From A Hobby Of His Childhood, He `Perfected` Public Address System Dr. Amar Bose, an inspiring story of an extraordinary Indian who has painstakingly nurtured a childhood fascination into creating a legacy which has touched across Sports, Arts and Technology. Before you think that your passion does not have much significance and give up on your talents, try thinking, what can you give the world if you honestly nurtured your passion` Here is a brief account of Dr. Amar Bose: Amar Bose was raised in Philadelphia in the 1930s, the son of a political dissident who had emigrated from Kolkatta, India. The young Bose first became interested in technology at age thirteen, when he started repairing model trains, to supplement his family`s income. He claims that with amazing simplicity, `At 13, I realized that I could fix anything electronic. It was amazing, I could just do it. I started a business repairing radios. It grew to be one of the largest in Philadelphia.` As Bose took on the work of repairing transistors; so he entered MIT with a great deal of practical experience in electronics. After he graduated with a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering in the early 1950s, Bose embarked on a personal crusade to invent a stereo loudspeaker. Being a violin player himself, he was determined to create something that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the vivid sound that a member of the audience hears at a great concert hall. As a student at MIT, Bose had learnt that 80% of the sound heard by a person in a concert hall is indirect-i.e., bounced off the ceiling and walls-rather than direct from stage to ear. Bose capitalized on this notion by inventing the 901(R) Direct/Reflecting(R) speaker system (1968): one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sounds as if in a vacuum. Bose says that his best ideas usually come to him in a flash. "These innovations are not the result of rational thought; it's an intuitive idea." Throughout his life, he has been excited about research ` a field which is only for the tenacious, who can persevere without instant rewards, and can selflessly give their vitality to what will matter to others. He says, ` The excitement level for me working on projects is really not a bit different from when I was 26.` Today, Amar Bose has earned over two dozen patents, and he still works full time, directing a more than $550-million company, whose products can be found in Olympics stadia, Broadway theatres, the Sistine Chapel, the NASA Space Shuttle and the Japan National Theatre, wherever the quality of sound matters, you can surely find a `Bose`. It is the most respected name in sound, and the most real experience of sound possible. Here are three questions to reflect upon: Do you have a hobby you are really passionate about and good at` What can you create from it if you took it seriously` Whatever stops you from doing so, can you do something about it`