I will be there...
When you are alone,
And you want someone to talk to.
When you need a soul
Not judging you,
When you need a shoulder to lean upon,
When you want a word of support,
Looking for a light,
At the end of a tunnel.
When you want someone who
Knows your shortcomings,
But still loves you,
And does not expect you to love him back,
When you want a friend,
To draw strength from.
When you lose your confidence,
and you are a bit lost.
When life has swamped you with
things more than you can handle,
When your dreams seem not to take shape,
When you regret, and end hopeless,
And need a rejuvenating shade amidst scorching adversity,
When tomorrow
The wrinkles of time,
erases away the sheen,
I will be there for you now and forever,
Awed as ever, in admiration,
For your beauty is ageless and divine.
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Being in Love
Life looks so Beautiful,
For there is always that glance to look forward to!
For there is a breathless happiness fizzing within.
Just about to drenched my being to its deepest depth.
A blissful bounce always there is in my heart,
Ready to take on the deepest despair of life in its elegant stride!
The parched soul breathes with careless bliss,
Being quenched by the nectar of that beautiful thought of yours!
My being learns to sing once again,
The tunes of long long forgotten mirth!
Deeper than the magic of the Merlin,
Those most beautiful eyes cast their magic spell!
Like a lost poet, in ecstatic trance,
I keep loitering down the pasture of fantasy!
Now, all the stars, the moon and the beauteous nature,
The limitless sky, the all powerful Sun,
All have lost their sheen,
Facing of your defenseless charm!
The roar of tumultuous ocean,
Is not audible anymore!
For deafened am I,
With the loud beat of the gasping heart!
Just a glance of yours,
Twitches the heart from within!
And that gracious smile,
Vanishes away all life's toil!
Your divine and voluptuous presence,
Creeps in a new desire to weave a new poem every breath!
With ever stronger fervor,
Embellished with renewed ardor!
Much more than the joy of the union with God,
Is the bliss of the awareness of sharing a world with you!
Teaching to the mortals,
What it is meant by a Divine Beauty!
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
For there is always that glance to look forward to!
For there is a breathless happiness fizzing within.
Just about to drenched my being to its deepest depth.
A blissful bounce always there is in my heart,
Ready to take on the deepest despair of life in its elegant stride!
Even the most hopeless and barren path,
Appears to be a rose strewn path to paradise.
The parched soul breathes with careless bliss,
Being quenched by the nectar of that beautiful thought of yours!
My being learns to sing once again,
The tunes of long long forgotten mirth!
Deeper than the magic of the Merlin,
Those most beautiful eyes cast their magic spell!
Like a lost poet, in ecstatic trance,
I keep loitering down the pasture of fantasy!
Now, all the stars, the moon and the beauteous nature,
The limitless sky, the all powerful Sun,
All have lost their sheen,
Facing of your defenseless charm!
The roar of tumultuous ocean,
Is not audible anymore!
For deafened am I,
With the loud beat of the gasping heart!
Just a glance of yours,
Twitches the heart from within!
And that gracious smile,
Vanishes away all life's toil!
Your divine and voluptuous presence,
Creeps in a new desire to weave a new poem every breath!
With ever stronger fervor,
Embellished with renewed ardor!
Much more than the joy of the union with God,
Is the bliss of the awareness of sharing a world with you!
May you be blessed forever,
Glittering as a crowning glory!
Teaching to the mortals,
What it is meant by a Divine Beauty!
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Creative Mind
Following is an excerpt from the book - Five Minds of the Future - by Howard Gardner. This passage describes a creative individual is as per Gardner -
The creator stands out in terms of temperament, personality, and stance. She is perennially dissatisfied with the current work, current standards, current questions, current answers. She strikes out in unfamiliar directions and enjoys - or at least accepts - being different from the pack. When an anomaly arises (an unfamiliar musical chord, an unexpected experimental result, a spike or dip in the sale of goods in unfamiliar territory), she does not shrink from that unexpected wrinkle: indeed she wants to understand it and to determine whether it constitute a trivial error, an unrepeatable fluke, or an important but hitherto unknown truth. She is touch skinned and robust. There is a reason why so many famous creators hated or dropped out from school - they did not like marching to someone else's tune (and, in turn, the authorities disliked their idiosyncratic marching patterns).
