Call of the Grey Matter
(By
- Kamal Misra)
"Dignity
consists not in possessing honours, but in the consciousness that we
deserve them"
- Aristotle
The
resplendent beams of the rising sun steer their way through the
curvaceous anatomy of the sprightly jungle to dazzle the verdant
corridor, albeit gradually. The ambience resonates with soft chirps,
slowly transcends the mischievous howls, culminating in the majestic
roar in what appears to be a fusion of earthly sentiments that pervade
the taciturn persona of the green empire. Life moves out of the
soporific abode to grace the charming territory in all its capacity with
the agility of a young cheetah, the experience of an ageing orangutang,
the cunningness of a vivacious fox, the magnificence of a royal Bengal
tiger, the dazzle of an ecstatic peacock and what not !! The varieties
of life forms that one comes across in the entire spectrum of wildlife
symbolize what is actually known as Free Spirit. This
epitomizes the natural, untamed instincts of the animal kingdom that
have been in existence since time immemorial. The feral incarnations
have been known to pass on the lessons of survival to their offspring
notwithstanding the ravages of time. In the perennial battle between the
predator and prey, the survivor comes out unscathed primarily because it
puts into action these enduring tactics. Wilderness is all about being
free, untapped and untrained. Once the concept of training takes over,
the learning becomes less lateral and leans heavily towards a
pre-defined objective. The underlying credo for that matter belies the
fact that domesticating any entity hones its skills. In fact, the more
one gets taught, the farther it drifts from the core subject matter.
The
cacophony of the bustling metropolis compels the plebian mortals to
abandon their nocturnal delights. Buried inside the thick foliage which
otherwise is a rare sight in the cities, lies a sprawling campus
overlooking the splendid works of architecture collectively referred to
as a B-school wherein ‘B’ expands to Business. Here resides
the most remarkable organism that has ever descended on our planet to
manifest time-tested theories in the most incomprehensible manner. The
elements of the aforementioned organism have inherited the right to
colloquially identify themselves as B-school Grads from their
predecessors. They dress smart, speak neat, behave sophisticated, dream
lofty, walk tall and display all possible traits that can trick the
naive onlooker into assuming whether he had actually landed on the wrong
planet. This most singular species believes in swearing by the likes of
Kotler, De Bono, Robbins, Anderson et al to authenticate its oratorical
and analytical prowess. Endless hours of grueling sessions are devoted
to contradicting what is universally true and abiding by the illusions
of the flawed. Its here in these esoteric campuses, the species
undergoes the radical transformation from a state of unadulterated
mindset to that of an inordinate inflection. In this process, it loses
the pristine charm of raw knowledge to the lucre of conditioned
applicability. The so called B-school Grad would unflinchingly
don the garb of a would-be manager to decisively overrule any existing
concept as being highly erroneous just to showcase his superfluous
understanding of the market. Having done so, the next moment he would
flaunt a piece of paper mysteriously titled “…graduated from the
best B-school” grinning to the flash of the irresistible
endowments in whatever form they appear, dollars, pounds, euros, rupees
all alike. But, he ceases to function in consonance with his innate
abilities, the assets he is gifted with.
Wilderness
represents a perfect allegory to the very meaning of being boundless,
yet undeniably original. The creatures of this uncultivated world learn
to carry on by interacting with their ambience. They harness the senses
to communicate with the unexplored in order to sniff possibilities of a
calamity. The free spirit makes it possible for them to employ
all possible combinations to extract a suitable avenue for existence.
Contrast this with the approach ordained by their more illustrious
counterparts in pursuit of a piece of paper aptly christened MBA
Degree wherein the level of thought employed is behemoth but the
outcome is inexplicably disorganized. Years of unregulated classroom
learning take the sheen off their able brains and render them highly
inactive. They become receptive only to a standardized version of
skillfulness wherein they employ a pre-defined set of constructs to
achieve the objective. A highly self-conscious MBA graduate, when asked
to find out the number of granules spread over an unclenched palm, would
seemingly hurry to perform a regression analysis to test the homogeneity
of the particles, open a highly incoherent software package on his
laptop to adjust the standard error, refer the marketing topology to
carry out a cluster analysis on the exactness of the range, proceed to
study the behavior of termites to calculate the depth of the mound only
to arrive at a mind boggling figure of a quarter and a half million
approximated to the 100th place on the decimal side. Our local tea-boy,
on the other hand, would not even take a quarter of a second to arrive
upon the fact that all we have is only a handful of granules.
The naïve youngster might not have visited the primary school, let
alone any B-school, but on the face of it possesses enough common sense
to utilize at the right instance. It’s his interaction with the
surroundings that have taught him the basics of survival which no
B-school, howsoever glorious, can ever fancy to impart.
The
idea is therefore, to establish a bridge between the environmental
learning and skill development in classrooms. The notion of intelligence
is controversial enough to throw open innumerable forums for argument.
But, the seat of human intelligence, as conceived by the biologists
would certainly be augmented by the proficient usage of the grey cells
in the brain. A continual exposure to testing situations on the platform
of reality stimulates these units of cerebral activity. In fact, steady
interaction with the elements of nature nurtures the essence of free
spirit in animals. Hence, it’s highly imperative that a sense of
simulated training should be incorporated in the mindset of the B-school
graduates. This would subsequently narrow the gap between their natural
flair and adapted competence. What else, but the sanctity and composure
of the jungle life would suffice well to the paradigm of skill
development in them? Therein, the individuals would carefully study the
customized manners of their less gifted counterparts to analyze the
implications of real world decisions. This could be of tremendous
benefit to the future of mankind. Possibly, the cradle of humanity would
deliver what years of modern coaching have not been able to – The
Quest for Perfection.
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