents to their daughters by Menon, Sudha (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📗

to take on such a humungous responsibility when, in fact, he had burnt his hands a couple of time in business, wiping away a bulk of the wealth he had created.

This is what he had to say to me: ‘For dreaming, he (Capt.’s father) read to me about Tagore and Gandhi, Nehru and Tilak, and he showed me the less fortunate people around me so that I always counted my blessings. He never gave me the opportunity to be envious of those more privileged. It was because of this that when I found myself living hand-to-mouth in a tent, I never felt poor. I had the arrogance of the wealth of nature around me. I never felt poor because I was so drunk with the possibilities of my life and never noticed what I did not have in my life.’

The village schoolmaster would have been proud of his son, if he had been around to see what he has made out of his life. Among other things, the Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of Deccan 360, has been knighted with ‘Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur’, the highest civilian award conferred by the French government.

To me, it is very fitting that a man who attributes his entire being to what his father taught him as a child, should write this charming, very candid letter to his two daughters.

Dear Krithika, Pallavi,

None of the stuff that I write in this letter will be new to you or surprise you because this is the stuff that I have always based my life on. You have grown up with me, have gone through the ups and downs of my life, and have seen that at every stage, I have done whatever it is on hand at that point with complete sincerity. We have had great wealth and enjoyed a life of plenty and we have also lived a spartan life in our farm when I decided to become a farmer and grow coconuts, areca nuts, and silkworms. And I know that every time I decided to do something new, your lives were disturbed by it, but you did it willingly and have enjoyed every step of the adventure and learnt along the way.

My dear daughters, as two young, talented women, I want you to know that the most important thing is for you to be intensely passionate about everything that you do. Don’t be like a passenger on a train but be its driver. Be completely committed to pursuing your dreams but at the same time, let that not be an exercise in self-indulgence. Understand that everything that you have today is the product of your ancestors’ labour. The comfortable life that you are able to lead has been made possible by their hard work and perseverance. So, while you are passionate about your own interests, let it be in consonance with the society. While it furthers your own fulfilment, it should also further the society’s well-being.

I believe that passion and work are inseparable; they can’t exist in isolation from each other. From knowing to doing is a journey in itself and if you lack the latter, any amount of talent is worth nothing. Make your life a journey of adventure. But if you are too much a person of society, you can’t create since to be able to create, you need reflection and isolation. On the other hand, if you are completely isolated, you become a sponge on society, living off it instead of giving back to it. So you must know how to strive a perfect balance between the two.

Dear children, my father used to say that everything is rooted in action and that it is always better to lose yourself in action than in despair. The action in your life itself will then be the reward. The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson once famously said: ‘I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.’ My children, every moment, everything that you do—small, big, significant—must be enjoyed. Happiness and wealth is a consequence of your actions, your ventures.

You should never be idle. Whatever you want to be in life, even if it were to become a cobbler, be the best one. Be obsessed with whatever it is that you want to do.

Nobody owes you a free lunch. Inculcate an entrepreneurial spirit and learn to stand on your own feet. In a marriage today, you are more likely to survive if you have your own passions, hobbies and interests. Mutually respect each other. Keep yourself both interested and interesting. Find salvation in your work. We all have to work for a living, but regardless of what else you do, engage in physical labour every day. When I left the army, I soiled my hands every day in my farm, did hard physical work, milked cows, and mixed manure. Though over a period of time I took a divorce from that lifestyle, I know that the bricklayer, the welder, the mason, the waiter—these are the true sons of the soil.

It is important to find good, meaningful work because it is integral to our happiness. Regardless of love, family, friendship, and other things in life, you will never be happy if you don’t have work. Make sure that the work must be one that enlarges the well-being of the community around you. Remember that your love for work should not be in conflict with the love for the community in which you have been raised.

When you both were in college, I gave you the freedom to choose the subjects of your choice. I’m sure you remember what I had told you then: ‘While you are free to discover your passions, I won’t appreciate idleness of the mind and body.’

Dear Pallavi, you went to the UK to do your masters in literature and while you were there, you were true to your word, working as a waitress in a restaurant to supplement the limited