All of us fail, and - because they are bold and ambitious - creators fail the most frequently and, often, the most dramatically. Only a person who is willing to pick herself up, and "try and try again" is likely to forge creative achievements. And even when an achievement has been endorsed by the "Field", the prototypical creator rarely rests on her laurels; instead, she proceeds along a new, untested path, fully ready to risk failure time and again in return for the opportunity to make another, different mark.
Creative activity harbors more than its share of heartaches; but "FLOW" that it accompanies a fresh insight, a breakthrough work, or a genuine invention can be addictive...
______________________________________________
The creator stands out in terms of temperament, personality, and stance. She is perennially dissatisfied with the current work, current standards, current questions, current answers. She strikes out in unfamiliar directions and enjoys - or at least accepts - being different from the pack. When an anomaly arises (an unfamiliar musical chord, an unexpected experimental result, a spike or dip in the sale of goods in unfamiliar territory), she does not shrink from that unexpected wrinkle: indeed she wants to understand it and to determine whether it constitute a trivial error, an unrepeatable fluke, or an important but hitherto unknown truth. She is touch skinned and robust. There is a reason why so many famous creators hated or dropped out from school - they did not like marching to someone else's tune (and, in turn, the authorities disliked their idiosyncratic marching patterns).
All of us fail, and - because they are bold and ambitious - creators fail the most frequently and, often, the most dramatically. Only a person who is willing to pick herself up, and "try and try again" is likely to forge creative achievements. And even when an achievement has been endorsed by the "Field", the prototypical creator rarely rests on her laurels; instead, she proceeds along a new, untested path, fully ready to risk failure time and again in return for the opportunity to make another, different mark.
Creative activity harbors more than its share of heartaches; but "FLOW" that it accompanies a fresh insight, a breakthrough work, or a genuine invention can be addictive...
______________________________________________
Happy Birthday to Manisha - my darling - my wife - my better-half
Dedicated to my wife on her Birthday - 15th December 2010
===========================================
Celebrating your priceless existence in my life
On this very special day
Beautifying my being,
With the fragrance of your love,
You are a more than a divine blessing
To me!
Its is nice to be together
walking the path of life
learning from each other and the world
Evolving to be better and more beautiful
Nice to grow old with you!
Thank you for the faith
Thank you for the care
You always had for me,
Right from when I was naive and raw.
Today having spent so many years
In this life,
Without you I know
Things would never had been
Such beautiful and picturesque.
Thank you for bringing even more happiness
With the most beautiful daughter ever born.
Thank you the pain
you have always taken to bring smile in my life!
No one knows me in this world,
as true as you,
With my follies, and inadequacies,
But still you were always there for me,
In thick and thin,
Filled with love and understanding,
Dear love you are such a sweet heart!
I know no words can express
My deep love and gratitude
For being so special to me,
Dear love!
Just I pray to God,
That in this life,
I am able to always keep you happy,
Showering you with
what you love and like!
God Bless You!
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
===========================================
Celebrating your priceless existence in my life
On this very special day
Beautifying my being,
With the fragrance of your love,
You are a more than a divine blessing
To me!
Its is nice to be together
walking the path of life
learning from each other and the world
Evolving to be better and more beautiful
Nice to grow old with you!
Thank you for the faith
Thank you for the care
You always had for me,
Right from when I was naive and raw.
Today having spent so many years
In this life,
Without you I know
Things would never had been
Such beautiful and picturesque.
Thank you for bringing even more happiness
With the most beautiful daughter ever born.
Thank you the pain
you have always taken to bring smile in my life!
No one knows me in this world,
as true as you,
With my follies, and inadequacies,
But still you were always there for me,
In thick and thin,
Filled with love and understanding,
Dear love you are such a sweet heart!
I know no words can express
My deep love and gratitude
For being so special to me,
Dear love!
Just I pray to God,
That in this life,
I am able to always keep you happy,
Showering you with
what you love and like!
God Bless You!
