Harvard donations | Story of gains and losses

Harvard University   It is one of the uplifting best stories of the month! Following the story is another story of Harvard that is in circulation, where Harvard gives birth to Stanford. Good stories.   There is something about the minor minorities, they seem to become the biggest contributors in the growth of any nation, they have the drive to serve. That is certainly the case with the Zoroastrians (Parsees) in India, Jews in America.. need to think more to see if this is a valid statement.   Mike Ghouse www.MikeGhouse.net     Harvard gets biggest international donation in 102 yrs, from Tata Group   BOSTON: India's Tata Group has given a whopping $50 million to the prestigious Harvard Business School here to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus, the largest gift received by the institute from an international donor in its 102-year-old history. The gift comes from Tata Companies, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust, the philanthropic entities of the Group. It comes days after Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Group, gave USD 10 million to the Humanities Centre at Harvard. A Harvard alumnus, Mahindra gave the gift, the "largest" in the Centre's history, in honour of his mother Indira Mahindra. Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, attended Harvard's Advanced Management Programme -- one of three comprehensive leadership programmes offered by the Harvard Business School's (HBS') Executive Education -- in 1975. He had also received the School's highest honour, the Alumni Achievement Award, in 1995. The School said it will use the USD 50 million gift from the Tata Group to fund a new academic and residential building on its campus for participants in its broad portfolio of Executive Education programmes. HBS hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring. It is expected to be open for use by late 2013. Calling it a privilege and a pleasure to "give back to Harvard a little bit of what it gave to me," Tata said he hoped the new facility would encourage and inspire future leaders to take advantage of the executive education offerings at HBS. "The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world's best thinking on management and leadership and we are pleased that this gift will support the School's educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders," Tata said. Expressing "deep appreciation" for Tata's "generosity," Harvard Business School's Indian-origin Dean Nitin Nohria said the "historic" gift comes from an organisation "revered" for its significant economic, civic and philanthropic impact. "The Tata Group is widely respected for integrity and innovation, not just in India -- where it produced both the first indigenous car and the 2,000 dollar Tata Nano automobile -- but in a variety of business lines across several continents, from cars to hotels and from tea to information technology," Nohria said. PTI, Oct 15, 2010, 10.06am IST Read more: Harvard gets biggest international donation in 102 yrs, from Tata Group - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6752185.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz12RbiIvN5   # # # (Be sure to read to the end !)   A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston , and walked timidly without an appointment in to the Harvard University President's outer office.   The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge .   'We'd like to see the president,' the man said softly.  'He'll be busy all day,' the secretary snapped. 'We'll wait,' the lady replied.   For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.. They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.   'Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave,' she said to him!   He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested Gingham dresses and Homespun suits cluttering up his outer  office.   The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted to ward the couple.  The lady told him, 'We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard.. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.'   The president wasn't touched.. He was shocked. 'Madam,' he said, gruffly, 'we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died.  If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.'   'Oh, no,' the lady explained quickly. 'We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.'   The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, 'A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.'   For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, 'Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?'   Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away,traveling to Palo Alto , California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University , a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.   You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.   THIS IS A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes about the founders of the now world renowned STANFORD UNIVERSITY !!   People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.   Life is too short for drama & petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, Love truly and forgive quickly.   --- Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam and India. He His work is reflected at three websites and 22 Blogs at http://www.mikeghouse.net/