The Thinker or The Implementer

Take a closer look at the statue in the photograph. Would you call him a Thinker or an Implementer?

What about you? Would you classify yourself as a Thinker or as an Implementer?

What are the words/phrases we associate with a “Thinker”? Intelligent, Brooding, Sure footed, Reflecting, Intellectual, Philosophical - are some of the positive ones. Indecisive, Not so sure footed, Risk Averse, Slow, Less energetic - are the not so positive ones.

What are the words/phrases we associate with an “Implementer”? Fighter, kaam kar lega, “fist pumping, chest thumping - no odds are too high for him”, “Sleeves rolled up, sweat dripping from forehead, on the battle field guy”, crisis manager, never says no – are some of the positive ones. Tunnel visioned, Can’t dig beneath the surface, Knows the whats but not the hows and whys, Can’t think beyond the obvious - are the not so positive ones.

Compare the positives and the not so positive words/phrases for the two categories and you would see the point I am trying to make. We tend to classify “thinkers” and “implementers” as two mutually exclusive sets. If you are good at thinking then you surely are not so good at implementation. If you are good at implementation then you surely are not so good at cognition. Our day to day lives abound with examples of this belief in action.

We tend to classify certain jobs as requiring more/less brains than other jobs. Consequently we classify them as “our type” or not “our type” of job. Certain jobs require you to get your hands dirty – you get to know the ground realities in such kind of jobs. Certain jobs require more grey cells – we should do these jobs after we have got our hands dirty.

The belief also gets reflected in the way we take many of our people related decisions: “He is a thinker. This job requires someone with action orientation”. The belief also gets reflected in the way we approach situations – “This is a crisis situation. There is no time to think; let us act”: “If you think, you can’t act fast enough”: “This is a complex/critical situation. Take your time! Give it a lot of thought before you act!”

I am not sure as to how thinking and implementing can be separated from each other.

Almost everyone I have asked “Are you a thinker or an implementer?” has chosen one of the two options – have hardly come across anyone who says that I am both. But when I ask them to recollect instances where they have displayed cognition and/or implementation, they are able to come up with situations in both cases.

By the way, “The Thinker” is the name of the statue! :)

-
Sourav

A Cup of Tea!

A cup of tea is not just a cup of tea – it is much, much more than just a cup of tea!!!

There is no wrong time to have a cup of tea. You can have a cup of tea when you are feeling good or bad, when you are in office or at home, when you are in a flight or in a train, when you are at a bus depot or a roadside dhaba.

The "cup for the tea" matters. A plastic cup is a strict no, no! A glass cup is on! A “bhaar” (Bong term for an Earthern cup) is definitely on – but for that you need to travel to the Eastern part of the country.

The form of the tea matters too. Dip tea is not on! Neither is the tea from the vending machine! Green tea is okay and so too is Black Tea. The sinful “overflowing with milk” tea or the Orange Pekoe tea from Ooty is definitely, definitely on! And when mom makes tea or some of my Mashis/ Pishis make tea – you can just survive on that tea for the day.

Where one has a cup of tea means a lot. A cup of tea at your desk is no fun. A cup of tea in a conference room is meant to be a conversation starter or interrupter – in such cases it’s almost as if it the tea has a secondary function. Its blissful to have the morning cup of tea while seeing the sun rise and its soothening to have the evening cup of tea while seeing the sun set.

By now you must be wondering as to why I am drooling so much over a cup of tea. Let me confide to you a secret. I just finished my last cup of tea for today and I am wondering at the prospect of having no more tea for the day :(. But then I will have my first cup tomorrow while seeing the sun rise :).

So with that realization let me sign off – but not before I thank the Krishna’s, Chitto’s, Dadu’s, Navina’s, Gokul’s, and Sai Sagar’s of the world. May God bestow upon you all the prosperity in the world for having provided me with my life fluid - Tea! :)

-
Sourav

A Hearty Lunch!