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Being relevant - nurturing a discipline mind
In his world famous treatise - "The Five Minds of the Future", Howard Gardner beautifully demystifies what he terms as "The disciplined mind". He emphasizes the need of humans to focus on the development of their cognitive ability in thinking through an issue as a specialist. He states that just acquiring, and remembering plethora of information and symbol system does not necessary makes one relevant in a domain. The need is about being able to apply the know-how of the symbol system, to think in a particular fashion, in order to solve a contemporary problem. There is a need of setting up what Howard Gardner terms "performance of understanding". Once the key information pertaining to a particular domain is mastered it is of utmost important for the scholar to perform his understanding of the symbol system into an unknown and a new scenario. Students and professionals need to be forced to stretch or flex their knowledge obtained by reading books, and attending lectures. Without this there is a possibility of facing the uncomfortable possibility that factual knowledge may have increased without a correlative increase in disciplinary sophistication.
Most of the education is focussed on the mastery of information. It is equally important to nurture a way of thinking in the students and professionals which can enable them to solve an unknown problem using the repertoire of the knowledge gained.
To be able to discipline the mind, it is required to attack the domain in consideration through "multiple entry points". Each of these entry points points to various multiple intelligences a human posses. Such an approach demonstrates what a genuine understanding is like. One cannot be disciplined without such a conceptual agility.
The absence of disciplinary thinking as discussed above, leads a person to be in a state where she forgoes her opportunity to benefit from the genuine progress achieved by learned individuals in the past few thousands years. The undisciplined mind is stranded in the same intellectual levels as the barbarians. They will not be able to have informed opinions of the events of the day, the year and the century. They feel alienated and stupid - or, equally bad they feel resentment, even hatred, vis-a-vis those who do seem to be able to perform their understandings in a disciplined manner.
Many people assert that it is what the experience which counts, and the theoretical scholarly pursuits are alienated from any real worth in the every day life. I firmly disagree with these opinions. It is of utmost importance to know and learn the latest knowledge base which is currently available. Without the knowledge base we basically march back to pre-historic age. The content is required. But the point here is that this content has to be complemented with a meaningful context, woven with a disciplined mind.
Having said this, Gardner goes further to table an important observation about a disciplined mind. He says, ""..Like most salient experiences of life (from orgasm to philanthropy), its achievement breeds desire for more. Once once has understood well a particular play, a particular war, a particular physical or biological or managerial concept, the appetite has been whetted for additional and deeper understanding. and for clear cut performances in which one's understanding can be demonstrated to others and oneself. Indeed the genuine understander is unlikely in the future to accept only superficial understanding. Rather having eaten from the tree of understanding, he or she is likely to return there repeatedly for ever more satisfying intellectual nourishment."
This sense of joy being derived from a scholarly pursuit helps the person to become passionate in the process of learning. The same applies to professionals. This push to become more and more aware, and make a meaningful difference, guides the professional who thus venture into exotic locales and attend institutes, giving up the opportunity to ski, snorkel, or play hooky, or go for a holiday trip.
As Plato remarked so many years ago, "Through education we need to help students find pleasure in what they have to learn".
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Most of the education is focussed on the mastery of information. It is equally important to nurture a way of thinking in the students and professionals which can enable them to solve an unknown problem using the repertoire of the knowledge gained.
To be able to discipline the mind, it is required to attack the domain in consideration through "multiple entry points". Each of these entry points points to various multiple intelligences a human posses. Such an approach demonstrates what a genuine understanding is like. One cannot be disciplined without such a conceptual agility.
The absence of disciplinary thinking as discussed above, leads a person to be in a state where she forgoes her opportunity to benefit from the genuine progress achieved by learned individuals in the past few thousands years. The undisciplined mind is stranded in the same intellectual levels as the barbarians. They will not be able to have informed opinions of the events of the day, the year and the century. They feel alienated and stupid - or, equally bad they feel resentment, even hatred, vis-a-vis those who do seem to be able to perform their understandings in a disciplined manner.
Many people assert that it is what the experience which counts, and the theoretical scholarly pursuits are alienated from any real worth in the every day life. I firmly disagree with these opinions. It is of utmost importance to know and learn the latest knowledge base which is currently available. Without the knowledge base we basically march back to pre-historic age. The content is required. But the point here is that this content has to be complemented with a meaningful context, woven with a disciplined mind.
