ELLE.IN 38 JULY
Anita Lal of Good Earth writes a letter to Steve Jobs, the visionary
genius who changed the world
LOVE LETTER
Maybe we will meet in some life.
Anita Photograph: Tara Lal (Anita Lal)
My dear Steve,
We never met in the physical realm, but there are other realms
and the one we live in most is that of our imagination.
So I meet you everyday and send out messages of
gratitude for how you have influenced and enriched
my life. First of all, you made a clunky, untidy desktop
into a thing of beauty by combining simplicity with
total sophistication.
I love my huge iMac that dominates the desk in my
bedroom and most times friends and family see me in front
of that beautiful machine that brings the world to my finger
tips. It gives me everything I could ask for.
I adore music and have created endless playlists that play
on the iMac enhancing my feeling of well being. I can video
chat with friends far and near and never feel lonely, and of
course can do all my work and also create artworks with ease.
Most of us on this planet cannot imagine life without the
digital world for which we have to thank a lot of brilliant
minds. But you took it to an intuitive level that almost anyone can use.
As a visionary, as a passionate lover of detail where even the
packaging is a work of art you have exemplified the dictum that
form follows function in all Apple products giving joy to millions.
God is truly in the details.
Finally, the reason I feel so deeply connected with you is
also because of The Autobiography of a Yogi by Parmahansa
Yogananda, which was a book you read in the foothills of the
Himalayas and it became your spiritual guide. I read it in Mussoorie
when I was 29 and the book left a deep impression that has always
stayed with me, and I go back to it from time to time.
We lost you too soon.