Beauty and the Beast

For the past week I have been living at Mumbai Airport. In my spare time I am rushing for meetings across the length and breadth of India, drinking coffee to stay awake, rushing back to airports, visiting a place I used to call home for a quick shuteye and meeting the Nose of India.

If things described above aren’t bad enough to screw with your body clock there is nothing more jarring to the senses than a young bald man in a ghoulish wig. The man at security in front of me was puny, short, nondescript and was sulking. Maybe he’s not a morning person and thankfully there wasn’t a mike, cap or vest in sight.

As if to make up for the disturbing imagery earlier, God presented me a seat in the business section with a seat in the same row as Meow! Well I don’t know what you think of Jaane Tu … and frankly I thought the movie sucked. But this young damsel is attractive and I was just warming up to tell her that we shared something deep (We apparently share the same surname) and that such things are obviously indicative of long term synergies. Alas a matronly woman filled the empty seat that separated us – could have been Mommie, Chaperone or bodyguard – I don’t know.

Ms D’Souza, all of 21 years, curled up and slept well whilst I analyzed financial models … my head turning ever so often to check if a different kind of model a seat away would wake up and observe her surroundings with some interest. I toyed with the Handsome-Prince-with-a-kiss-that-brings-back-maidens-from-comatose-states fantasy a bit when the plane hit the tarmac. In minutes we were separated and I found myself at yet another airport.

Things in life balance out. High pitched nasal tones balance pretty upcoming actresses. The beast balances beauty. Maybe I should become a beast.

Genius

Are we born intelligent or can genius be created? How do people achieve Nirvana? What is that sixth sense? I had a chat with a colleague sometime back and we agreed to the following conclusion - 'THAT genius is Thought that has travelled extensively, created gazillions of permutations, evaluated the results and wired one's brain to think along these terms'


In simpler terms, it's all about pattern recognition. Most people I consider genius' have devoted considerable time to this pursuit. When they spent all their time on stuff they liked to do they were, at some subconcious level, storing patterns and creating natural software to evaluate them. Of course, passion and strong grasping power helps a bit and also limits us - one can't be passionate about multiple things.


So with all this gyaan that I am freely disbursing why am I not a genius? Well efforts are on and progress is slow, but frankly I'm just plain lazy to educate myself. I am too busy working that I am cheating myself of intellectual energy. Aren't we all?