Stay hungry, stay foolish.

"Stay hungry, stay foolish." What a statement to sign off a fantabulous speech to Stanford graduates? When I reached the end of Commencement address by Steve Jobs, I could not control my tears. They flowed down my cheeks unperturbed by the people and noises around me. There was a devastating silence amid the chaos. My fingers were hitting hard at the keyboard trying desperately to keep pace with the flow of thoughts. The noise resounded in my ears making the overall experience next to heavenly. Suddenly, I woke up to reality.

What am I fantasizing and why am I doing it? Perhaps, it had to do with Steve’s speech. When I read, see, or hear experiences of life, love, and death they transform me to a different plane. Death turns out to be the agent of change today. In all my fantasies, death has never instigated me to ‘act’. Today, it’s different. I have vowed to live everyday of my life as if it was my last day. Thank you Steve!

I have loving parents, caring friends, interesting colleagues and friendly neighbors. I play with my neighbor’s two-year old almost everyday. When I wish her good night and tell her that I’ll bring chocolates tomorrow, I’m unknowingly playing god. When I go home after a long day’s work, I hope my mom would wait with a cup of hot coffee in her hand. At office, we plan the tasks for the next few hours; we prepare project schedules for months on end with ‘delivery’ dates. We make hollow promises to our girl friends or spouses. Never once do we envision the role of death in any of these activities. How strange and unavoidable? How else can we explain our hope in future? What is the guarantee that we will live to see the sun rise again?

There should no such thing as procrastination or plan in any dictionary for the simple reason that you have to be god to procrastinate or plan. Let gods do their work. I’ll be a happy man if … well, there are no ifs and buts in death.

I do long for that day when I will have the opportunity to shed my "old skin" as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. Until then my hunger for knowledge will remain suffused; my foolishness will ensure that I'll never run out of fodder for my brain.