I will not weep. I will stay hungry and foolish.

When Steve Jobs men­tioned in his renowned 2005 com­mence­ment speech at Stan­ford that he sur­vived pan­cre­at­ic can­cer, I thought it was over long ago. I real­ized to my dis­may that it is not when I got a nasty sur­prise this after­noon. I thought what I was read­ing in the web edi­tion of the news­pa­per was a rumor for rumors are not new for The Man and all the great inno­va­tions he has envi­sioned. I final­ly had to take this bit­ter pill when I saw my Twit­ter feed inun­dat­ed with con­do­lence mes­sages and home­page of Apple’s web­site.

I resist­ed hard to weep. I felt like I lost some­one very close to my heart.

My awe for Apple start­ed 7 years ago when I first heard about iPod from my col­league. I start­ed fol­low­ing and treat­ed Apple like any oth­er com­pa­ny.

Cou­ple of months lat­er I owned my first ever Apple prod­uct, a first gen­er­a­tion iPod Nano. To say that it was gor­geous is a gross under­state­ment. I used to treat it like my child. I used to just admire it. My love for Apple thrived since then. Thank­ful­ly I owned an iPhone much ear­li­er than I thought I would. It has only mul­ti­plied my love for Apple a zil­lion times for the val­ue it adds to my life. I admired, loved and cher­ished Apple so much that last year, when I was think­ing a pet name for my kid it took no time for me to decide on Apple.

When I heard his Stan­ford speech in 2005. These lines struck me:

Your time is lim­it­ed, so don’t waste it liv­ing some­one else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dog­ma — which is liv­ing with the results of oth­er peo­ple’s think­ing. Don’t let the noise of oth­ers’ opin­ions drown out your own inner voice. And most impor­tant, have the courage to fol­low your heart and intu­ition. They some­how already know what you tru­ly want to become. Every­thing else is sec­ondary.

These lines have helped me immense­ly at least two times in the last 6 years when I had to take two cru­cial deci­sions of my life. I am glad I fol­lowed my heart and intu­ition and it made my life beau­ti­ful and hap­py. Going for­ward too, I am sure I will keep look­ing and don’t set­tle.

For me Apple is not just a brand. It is about Aspi­ra­tion, Icon­o­clasm, Being Beyond Obvi­ous, Stay­ing Hun­gry and Stay­ing Fool­ish.

Steve, your spir­it and mes­sage will live for­ev­er in my heart and in those bil­lions hearts that love you, admire you, get inspired from you.

I will not weep. I will stay hun­gry and fool­ish. That is the best and only trib­ute I can offer you.