Obituaries are hard to write. Double so if its for someone you loved with your heart and soul.
I remember as a child, my neighbor had lost his wife of 60 years. He was a painter by profession. Portraits were not his biggest strength but he indulged in them when the subject was right. On being asked why he had not paint his demised wife as an expression of love and remembrance, he shook his head and in a voice befitting a person who had lost a part of his own body and replied, "I was with her for 60 years. I saw her in her prime, i saw her carry my kids in her belly. I saw her when she had her first knee operation. I saw her cry herself to sleep when she found out she had cancer. I try and put her on canvas, but every time i start with a different face, and give up in the middle with a different one in mind."
A few days back, the world lost one of the greatest visionaries of all times. A digital age DaVinci. A person, who through his own personal experiences grew into something that fairy tales are made out of. Maybe i don't have those same emotions for Steve Jobs as the other hundred million who mourn his death. But my love was pure. A love that secretly grew from respect. It was only after 2005 that i started reading about him. He had created something so beautiful and had gone on to be thrown out of his own company. His resilience saw him rise again through new names. And when the time was ripe, he got back with his old company and has never looked back ever since. He was always in the media. His opinions mattered. The whole world stopped to listen when he was on stage. It was not his powers of oration. It was his magic with technology. Making something come alive that existed only in our dreams and big budget movies. He was also brick bated on his personal life. His relationship with his employees and his high headedness about his company.
His ways were critical. His targets were not. His leadership was questioned. His accomplishments were not. His strategies provoked responses. His milestones, silenced them. So, as i sit here in front of my mac and try to pen down an obituary for someone who was like a pillar from which many drew strength, i wonder to myself if i should highlight his miscalculations or praise his success. And just like my neighbor, i bow my head and start with a face, only to give-up in the middle with a different one in mind.
