Dear Malvika,
First, thanks for gifting me The Last Lecture.
Today, I finished reading the book. In the past, I have read quite a few inspirational, the so-called “self-help” books such as The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, You Can Win, The Alchemist, etc. However, The Last Lecture stands out because it is real.
I particularly enjoyed reading The Last Lecture. I know I took awfully long to finish the book, thanks to my never-ending to-do list, not that reading is not on my to-do list, but the priority is not too high. Perhaps, because there is no client compelling me to meet a deadline!
Anyhow, The Last Lecture states the obvious. It is a story of a man who has pancreatic cancer and would live only a few months, and he decides to deliver the customary last lecture at Carnegie Mellon. The Last Lecture has a sole objective – to leave a legacy for his three small children and wife. The last lecture was titled “Really achieving your childhood dream.” You don’t need to have a childhood dream to qualify as a reader for this book. I’d admit that I never had a childhood dream, may be I had a teenage dream.
Why I was able to connect to The Last Lecture, quite immodestly, was because I have also thought and had experiences like Randy Pausch at times in my life. The professor at Carnegie Mellon is honest enough to share his life experiences and extract conclusions from them.
For me, the best part of the book was when he teaches his nieces and nephews to look beyond material things in life, when he deliberately spills soda on the car seat to teach them that humans mean more than other things in life. What a lesson for youngsters? I have seen people around being over-obsessed with cars, phones, etc. If it is inculcated right in the childhood that it is okay for a car to get damaged or a mobile to get lost, then I am sure children will grow up as better and more sensible human beings.
The best things is that book is not a guide; it just a narration of experiences, and re-affirms our faith in basic values and how they go on to make us the kind of person we are. Randy Pausch has elaborately mentioned about his childhood days and how his parents encouraged him to question, explore and be independent. I have learnt reading that parents play a huge role in programming our adulthood. Agreed, many people would not have parents such as Randy had. But the thing is that values can be inculcated later in life also.
I don’t want to write much about The Last Lecture. It is best to read and just learn those basic things that are lost somewhere in our busy and hectic lives. And also learn how a man battling a terminal disease takes out some time to leave a legacy behind that will enrich many generations to come.
Thanks again, Malvika.
Yours truly,
Harsh