Prof-Mr.Lokhande H.R.
S.M.E.S.& Jr.College Navedar Adiware
Tal-Rajapur Dist-Ratnagiri .
(From page no.78) I had a very simple upbringing. संस्कार/शिकवण We were a lower middle class family. Our 300 square feet house did not even have basic amenities सुविधा such as a fan, refrigerator,a geyser, गिझर a dining table or a gas stove; leave alone an air conditioner or a car. It was only when I entered the college that I got a watch and we got a dining table and a gas stove at home.Nevertheless, असे असले तरी/तरीसुद्धा culturally, I had a rich childhood. Poets like Vinda Karandikar, Mangesh Padgaonkar and Vasant Bapat used to visit our home and for hours I could listen to the discussions about poetry and literature-Marathi and English. They used to talk about Keshavsut, Mardhekar, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. I did not fully understand their discussions in depth, सखोल/खोली but I was immensely प्रचंड impressed.We also were lucky to have Pt. Kumar Gandharv, Pt.Bhimsen Joshi and Pt. Jasraj visit our place and talk about Indian music till late night or sometimes dawn. पहाट This is how and why I developed my interest in literature and music during my school days. I did not and even today don't understand the grammar of music, but I began to love it tremendously प्रचंड since then.
Most of the times, the topics of discussion at our home were about music, literature, paintings, sculptures शिल्पकला
etc. I could listen to the discussions about Van Gogh,Mozart and Michaelangelo etc. (from page no.79). It was because of such a milieu भोवतालचे सामाजिक वातावरण around me that I had a firm ठाम belief which I still hold that all arts are equally, if not more, important in our lives than Science or Technology. I had learnt from my childhood that money does not mean everything in life. It is necessary, but if at all there is something which enriches समृद्धी our lives and puts meaning to our existence, it is the arts, music and literature.
This is not to say that I did not like Science or Mathematics. In fact, स्थितीत I loved these subjects. However, I did not study them only for scoring maximum marks in the examinations. I used to study these subjects or any subject for that matter त्यामुळे for its inherent मूळचा/जन्मापासूनचा beauty. I found Newton's law of motion beautiful and Pythagorean Theorem elegant. मोहक I loved solving problems of Physics and Mathematics of the 9th standard when I was in the 7th, not to show off, but just because I used to get involved in solving them. I used to love problem-solving and used to enjoy finding out the most elegant मोहक method of solving them. Obviously, स्पष्टपणे these problems were not a part of the curriculum, but I enjoyed the whole process. This attitude दृष्टिकोन of looking beyond marks or examinations and to seek joy in solving any challenging problem helped me to develop a 'problem-solving' attitude which camo handy पुढेमागे उपयोगी पडणे when I appeared for my IIT entrance (JEE) because this exam is completely based on your problem-solving ability and the ability to think not only logically तार्किकदृष्ट्या but quickly and rapidly.
I scored 100% marks in Mathematics in almost जवळपास all the examinations that I appeared पात्र होणे/दिसू लागले for from my 1st standard until II, barring शिवाय only a few times. I stood 16th in the SSC Board (at that time, this examination was for the whole of Maharashtra, including Nagpur) and I stood 1st in the University in all subjects put together. Those days, you could get an admission into IIT without the entrance test (JEE) if you had secured the 1st rank in the University. Therefore, I did not have to appear पात्र होणे for the entrance test to get the admission into IIT but nobody in Solapur told me about it, (from page no.80). for I doubt if anybody in Solapur even knew about this rule. Therefore, I appeared पात्र होणे for the entrance examination, and I secured a very good rank in the same.
I was quite खूप मोठ्या प्रमाणात happy getting into IIT, but my joy shortlived. अल्पजीवी At Solapur I had not seen any building which was more than three storeyed. मजले Mumbai however was full of Skyscrapers. गगनचुंबी इमारती At IT, most of the students and professors used to converse in English whereas my English was very poor. I had my entire education in Marathi. My spoken English was quite मोठ्या प्रमाणात pathetic. दयनीय/करुणास्पद Not only did I have a very weak vocabulary, but, my pronunciation also was terrible भयानक and my construction of English sentences very awkward अस्ताव्यस्त/ओबडधोबड to say the least. कमी Due to all this, I was feeling quite खूप प्रमाणात lonely and terrified भीतीदायक in Mumbai in general and IIT in particular. I had developed an inferiority न्यूनत्व/कमी/हलकेपणा complex मिश्र/गुंतागुंतीचा and wanted to run away from IIT and even Mumbai.
One day, I was sitting at my mess table in the hostel sipping tea when a senior guy कोणीही मनुष्य came and sat on the chair adjacent जवळ to me. He was a convent educated guy कोणीही मनुष्य with fairly न्याय्य रीतीने/प्रामाणिकपणे sophisticated अधिक गुंतागुंतीचा करणे at least कमीत कमी spoken or colloquial संभाषण English. He was a bit कमी प्रमाणात arrogant गर्विष्ठ/उद्धट and wanted to pull my leg. He tried to engage in some conversation with me and started pointing out'errors in just about every sentence or everything that I said. After about 5 minutes he walked away after insulting अपमान करून me.