Having said this, Gardner goes further to table an important observation about a disciplined mind. He says, ""..Like most salient experiences of life (from orgasm to philanthropy), its achievement breeds desire for more. Once once has understood well a particular play, a particular war, a particular physical or biological or managerial concept, the appetite has been whetted for additional and deeper understanding. and for clear cut performances in which one's understanding can be demonstrated to others and oneself. Indeed the genuine understander is unlikely in the future to accept only superficial understanding. Rather having eaten from the tree of understanding, he or she is likely to return there repeatedly for ever more satisfying intellectual nourishment."
This sense of joy being derived from a scholarly pursuit helps the person to become passionate in the process of learning. The same applies to professionals. This push to become more and more aware, and make a meaningful difference, guides the professional who thus venture into exotic locales and attend institutes, giving up the opportunity to ski, snorkel, or play hooky, or go for a holiday trip.
As Plato remarked so many years ago, "Through education we need to help students find pleasure in what they have to learn".
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Being fully Human
Strange as it may seem,life becomes serene and enjoyable precisely when selfish pleasure and personal success are no longer the guiding goals.When self loses itself in a transcendent purpose, it becomes largely invulnerable to the fears and setbacks of ordinary existence.Psychic energy becomes focused on goals that are meaningful,that advance order and complexity, that will continue to have an effect in the consciousness of new generations long after our departure from this world, even after we are long forgotten.
- Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly
So very aptly and forcefully articulated by Prof Csikszentmihalyi, a fulfilled and happy life is about losing ego totally towards a purpose which is meaningful. A purpose which reduces entropy, and advances the evolution of mankind.
Extrapolating this noble thought into interpersonal relationships and the daily chores of our lives, it makes me think how most among us live fixated in an in-correct premise. Most of the times we lead a self-centered life. We have an un-conscious superstition, ingrained in our genes, is that we are the center of the universe, i.e. whatever happens in the planet, we try to link it to ourselves, and they we are getting impacted.
I was reading Helen Fisher the other day, and she reflects that when we say, "I love you", we actually mean, "do you love me?". It is so much customary to hear such remarks from our well intentioned brethren, "Don`t spend your time and energy on her. She is just not worth you", "When I needed them, no one was there", "What is there in it for me", "She used me", "The company does not care for me"etc. Most often we perceive our relationships with people, places, organizations, etc as treaties. I am entitled to do certain things, only when I get certain other things in return.
Our lives most of the times are guided by an inexorable urge to expect something in return. We would not even smile at a person, if that person does not return it to us in same grace.
Going by the lines of Darwin, it appears customary that such a response is normal, and is hard wired in humans and all other living organisms, needed very much for their survival. Darwin goes even further to attribute beauty and aesthetics to drive to reproduce.
I beg to differ from Darwin in today's age. Darwinian theory might be apt for most of the species inhabiting this planet. But in today's era, I believe humans have transcended such a simplistic model. I feel the brain is capable to evolve to a place where expectations are non-existent. It is possible for a human to stand for a purpose, a story, a value, a love, a believe, or whatever which gives her a meaning for existence, and she enjoys being in that state. For her what she gets back in return is irrelevant.
For example a human might be in pure and profound love with another human, but really does not expect anything from her. It might be irrelevant whether the other person is good, or worth, or even loves her back. This is a state of human defiance of the needs of our genes. This is a place where a human differentiates itself from other species in the ecosystem.
A person might be so much in love with her work, that she does not care whether she is taken care by the company she belongs to. She derives her pleasure from the work.
Here I am not stating humans to be in in-sensitive and hopeless state where there is no urge left to get any enjoyment. I am just proposing here that humans have achieved that stage of evolution, where they can be in a state where their personal needs become irrelevant. Those needs might remain, and it might be good if they are gratified. But that they become irrelevant while leading ones life.
This idea can be illustrated in the fact when a person says the following - "I love her, although I know she hates me. It is actually irrelevant she loves me or not. It is that I feel so happy being in love for her". Or when a person says about his work, "When I am in the shop floor, I am just one with the work. I forget my existence. I dont realize the passing of time. Even I am absent to the fact that I am hungry".
