A well deserved break from a frenetic work schedule at the world’s most renowned bellweather company for technology, Microsoft changed the world of John Wood, and unbeknownst to him at that time, the trajectory of a million little lives. A chance encounter with an education co-ordinaator Pasupathi, makes John Wood undertake a steep climb to one of the most impoverished schools in Nepal. This school in the idyllic but isolated setting of Bahunnanda, has a library that is not only decrepit but one whose books, for the purpose of preservation have been firmly locked away in a cabinet.
This image of an empty library racks John’s peace and bliss and upon returning to his adopted city of Beijing, he arrives at a momentous decison of resigning his plum position of Marketing Director at Microsoft and committing himself to empowering childrens education.
This autobiography insipires, delights and amazes the reader in equal measure. The travails and tribulations faced by John Wood in setting up and consequently running his charitable organisation “Room to Read” is both enervating as well a fulfilling. Today as per the statistics published on its website (roomtoread.org), more than 1,900 schools with 17,000 libraries and 2,300 classrooms have been built across Nepal, India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa. 9.7 million chldren are directly impacted by this noble endeavour of John Wood.
My personal exhortation would be for everybody to read this book and most importantly hit the website of John Wood’s wonderful initiative and get involved in whichever way one finds it feasible.
“Leaving Microsoft” – A clarion call for making Planet Earth a better place than what it is today!
