NEVER UNDERESTIMATE

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NEVER UNDERESTIMATEA

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 into 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 want 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. " May be 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, but he detested gingham

dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.The President, stem faced and with dignity, strutted towards 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

for him, somewhere on the 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, and then exclaimed, " A building! Do you have any earthly idea how

much a building costs? We have over seven and half million dollars in

the physical buildings here at Harvard. " For a moment the lady was

silent.The President was pleased. May be 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, travelling 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.-- With Love,Ganesh Babu+919880962897My Group: Kriyababa_spiritualjourney- (Send a blank email)