Sense and Common sense

I read the Reserve Bank of India Bulletin today and was impressed by a speech given by Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty - and decided to blog a little excerpt from that speech. Perhaps this shows that the people who regulate the entire monetary policy and thence the Economy of our country - have a great depth to their knowledge - in fact it is clear that it is a mix of Talent and Common Sense that makes India a great country.

I am pasting that excerpt below for all of you to read and hope you find a lot of meaning in this little fable ..

Deepak

Talent Acquisition and

Management*

Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Bulletin/PDFs/03SP080611F.pdf

The Scholars and the Lion…

Four men grew up together in a little village in

India. Three of the men were scholars, but the fourth

man never studied anything. In fact, he had never read

a book in his life. He just got along as best as he could

on his own common sense. But the four men had been

friends as children, and they remained friends despite

their differences.

One day, the four friends were sitting under the

tree talking of this and that when one of the scholars

said,

‘Something has been bothering me. I have spent

all my life studying, and I know many things, but I

know them only from books. I don’t know if my

knowledge works, out in the world.’

‘You know,’ said another of the scholars, ‘the same

thing has been bothering me! But somehow, this little

village doesn’t seem to offer the scope for me to try

out my vast knowledge.’

‘Clearly,’ said the third scholar, ‘we must travel

out into the world and try out our knowledge there.’

The other scholars agreed, but then there was their

friend. They had always done everything together,

share and share alike, but suppose...suppose they

found some lost treasure by using their knowledge?

Suppose they solved a problem for a rajah and he

rewarded them with gold and jewels? They had studied

late into the night to prepare themselves for this work,

and their friend had done nothing. He only had

common sense, and which rajah would be impressed

with that? They argued this back and forth, as they so

enjoyed doing, but finally they decided to do as they

had always done, share and share alike.

And so they started on their journey. They walked

along for many days, and one day they saw some bones

scattered by the path. One of the scholars said, ‘I can

tell from my studies that these bones are the bones of

a lion. Now it so happens that I have learnt how to

arrange the bones as they would be in a living lion.’

‘ R e a l l y ? ’ s a i d t h e s e c o n d s c h o l a r , ‘ t h a t i s

interesting – for it so happens that from my studies I

know how to clothe the bones with flesh and blood

and skin and fur.’

‘Indeed?’ said the third scholar. ‘How curious ! It

so happens that I know the next step. Once the animal

is formed, I know how to breathe life into it. Clearly,

this is the place where we should try out our knowledge

to see if it works in the world.’ The others agreed.

The fourth man, the one who wasn’t a scholar,

was simply struck dumb by this display of learning and

didn’t say anything at all.

So the first scholar stepped forward and arranged

the bones as they would be in a living lion. Then he

stepped back, and the second scholar stepped forward

and clothed the bones with flesh, and blood, and skin,

and fur. Then he stepped back, and the third scholar

stepped forward, about to breathe life into the animal,

when the fourth man said “Wait! That’s a lion! That’s

a lion you are about to bring to life. It could eat us up!

Stop! Think what you’re doing!’

‘We know what we’re doing,’ said the scholars.

‘We have studied this all our lives. Don’t worry. Just

leave everything to us.’

‘Well, all right,’ said their friend, ‘but...could you

wait till I climb a tree?’ ‘Certainly,’ said the scholars,

and they waited till the fourth friend had climbed a

convenient tree. Then the third scholar went back to

the procedure of breathing life into the animal. And

sure enough, the lion started breathing, opened its

eyes, looked at the three scholars, sprang upon them,

and ate them up.

After the lion had gone away, the fourth man, the

one who wasn’t a scholar, climbed down from the tree

and made his way back to the village, taking with him

no great treasure of gold and jewels, but only his own

common sense.

Talent, to me, is indeed like common sense –

you have it, or you do not have it.