Today I had a late brunch,
Around noon I wondered whether I should have my lunch,
I thought and I thought and I then thought again – finally I went to Sai Sagar on a hunch,
Even though I was suffering from a bit of cash crunch,
There on Paneer, Dal, Rice and Kanda I munched,
Now my heart is filled with joy after a hearty lunch,
I fondly remember those times when “what’s for lunch” brought sister and me to trade more than a punch,
Ah! The old times leave my heart and mind entangled in a bunch,
On this note I would take your leave – after a hearty lunch!

-
Sourav

It Averages Out!

“Everything averages out in the long run!” Hmmmmmm......Does it?????

Franc Puskar’s team lost the finals of the 1954 Soccer World Cup. Roger Federer “finally” didn’t make it to the semi final of a Grand Slam. The Australian cricket team “expectantly” lost a match after winning a dozen matches continuously. What’s common between these situations? No prizes for guessing this one - it obviously is the “law of averages” propping it’s head up. Inevitably the law catches up with you!

Can we ever escape the law of averages? Certainly not! The chances are that the first mistake you make after a string of successes would be attributed to the law of averages. Can we avoid making mistakes? The answer’s an obvious no! We would make a mistake - the only things left to be determined are “when” and “in what frequency.”

So what does the term “law of averages” mean to us and how does it make us feel? First, it’s “a law” – and a law “is not questioned”:)!. What kind of words do we associate with the word average? – Mediocre! Not the best! How do we feel when someone calls us average? – certainly not great! All of us want to realize the “best” in ourselves :).

On one hand the law of averages seems to be inescapable while on the other hand there is this human need not to feel average. So what does one do?

One choice we have is to give up and do nothing – let us leave everything to fate; let us go with the tide; time is circular – anyways everything equals out in the long run; we rise from dust, and we go back to dust too.

The alternative choice we have is to pursue what we feel strongly about. What we have in our hands is the “here and now” and let us make an attempt to do the best we can in the “here and now”. What happens over the long run – let us see! We would periodically fail and for all we know things might anyways average out over the long run. But atleast we would have had the satisfaction of trying. Else we just might slip into a state of inaction.

It takes an unreasonable man to accomplish anything meaningful!

Let us try inspite of the law of averages and not not try because of it!

-
Sourav

Whats in a Name!

"Quite a bit actually!"

I had not realized this till the time i started thinking about what should i name my blog. Should it be a fuzzy name - something like "I am thinking!"? or should it be a buzzy name - "Thinking loud"?. Hmmm!!!!! But then......ain't all of these too "eeee" kind of names (as one of my friend's likes to call them)?

Hold on!!! I think I am getting too far ahead. The question to be asked is "On what basis should I name my blog?" Aaaahhhh! The brain takes over again! :).... You know what! Big deal! Let the brain take over - anyways we make too much fuss about this right brain and left brain divide - there is usually an assumption that we have a brain and frankly even if we have one, do we use it frequently enough ?:)

So on what basis should i name my blog? Usage of pun - my favourite - is a must ..else all my efforts would go to dust (There i go again with my rhyming)!. It also should talk about why i am writing this blog - I want to share what i feel and what I think about everyday occurences around me. I want to speak about what thoughts occupy me while i "walk".

A plethora of ideas came to me but only a few stayed with me:

• aMUSE - my old favourite - but then it's already been used somewhere.
• aVIEW - hmmm! okay - but not good enough.
• aMUSEaVIEW- sounds better
• OFF-COURSE - yeah! but doesn't capture the essence of it.
• Can i think of a name which talks of a sound? - "Call of the Wild" ---noooooooooooo!!!!!!! The idea of a sound based name is out - right now!!! This name actually caught attention for all the wrong reasons - cheezy to say the least!

But finally, after about a fortnight's deliberation, i have made up my mind on what to name my blog.

So be there with me while I "Talk the Walk" - and sometimes stop to have a cup of tea while sitting on a rock (There goes the rhyming again! :) )

-
Sourav
P.S - A big thank you to the grand old man who seeded the idea of writing a blog in my mind.