An old friend was visiting Bangalore today and I met him for dinner.  During our wide and varied conversations, catching up for all the lost time, he happened to mention that he had the privelege of meeting Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the Honourable President of India.

Now, anybody from India will tell you that Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is one of the most respected citizens and probably the most respected President of India ever. For those who don't already know, he's the brain behind India's missile technology and the man who pioneered India's foray into nuclear capabilities. Apart from that, he is also a perfect gentleman, down to earth and a sincere citizen who believes that education and science can change the grassroots of a nation.

Now, my friend had the opportunity of meeting him and also had the chance to hear him speak. And he said that Dr. Kalam spoke about how India can surpass many nations in the world by imbibing education into the vast population, not literacy.

The thought is really fascinating because it immediately showed me the difference between these two loosely interchanged words. Education is about the culture, the upbringing, about street-smartness, about knowledge - the thirst for it and attaining it.  Literacy is about being able to read and write, being able to gather thoughts from literary works, being able to recognize and appreciate art.

Literacy is good. Great, in fact. Because literates can access reams of knowledge easily. However, it is not enough if somebody can read four languages. Being able to read and utilize what is read is something that I consider a skill, that many a people lack.

Without literacy, people have limited boundaries. But there have been great people who have surpassed these boundaries, crossed them, shunned all qualms and achieved great heights. Simply because they educated themselves from experience and from the way the world chose to orient around themselves.

I have been following the season of the popular TV series The Apprentice. On Indian television, the current season is a duel between two groups - one a set of college graduates called the book-smarts vs. another set of individuals who went on their own and took life in their own hands, called the street-smarts. It is interesting to note that even the street-smarts are pretty bookish when it comes to marketing tasks and campaigns. I think it is the culture in the United States that requires people to be at some level of literacy even to be a street-smart.

Compare that to India. There are hundreds of people who have made it real big and the only thing they can write is their signature. Even that was taught to them by people who found it was necessary that in business they need to sign many of the legal documents. I am not joking or exaggerating. This is the plain truth. These are the real street-smarts. Who did not have a background good enough even for primary education, and went up their own way taking full control of their lives and making paths for themselves. They educated themselves in business, marketing, legal, finance, human resources, project management, and what not - all on their own without a teacher or without the ability to read or write. Of course, these are extraordinary men and women with a gift to think out of the box and sieze opportunities, but it goes to show the importance of education over plain literacy.

So the next time you say literacy is the key to everything, think again. It is education. And there is a subtle difference.