I felt extremely humiliated अपमानास्पद and upset. अस्वस्थ/नाराज As it is, I was feeling quite खूप प्रमाणात depressed उदासीन/नाराज and diffident आत्मविश्वास कमी झालेला and this incident was the last straw. तुच्छ गोष्ट /वस्तू I was almost जवळपास broken. I felt out of place there and literally wanted to run away to Solapur that very moment. However, it was only my self-esteem आत्मप्रतिष्ठा which stopped me. Suddenly, a feeling of determination निश्चय/निर्णय and strength came over me and gripped पकडले me. Despite तरीही hailing ओरडून बोलावणे from Solapur, if I could be a rank holder in the school, college and IIT with many awards in Mathematics, there must be something right with me. Why should I give up? And that too for a silly मूर्ख and small thing like English? I was not to give up anymore, and I was determined to fight back.
(From page no.81) As I climbed the stairs of my hostel room, my plan was ready in my mind. Normally most of us who are educated in vernacular बोलीभाषा/देशी भाषा languages such as Marathi, think in Marathi, before speaking in English,translate it in English and then somehow कसातरी try to speak out these translated English sentences in an extremely awkward अस्ताव्यस्त/ओबडधोबड ,fashion.
I had decided that I would do nothing of this sort. च्यासारखा वाटणारा I wanted to achieve excellence. उत्कृष्टता/श्रेष्ठता This urge इच्छाशक्ती to excel श्रेष्ठ असणे in anything that you try to do has been with me since the childhood. Whether I would succeed in this or not, I always set my aims high. In this case too, I wanted to speak excellent, उत्कृष्ट elegant मोहक and fluent प्रभावी English.
The first thing I did was to start reading English newspapers and English novels. I studied etymology उत्पत्तीशास्त्र and phonetics भाषाशास्त्र and studied the roots of the words and how to pronounce them. I used to stand in front of the mirror and practice speaking, realising my mistakes and correcting them myself all the time and improvising सुधारित करणे and improving day by day.
It took about 9-10 months by which time I started feeling quite मोठ्या प्रमाणात confident about speaking in English at length विस्ताराने with anybody. My fear had vanished नष्ट होणे and I started feeling at home in my hostel. In my future career, out of 32 years in Information Technology field, I was the Chief Executive or Managing Director or head of Software Company with thousands of software engineers worldwide. During that period I had to give several presentations or negotiate वाटाघाटी many contracts with the CEOs, Directors or VPs in the US, UK or Australia. I was absolutely at ease चिंता दूर करणे /विश्रांती घेणे at that time.It is only due to the efforts at IIT that I could sign contracts worth किमतीचा millions of dollars worldwide and also run चालवणे large global software companies.
At IIT I got fairly good marks in my first 2 years. However, a very important thing happened while I was in my 3rd year. I came in contact with about 15-20 extremely brilliant students/researchers/professors from IIT, TIFR and BARC. They included top ranking students from IIT, visiting professors in American Universities, (from page no.82) and very renowned सुप्रसिद्ध/प्रख्यात mathematicians in the world and so on. I was instantaneously तत्क्षणी attracted to this group. This friendship had a lasting impact on my life. Until that time I used to consider समजणे myself somewhat intelligent. However, after I met my friends in our group, I came to know what real brilliance अलौकिक बुद्धिमत्ता/चकाकी meant and I realised where I stood. I was actually also very lucky that I came in contact with great people on the global scale early in my life. Later in my life when Mr. Narayan Murthy left Patni कंपनीचे नाव to start Infosys, कंपनीचे नाव I started heading Patni's software division occupying the same chair. My Head Office was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, very near Boston. It was in fact खरोखर/खरं the adjacent जवळ building to MIT in America.I had to visit the US every few months in those days. I used to visit MIT during lunch time to meet my friends. There, one could see a couple of Nobel Laureates at the dining table. If you walked for an hour from there, you could reach Harvard Square near Harvard University. I used to visit both of these universities and could talk to a number of Nobel Laureates. During these years I travelled a lot to US, Europe, Japan and Australia and could meet a number of great thinkers and management gurus such as Alvin Toffler, Peter Drucker, C. K. Prahlad, Tom Peters or great technologists such as Vincent Cerf, (who designed TCP/IP which is the basic protocol of Internet). All these discussions with these greats broadened my horizon, and my aims and worldview जागतिक दृष्टी became global. It taught me humility विनयशीलता/विनम्रता and made me realise that I had to achieve a lot in life. The lesson in humility and hard work as well as passion अतिशय आवड for excellence was going to play a very important and vital अत्यंत महत्त्वाचा role in my life.
