The caterpillar story

The noted French naturalist, J. Henri Fabre, studied the processionary caterpillars in great detail. What makes this caterpillar special is its instinct to follow in lock step the caterpillar in front of it. this behavior not only gives the caterpillar its name but a deadly characteristic also.

Fabre demonstrated this unusual behavior with a simple experiment. He took a flowerpot and placed a number of caterpillars in a single rile around the circumference of the pot's rim. each caterpillar's head touched the caterpillar in front of it. Fabre then placed the caterpillars' favorite food, pine needles, in the middle of the circle. each caterpillar followed the one ahead thinking that it was heading for food. Round and round went those silly insects - for seven days! After a week of this mindless activity, the caterpillars dropped dead one by one because of exhaustion and starvation.

Think for a while - all that the caterpillars had to do to avoid death was to stop the senseless circling of the flower pot and head directly toward the food which was less than six inches away. However, the caterpillars were locked into a lifestyle and couldn't disentangle themselves from their mindless behavior.

Think for a while - Do we also follow methods and procedures for no other reason than 'it has always been done that way'? How often do we confuse activity with accomplishment? Do we have the ability to change our direction to get out of ruts which cause us to dysfunction at work?

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Himmat karne walon ki

This is a famous composition written by the well-known hindi poet SuryaKant Tripati 'Nirala'. For those of you who don't understand Hindi, my apologies, for everyone else, here's a power-dose of inspiration to charge you up!

हिम्मत करने वालो की कभी हार नही होती!!
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लहरो से डर कर नौका पार नही होती,
हिम्मत करने वालो की हार नही होती,
नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढती दीवारो पर से सौ बार फिसलती है,
मन का विश्वास रंगो मे साहस भरता है,
चढकर गिरना, गिरकर चढना नाक रगडना है,
आखिर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नही होती,
कोशिश करने वालो की हार नही होती!

डुबकियाँ समुंद्र मे गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा-जा कर खाली हाथ लौट आता है,
मिलते ना सेहज़ से मोती पानी मे,
बहता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी मे,
मुठी उसकी खाली हर बार नही होती,
हिम्मत करने वालो की हार नही होती!

असफलता एक चुनौती है स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गयी देखो और सुधार करो,
कुछ किये बिना ही जै-जै कार नही होती,
हिम्मत करने वालो की कभी हार नही होती!!

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Don't copy, if you can't paste

A well-known motivational speaker gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife."

The crowd was shocked!

He followed up by saying, "That woman was my mother."

The crowd burst into laughter and he gave his speech, which was well received. About a week later, one of the top managers who had the training decided to use that joke at his house. He tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It was a bit foggy to him.

He said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!"

Naturally, his wife was shell shocked, murmuring.

After standing there for almost 10 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the manager finally blurted out "...and I can't remember who she was!" As expected, he got thrashing of his life time...

Moral of the story: Don't copy if you can't paste.

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Black pebble, White pebble

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.

The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. What would you recommend to the girl to do? Think and then proceed further.

Well, here is what she did:

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one!

Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we do not attempt to think the lateral way instead of the logical way.

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It's not the color that counts

There was a man who made a living selling balloons at a fair.

He had all colors of balloons, including red, yellow, blue, and green. Whenever business was slow, he would release a helium-filled balloon into the air and when the children saw it go up, they all wanted to buy one. They would come up to him, buy a balloon, and his sales would go up again. He continued this process all day.

One day, he felt someone tugging at his jacket. He turned around and saw a little boy who asked, "If you release a black balloon, would that also fly?" Moved by the boy's concern, the man replied with empathy, "Son, it is not the color of the balloon, it is what is inside that makes it go up."

The same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that counts. The thing inside of us that makes us go up is our attitude.

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