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.