Coming back to my groups in IIT, my friends were not only more intelligent than me, but they were very well-read. They had interest in all the subjects like Science, Technology, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Philosophy, Anthropology, मानववंशशास्त्र Archeology, पुरातत्वशास्त्र Political Science etc.Our group was interested in all of these branches apart from all the fine arts such as music,literature,painting. .....In short,(from page no.83) our group was interested in almost जवळपास anything under the sun दुपारी and which concerned संबंधित human life and existence. I was immediately attracted to the group and developed immense प्रचंड/अफाट and deep interest in all these branches of knowledge. None of these subjects were part of our curriculum at IIT, but again, I never studied for scoring marks in any examination. Here was a sea of knowledge in front of me which I thought was necessary to pass the 'examination of life' which was far more important than just passing IIT examination. It is very difficult to become a master or an expert in all these subjects, but it was very important for me to understand at least कमीत कमी the basic principles of most of these subjects. Any of us could easily top the GRE examination and migrate to the US. However, that thought never even touched our minds.To understand the world and how it works and serving सेवा देणे India and her people was far more important to us.
Therefore, I plunged स्वतः पूर्णपणे मग्न होणे into all these branches of knowledge. It was a period of renaissance नवनिर्मितीचा काळ for me. We used to discuss about relativity. परस्परसंबंध Big Bang, मोठा आवाज aesthetics, सौंदर्यशास्त्र literature, philosophy, तत्वज्ञान economics and many other subjects every day until late into the nights. My cupboard was full of books on a variety of topics. It is only because of the human curiosity जिज्ञासा that we have been able to make such a great progress in science and technology, and social sciences. I have a number of limitations, मर्यादा but one thing I am proud of is the curiosity, जिज्ञासा humility नम्रता/विनयशीलता and humanity, मानवता i.e., concern च्याशी संबंधित असणे for our fellow अनुयायी beings. I learnt these values during my IIT days. I also became a firm भक्कम believer विश्वास ठेवणारा in rationalism बुद्धिप्रामाण्यवाद and equality for all the castes, creeds, पंथ races, वंश genders and religions. I started treating Nature as God and humanity मानवता as religion.
I passed from IIT, joined a non-violent social movement for tribals जमातीचा/टोळीचा with Sarvodaya, participated in a peaceful satyagraha, went to jail for 10 days, came back to Mumbai, was jobless for a while, worked for Rs. 125/month to supervise workers at the night shift in a mechanical workshop, changed 13 houses in Mumbai, and finally settled on Information Technology as my career. (From page no.84) I spent 32 years in Information Technology out of which I was a Chief Executive Officer or MD or the software head for 23 years for large global multinational बहुराष्ट्रीय software companies with thousands of software professionals व्यवसायिक worldwide and 6 oflices in the US, 3 in Europe, 1 in Japan and 1 in Australia. I had to travel all over the globe जगभरात around 150 times for business. During this period, I had also written 4 books with 500-700 pages each on Information Technology published by Tata McGraw-Hill and then translated into Chinese for global distribution.
I learnt a lot of things when I was running चालवणे these large companies. The first one was the importance of team work. In today's world, nothing is possible without team work. You cannot be successful if you are a loner एकाकी and an egoistic अहंकारी person. Secondly, you need to lead नेतृत्व from the front by setting a good example in front of your staff. Third was that you need to treat your subordinates हाताखालचा मनुष्य/कनिष्ठ दर्जाचा and your colleagues सहकारी as friends. In my career, I made a few mistakes, but learnt a lot about motivation, being a good listener, target setting and the art of delegation प्रतिनिधीमंडळ which forms such an important part of today's management.
After working for all these software companies for so many years, I wanted to return to my first love i.e. to read and write on various subjects concerning यासंबंधी human life and existence. Therefore, I gave up two offers of around 3 crore rupees per annum वार्षिक to become a writer. This is how my second innings as a writer in Marathi began.
After this, I have written about 34 books in Marathi. Most of them have become bestsellers with tens दहापट of thousands of copies sold for each. However, it is not the sales or the money that is important to me as much as the fact वस्तुस्थिती that these books have brought about very good changes in the lives of thousands of readers. After reading my autobiography Musafir and a book on Psychology Manat', hundreds have come out of depression and more than a dozen have given up thoughts of committing करणे suicide and decided to start all afresh. There are hundreds who tell me that they understood the theory of relativity सापेक्षतावाद or Big Bang मोठा आवाज after reading my book on Science 'Kimayagar". (From page no.85) My book 'Boardroom' on Management व्यवस्थापन has created at least कमीत कमी 20 successful entrepreneurs. उद्योजक Then there are hundreds who tell me that they now can understand Economic Times or NDTV profit after reading my book on economics 'Arthat'. Many have turned to Mathematics after reading my book on Mathematics 'Ganiti". The same is true about my books on Indian Music (Nadvedh), English Literature (Zapoorza). Painting (Carvas),Western Films (Limelight) and Western Music (Symphony) or books such as 'Genius'अलौकिक बुद्धिमत्ता series, Rakta' or "Vitamins' or 'Anartha'. It is these reactions of thousands of readers and the feeling that I am touching the hearts of thousands, if not lakhs, of my readers that keeps me going.
Why am I telling you my story? When I look back, there are a number of lessons and values मूल्ये that I cherish हृदयात जतन ठेवणे and keep learning about even today. Some of these are: Thirst for knowledge, Curiosity, Humility, विनम्रता Humanity, मानवता Rationality, तर्कशक्ती Equality, Team work, Quest शोध for excellence, उत्कृष्टता Never say die, Thinking big...
-Achyut Godbole