Such disappearance of ones self, and being one with a goal - an action - a work, a way of being, which the person likes, and is also good at, had been termed differently by different authors. Some call it, "being in your elements". Some say you are in "FLOW". Some say you are "one with your intension". Some say you are "one with universal consciousness".
Such a state of defiance of conditionality at every aspect of ones existence raises a person to a vantage point of absolute freedom. A place of being, where the person is not dependent on any circumstance, any person or any organization to derive her happiness and fulfillment. Being in a state of independence from any expectation, a person is not attached and constrained by just one way of unfolding of things. Rather the person is open to any possibility. This enables a person to have more courage to try out novel endeavors which inspires her, and moves her.
To summarize my thoughts, I would like to put them the following points -
1. It is important to discover what a person really likes - Something which the person is at the top of the world doing it. Prof. Csikszentmihalyi call this identification of a domain
2. It is important for the person to pursue her love for the selected domain, and gradually increase the "complexity" of he consciousness pertaining to the chosen domain.
3. Having a goal bigger than life, which aims at the domain and impacting the humanity as a whole by working in the domain. It is about creating a story which is bigger than ones life, which shapes the person's passion for the domain to enhancing the domain itself, and thus enabling the humanity to achieve something which it was not present to.
4. Always being in a state of a giver, and not a taker.
5. Enjoy life's every small gift. Using the trivial chores of everyday life as a vehicle to make a difference, learn something new, love more, care more, understand and appreciate.
6. Be free, open, loving, caring, and responsible.
7. In interpersonal relationship always remember that when you love someone, it does not necessarily mean that the other person will also love you. This expectation from the other person is actually irrelevant, and totally out of place. Love begins and ends within. Dr. Wayne Dyer has put this thought very beautifully in the following words -
"Love" is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you.
8. Always invest enough psychic energy to de-mystify one's own self to be able to know what is that one really love doing - something that comes naturally to the person.
9.Knowing that life is short, and it can abruptly end any day, any moment. So, live life fully, doing what you love to do, loving as much as you can, and enjoy life's simple moments.
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
- Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly
So very aptly and forcefully articulated by Prof Csikszentmihalyi, a fulfilled and happy life is about losing ego totally towards a purpose which is meaningful. A purpose which reduces entropy, and advances the evolution of mankind.
Extrapolating this noble thought into interpersonal relationships and the daily chores of our lives, it makes me think how most among us live fixated in an in-correct premise. Most of the times we lead a self-centered life. We have an un-conscious superstition, ingrained in our genes, is that we are the center of the universe, i.e. whatever happens in the planet, we try to link it to ourselves, and they we are getting impacted.
I was reading Helen Fisher the other day, and she reflects that when we say, "I love you", we actually mean, "do you love me?". It is so much customary to hear such remarks from our well intentioned brethren, "Don`t spend your time and energy on her. She is just not worth you", "When I needed them, no one was there", "What is there in it for me", "She used me", "The company does not care for me"etc. Most often we perceive our relationships with people, places, organizations, etc as treaties. I am entitled to do certain things, only when I get certain other things in return.
Our lives most of the times are guided by an inexorable urge to expect something in return. We would not even smile at a person, if that person does not return it to us in same grace.
Going by the lines of Darwin, it appears customary that such a response is normal, and is hard wired in humans and all other living organisms, needed very much for their survival. Darwin goes even further to attribute beauty and aesthetics to drive to reproduce.
I beg to differ from Darwin in today's age. Darwinian theory might be apt for most of the species inhabiting this planet. But in today's era, I believe humans have transcended such a simplistic model. I feel the brain is capable to evolve to a place where expectations are non-existent. It is possible for a human to stand for a purpose, a story, a value, a love, a believe, or whatever which gives her a meaning for existence, and she enjoys being in that state. For her what she gets back in return is irrelevant.
For example a human might be in pure and profound love with another human, but really does not expect anything from her. It might be irrelevant whether the other person is good, or worth, or even loves her back. This is a state of human defiance of the needs of our genes. This is a place where a human differentiates itself from other species in the ecosystem.
A person might be so much in love with her work, that she does not care whether she is taken care by the company she belongs to. She derives her pleasure from the work.
