Ambedkar, Gandhi and the story of why it matters where you start
A troubling trend of glamorizing ' early quits' is gaining momentum. A Google search will throw up a plethora of blogs on how empowering it is to quit your day job. Those blogs will subtly remind you that the author is a so-and-so from IIT or NIT. Just as your eyebrows perk up, will follow the next sentence: worked in Mckinsey, Goldman, or other such hallowed enterprise. Now you are mighty impressed. Hey, hold on! Did you miss that the person was a Managing director or a company co-founder? He gave it all up to lead a mundane life. Now, a small tear escapes your eyes as if you were likening them to Buddha or Gandhi. The rest of the fleeting essay concerns renunciation. One can't help but make a virtue out of giving up the Outlook mailbox. Of course, who can slip the virtue signal about letting go of a payslip? Here is where Gandhi and Ambedkar appear. Gandhi was an upper-caste Baniya whose family consisted of uber-rich merchants. His father was a prime minister of Porbandar...