Steve Jobs wrote the finest tribute to Anna Hazare. Don't believe me? Here it is: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Of course, Jobs wasn’t referring explicitly to Hazare when he said this. (In fact, this quote of his , used as commentary in an ad to sell the MacBook that featured iconic mavericks like Muhammad Ali, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Dylan, Alfred Hitchcock and Mohandas Gandhi, could well have featured Hazare but that's another story.)
Perhaps it is only fitting that a week that began by being dominated by news about Hazare, should end with headlines about Jobs, the man who endorsed a generation to “Think Different” and who made it cool to be a maverick.
The current atmosphere being what it is, it might be considered even blasphemous by some of his zealous supporters to compare the Anointed One with a techie however iconic he may be, but anyone even slightly familiar with the trajectory of Jobs’ career and the impact he’s had on the world will know that the comparison is not a fatuous one.
Jobs and Hazare. Men who took on mighty establishments (in Jobs’ case IBM and Microsoft amongst others), gave voice to people’s dreams and aspirations and had their finger on the heartbeat of their constituency.
Is it any wonder that they spawn mass uprisings, command almost hysterical worship in their followers and transform our world? I may not agree with everything Hazare is doing and the methodology he uses but it would be foolish to deny that he has not set in motion a movement that has had enormous impact.
Ditto Jobs. One has only to spend a little time with an Apple buff to recognise the crazy glint in his eye and his almost devotee-like worship of Apple as he eulogises about interface and OS and how Jobs' use of kitchen appliance design as an inspiration when he was thinking up the PowerBook is not that different from the young professional at Ramlila Maidan waving his Anna flag.
Between both icons runs the ideology of thinking out of the box and never saying die.
That both have appeared in public in the same week, gaunt, frail and giving rise to speculations about their health, is just another coincidence that connects them further.
In his much-revered, oft-quoted 2005 address to Stanford graduates, Jobs said: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
As Hazare stares down death’s maw, and Jobs himself is engrossed in an end-game with the Emperor of all Maladies, these are momentous words — the anthem of all those who refuse to fit in or be cowed down.
Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com