Here I am not stating humans to be in in-sensitive and hopeless state where there is no urge left to get any enjoyment. I am just proposing here that humans have achieved that stage of evolution, where they can be in a state where their personal needs become irrelevant. Those needs might remain, and it might be good if they are gratified. But that they become irrelevant while leading ones life.
This idea can be illustrated in the fact when a person says the following - "I love her, although I know she hates me. It is actually irrelevant she loves me or not. It is that I feel so happy being in love for her". Or when a person says about his work, "When I am in the shop floor, I am just one with the work. I forget my existence. I dont realize the passing of time. Even I am absent to the fact that I am hungry".
Such disappearance of ones self, and being one with a goal - an action - a work, a way of being, which the person likes, and is also good at, had been termed differently by different authors. Some call it, "being in your elements". Some say you are in "FLOW". Some say you are "one with your intension". Some say you are "one with universal consciousness".
Such a state of defiance of conditionality at every aspect of ones existence raises a person to a vantage point of absolute freedom. A place of being, where the person is not dependent on any circumstance, any person or any organization to derive her happiness and fulfillment. Being in a state of independence from any expectation, a person is not attached and constrained by just one way of unfolding of things. Rather the person is open to any possibility. This enables a person to have more courage to try out novel endeavors which inspires her, and moves her.
To summarize my thoughts, I would like to put them the following points -
1. It is important to discover what a person really likes - Something which the person is at the top of the world doing it. Prof. Csikszentmihalyi call this identification of a domain
2. It is important for the person to pursue her love for the selected domain, and gradually increase the "complexity" of he consciousness pertaining to the chosen domain.
3. Having a goal bigger than life, which aims at the domain and impacting the humanity as a whole by working in the domain. It is about creating a story which is bigger than ones life, which shapes the person's passion for the domain to enhancing the domain itself, and thus enabling the humanity to achieve something which it was not present to.
4. Always being in a state of a giver, and not a taker.
5. Enjoy life's every small gift. Using the trivial chores of everyday life as a vehicle to make a difference, learn something new, love more, care more, understand and appreciate.
6. Be free, open, loving, caring, and responsible.
7. In interpersonal relationship always remember that when you love someone, it does not necessarily mean that the other person will also love you. This expectation from the other person is actually irrelevant, and totally out of place. Love begins and ends within. Dr. Wayne Dyer has put this thought very beautifully in the following words -
"Love" is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you.
8. Always invest enough psychic energy to de-mystify one's own self to be able to know what is that one really love doing - something that comes naturally to the person.
9.Knowing that life is short, and it can abruptly end any day, any moment. So, live life fully, doing what you love to do, loving as much as you can, and enjoy life's simple moments.
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Being Responsible - A disciplined mind
As proposed by Viktor Frankle and many other psychologists, the most optimal way of being is to be responsible in one's thoughts, and action.
But, "being responsible" is something which is role-based.
What is being responsible for a person being in the role of a friend, might be something very different when the person operates being in the role of a boss in a typical corporate setting.
A human in its constant dynamic state of changing roles from one to other, must eradicate the way of beings which are not appropriate in one role, and gradually consolidate a mode of behavior that is appropriate for the new role.
This ability to think in a particular way based on what is currently functionally needed, is termed as having a "disciplined mind" by Howard Gardner.
For an optimum functioning of an institution, its members should keep graduating to different thinking hats based on what is needed by the current role the person is playing.
Here are some illustrations as described by Howard Gardner, where humans fail to graduate to a new behavior as demanded by the new role (un-disciplined minds). This inability of disciplining the mind leads to the person as being irresponsible -
1. Beginning law students, for example, insist on reaching a decision that is morally satisfying; this long-engrained way of thinking clashes with their teachers' insistence that decisions must be based on precedent and on process, and not on one's personal moral code.
2. Rookie journalists prepare a coherent, well rounded story, as if they were trying to hold the interest of a captive audience. They are unable to think backward, writing a story in such a way that it will immediately command the reader's attention while also surviving the blue pencil of the editor or the sever space limitations of the new front page layout.
