Serendipity

Pondering over one of the debate, one social scientist and me had few days’ backs on what makes a person intelligent or genius. Intelligence can be broadly categorized into flavors of business intelligence, military intelligence, criminal intelligence, politicized intelligence and artificial intelligence. Well, intelligent people came in all shapes, sizes and anatomies. Since, world is a very big and diverse set of people, let me select a subset of this set i.e. DA-IICT. It’s apt to make a comparison in this subset, as we are all ingredients of Indian Schooling System, missed IIT’s by a hair, eat same Brijwasi food, sharing a common educational environment and learning culture for the past four years. Well, the obnoxious question is setting up the criteria’s of intelligence, does people born intelligent or they are self-made intelligent?

Deciphering, there is no yardstick to measure absolute intelligence. Intelligence cannot be measured in terms of academic performance, but it encapsulates clarity of thoughts, problem-attacking approach, time management, fast reflexes, innovative technique and learning from past experiences. Interspersing these factors under one umbrella and moving compass of Intelligence Quotient over a specified time-frame might be one approach to concluding and questioning one’s intelligence. Specifically speaking, time frame is a measure criterion as lots of instant-celebrities are popping now a days and their credibility is really questionable. Concept of instant-celebrities is quite common in glam world, as reality shows like, “Indian-Idol”, “Fame Gurukul”, multiplex cinema and our Ram Gopal Verma are quite legendary for creating and erasing over-night stars, which doomed and vanished in memories in a blink. Likewise, I truly feel, a person cannot be stated intelligent on graph of impulse. Impulse gives fame but hall of fame stays for those who crave for success all the time. Extending this analogy, there is lot of buzz over CAT exam, those who get through hats off to them but there are some close contenders who also deserve same basket, but narrowly missed on D-day. I didn’t appear for CAT, but one-exam can not justifies one is better than the other.

Well, forget about child prodigies, loathe me for this, I am intentionally choosing the approach-people are self-made intelligent as true. Intelligence cannot be bought, begged, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is expresses and polished consistently. Break from polishing one’s thoughts will eventually lead to rusting, so an intelligent guy/girl has to work upon his/her thinking process, insight on niche frameworks and keep learning from introspection. Intelligence can be dressed by observing other people works, reading (hope, it is true), versatility and definitely introspection. Rationale of choosing latter approach is to make me craving for knowledge, and lemme search for my cup of intelligence. Rightly said, “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow”.

Very nice post.

Unfortunately, academic excellence is the only way intelligence is recognised in the society, at least in the formative years. But I do not blame the society for this. When the society consissts of such a large middle class population, for whom the only hope for success seems to be the good academic performance of their children, it is then not surprising that academic excellence is looked at with awe.

But it is also a fact that many academically bright youngsters fare pathetically in life and the cruel society takes no time in dismissing them as bookish and impractical!