Steve Jobs’ trip to India
How much did coming to India contributed to shaping Apple into what it is today?
There can be no second thoughts about the American multinational company, Apple Inc., being the top shot in the field of designing, developing and selling software, consumer technology, and online services. There’s this one question that makes everyone wonders, that despite facing so many hardships, how did the Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, manage to bring the once small company to the fore; the company, that began it’s racing in the technological field with the invention of a mere Apple computer on 1st April 1976? What was that push that aroused Jobs from the trance of directionless, into which he had plunged, at one point in his life? One, more or less, manages to find the answers to these questions from one source or the other on the internet. But what remains unanswered or partially answered is the question that how did Steve Jobs’ trip to India influence his drive to bring Apple Inc. to life. And we, here, at https://9to5wealth.com , are more than happy to let you quench your curiosity by letting you know about the role of India in moulding Apple into the worldwide technological giant that it is today.
Steve Jobs India Trip
In his teen years, Steve Jobs made a trip to India in search of inspiration. He was seeking to find his inner self; longing to be enlightened. Along with his college companion, Daniel Kottke, Jobs set off on the path of finding spirituality and direction by visiting India. ‘Be Here Now’ about Neem Karoli Baba, and then a whole series of further books about Eastern spirituality had set the stage for their trip. The visit is said to have changed his thinking. After his visit to India, Jobs returned as a Buddhist with a shaven head. His faith in human intelligence and technology was rejuvenated during their visit to Neem Karoli Baba, the well-known mystic of that era. However, the two were disappointed on finding the Neem Karoli Ashram deserted after Neem Karoli’s death. Steve Jobs also started admiring Mahatma Gandhi, all the more, after his visit to India. Apple’s “Think Different” advertisements, which featured his personal idols, also included Mahatma Gandhi, back in 1997.
What did Steve Jobs do in India?
In India, Steve Jobs donned khadi kurtas and lungis instead of his usual T-shirts and jeans in New Delhi. He is said to have preferred walking barefoot on the streets of India. The huge swarms of beggars that the two met at first, came to them as a shock. Steve Jones, accustomed to the hippie culture back then, faced the bitter reality of poverty in India. Thereafter, as Jobs and Kottke set out for the Himalayas from New Delhi, they survived on local food and lived in abandoned buildings. Soon he was said to have grown fond of Indian food.
Why Steve Jobs shaved his head?
It is said that Steve Jobs then met a holy man in Kainchi near Nainital. This man shaved Jobs’ head on a mountaintop. The man promised to have knowledge of the whereabouts of the Neem Karoli Baba, whose spirituality drew Steve Jobs to India. When Jobs went to the Baba’s ashram as per this man’s direction, he faced grave disappointment when he found that the Baba had already passed away. This made Steve Jobs realize that he was cheated and that the man was a fraud. Jobs later said “We weren’t going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened. It was one of the first times that I started to realize that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Karoli Baba put together.”
Then he met Hariakhan Baba
Later, however, Steve Jobs and his companion made a long trek up to an ashram of Hariakhan Baba. This Baba was claimed to be a reincarnation avatar of the Neem Karoli Baba. The Hariakhan Baba that they met was surprisingly young. But they were further disappointed when they didn’t find the Baba’s presence profound enough. The fatigue from travelling and owing to the hot Indian summers, both of them was down with diarrhoea and dysentery.
Steve Jobs expectations of attaining enlightenment and spiritualism were shattered. Moreover, to add to the discomfort, Kottke’s traveller cheques were stolen and this marked the end of their stay in India.
Conclusion
India managed to change the entire perception of the world for Steve Jobs. He faced harsh truths of the world and was also said to have attained an interest in spirituality on his departure from India. He returned to Atari as a Buddhist and also transformed into a more focused and visionary individual. His trip to India apparently made him ruthless and a perfectionist. This hardened personality of his, as a result of his trip to India, laid down the foundations of Apple Inc. ideologically and contributed to Steve Jobs’ endeavour to shape Apple into what it is today.