3. The worker who has just been appointed to a managerial position attempts to retain earlier friendships as if nothing had changed; she does not understand that her new job requires that she listen, be listened to , and be respected, rather than that she win a contest of popularity or continue to exchange gossip or intimacies with former peers. The new board member fails to understand that he must now behave in disinterested manner vis-a-vis the very CEO or president who courted her for months and then invited her to join a select, prestigious group.
The point here is not just about being context specific, and act as per context. But having a disciplined mind calls for something even more profound. It is about using the mental faculty to apply already learnt concepts from different contexts, and use them optimally to achieve a given result in a new context. According to Howard Gardner, "It is about attempting to elucidate a discovery or phenomenon with which a person is not familiar but which lends itself to explanation in terms of a concept or theory that has been already studied."
In today's workplace as well as in the academics, there is a dire need of having a disciplined mind. I agree with Howard Gardner in which he boldly states that the survival of mankind in the coming ages depends among others, how well we can discipline our mind.
It is not that simple to discipline one's mind. Howard Gardner says, "My formal discipline is psychology, and it took me a decade to think like a psychologist". He further says, "Today when I encounter a controversy about the human mind or human behavior, I think immediately about how to study the issue empirically, what control group to marshal, how to analyze the data and revise my hypotheses when necessary".
To be able to discipline one's mind, one needs to be thoroughly trained in a specific domain, and it requires immense "deliberate practice" (as proposed by Geoff Colvin).
Hence all of us - scholars, corporate leaders, professionals - must continually hone our skills.
______________________________________________
Copy Right © All rights reserved - Samrat Kar
But, "being responsible" is something which is role-based.
What is being responsible for a person being in the role of a friend, might be something very different when the person operates being in the role of a boss in a typical corporate setting.
A human in its constant dynamic state of changing roles from one to other, must eradicate the way of beings which are not appropriate in one role, and gradually consolidate a mode of behavior that is appropriate for the new role.
This ability to think in a particular way based on what is currently functionally needed, is termed as having a "disciplined mind" by Howard Gardner.
For an optimum functioning of an institution, its members should keep graduating to different thinking hats based on what is needed by the current role the person is playing.
Here are some illustrations as described by Howard Gardner, where humans fail to graduate to a new behavior as demanded by the new role (un-disciplined minds). This inability of disciplining the mind leads to the person as being irresponsible -
1. Beginning law students, for example, insist on reaching a decision that is morally satisfying; this long-engrained way of thinking clashes with their teachers' insistence that decisions must be based on precedent and on process, and not on one's personal moral code.
2. Rookie journalists prepare a coherent, well rounded story, as if they were trying to hold the interest of a captive audience. They are unable to think backward, writing a story in such a way that it will immediately command the reader's attention while also surviving the blue pencil of the editor or the sever space limitations of the new front page layout.
3. The worker who has just been appointed to a managerial position attempts to retain earlier friendships as if nothing had changed; she does not understand that her new job requires that she listen, be listened to , and be respected, rather than that she win a contest of popularity or continue to exchange gossip or intimacies with former peers. The new board member fails to understand that he must now behave in disinterested manner vis-a-vis the very CEO or president who courted her for months and then invited her to join a select, prestigious group.
The point here is not just about being context specific, and act as per context. But having a disciplined mind calls for something even more profound. It is about using the mental faculty to apply already learnt concepts from different contexts, and use them optimally to achieve a given result in a new context. According to Howard Gardner, "It is about attempting to elucidate a discovery or phenomenon with which a person is not familiar but which lends itself to explanation in terms of a concept or theory that has been already studied."
In today's workplace as well as in the academics, there is a dire need of having a disciplined mind. I agree with Howard Gardner in which he boldly states that the survival of mankind in the coming ages depends among others, how well we can discipline our mind.
It is not that simple to discipline one's mind. Howard Gardner says, "My formal discipline is psychology, and it took me a decade to think like a psychologist". He further says, "Today when I encounter a controversy about the human mind or human behavior, I think immediately about how to study the issue empirically, what control group to marshal, how to analyze the data and revise my hypotheses when necessary".
To be able to discipline one's mind, one needs to be thoroughly trained in a specific domain, and it requires immense "deliberate practice" (as proposed by Geoff Colvin).
Hence all of us - scholars, corporate leaders, professionals - must continually hone our skills.
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