Pico Iyer

Pico's given name is Siddharth. I have never seen this used anywhere except in stiff official biographies.

Pico Iyer's dad went to England as a Rhodes scholar, after getting a master's degree from Bombay. Rhodes scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship an American undergraduate can get -- if you get that, it is a huge career boost. [Neither of my children were even close to it. I am convinced that we picked up the wrong babies from the hospital. Of course, it could well be weak genes from my wife's side ]

Pico's mother was an academic type too. Pico was born in England. The family moved to the US. Pico's dad Raghavan Iyer worked for Robert Hutchens who himself was something of a boy genius and a major intellectual. [Skinner's wife writes very fondly about Robert Hutchens somewhere.]

What is surprising is that the family continued to educate Pico in England. This would have meant quite a hardship on Pico, having to trek from California to England often alone (and having no family close by during the school year). This made him very independent and also instilled a wanderlust in him.

Pico ended up with education from Eton, Oxford, and Harvard -- a true resume to kill for. He joined Time magazine which is another major career booster. He sent the manuscript of his first book to Knopf unsolicited and the rare event happened: it got picked up for publication, every writer's dream.

Pico could have had a comfortable job at Time magazine or other magazines but the wanderlust took over. He quit his job and started traveling and writing full time as a self-employed person, every writer's nightmare.

Here are my previous blog entries about him.

"Wait Marriage For me"

"I Man?"

At the moment, he seems to be living in Japan, with Hiroko, the woman in the "I Man?" incident.

A magazine article has mentioned Pico Iyer as "one of 100 Visionaries worldwide who could change your life".
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Added on 3/5/2011

1. Robert Hutchens took over the leadership of the University of Chicago when he was in his early thirties, after getting a Yale Law degree. ["The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." In a similar way, Yale, Harvard, and Chicago (to mention a few) prepare one for leadership roles in the US. One of my children (who happens to be in one of these places) has been remarking to me about this. He is very idealistic and thinks that this is unfair but also knows that nothing can be done about this. However, in the US, while this kind of membership in an exclusive club helps, it is neither necessary or sufficient.]

2. Hutchens instituted a Great Books program at the University of Chicago. The courses consisted of reading famous books in history in all subjects and then discussing them, instead of the material we are familiar with. (In other words, all that the students do is to study the great books.) This was a very bold experiment. This is now defunct.

3. What makes places like the University of Chicago interesting is that they are constantly tweaking things. They know that this will cause conflict among the faculty but they think that the resulting advances make this worth while.

4. Skinner's wife remarked jokingly that if she was born 20 or 30 years earlier, she could have married Hutchens.

5. There are at least two other Great Books colleges in existence today. The most famous of them includes books until 1905. Books include papers too. Why the odd choice of 1905? So that Einstein's four Annalen der Physik papers could be included 1905 has been called as Einstein's Annus Mirabilis ("Miracle Year"). One of them won him the Nobel Prize in 1921. (This was quite delayed.) Each of them could have won him a Nobel Prize.

6. I would love to study in a Great Books program provided (a) someone pays for it (b) only the 20th century is included and (c) someone cooks for me.

7. I once sent one of my children some material on what it takes to be competitive in a Rhodes application. He looked through it and told me

"I don't want to work that hard. But thanks for sending me this material. If you come across other interesting material like this, don't forget to send it to me."

8. One of his friends (an American girl) applied for this but didn't get it. Both son and I thought that she would get it but she didn't. After their graduation ceremonies, she and I were talking and she told me

"You son will do great in anything he chooses to do."

Coming from a high achiever like her (who knows him first hand), it meant something. At that time, he was off to save the world on an idealistic mission, and her words were particularly comforting to me. She and I have always gotten along well together. [I would love it of she became my daughter-in-law but this ain't going to happen.] I was in the ground floor of their college's library once. From there, you could see the upper floors. [The middle part was open from floor to ceiling.] I looked up and she happened to be there. She waved to me and then dropped everything and came downstairs to talk to me. Of course, I loved the attention.


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If you liked this blog entry [or even if you didn't ], you may enjoy reading A Few Fermi Stories. [I am going to try and promote my older blog entries in my new ones.]

 

maalti and saras: I am glad that you continue to find my blog entries interesting.

saras:

> spicier

When I write stuff like

"I am convinced that we picked up the wrong babies from the hospital. Of course, it could well be weak genes from my wife's side"

you know I am joking, right? [I don't want any more trouble than I already have from my wife ]

suresh:

> Suresh Iyer is not half as intelligent as Pico Iyer

I don't know about that.

Don't forget the advantages Pico had -- intellectual parents, and Eton, Oxford, to mention a few. Sojourner Iyer and Suresh Iyer didn't have "none of this"

But we have our pluses too. I bet that we are better looking than that Pico guy. Besides, what kind of a name is Pico, anyway?
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I just added a few more lines to the blog entry.

 

> who is this "Skinner" you are referring in your blogs

He was a very famous (and quite controversial) psychologist. Several people consider him to be as great a thinker as Darwin, in the history of mankind. He was also very nice. I had the fortune of meeting him a couple of times.

One of my recent blogs that you read gives a reference to an article that two of his admirers wrote. They basically worked for him for free. They liked him that much. I considered doing likewise but chickened out. These are really high class people. You liked some of the conversations that I had quoted from that article.

If you search for "vc psychologist sulekha", you will see more information about my interest in B.F.Skinner.