Brains.Yea.Heart.Nopes.

B.C Roy memorial Library , IIM C looks real big.They have got many dull books and journals in there.I think if we somehow use some kind of reverse engineering to reconvert all that paper in trees , we can have enough wood to make a zillion matchsticks.A couple of days earlier , as me and a friend were returning from the 'sales and distribution management' class , god decided to pee .It started to rain.Since no umbrella company's distribution channel reached the spot where we were caught , we had to run towards the library and get in there.I have watched a lot of hindi movies over my years.Escape the rain on a stormy evening and take shelter in a big ancient looking construction , there is a 72% chance you shall be greeted by a shaky lamp wielding "Ramu Kaka" who has been dead for the last twenty or so years.But not being in a movie , I was greeted by a grumpy watchman who looked at me like I was trying to smuggle three surface to air missiles and a couple of rifles into the library.

Anyways , me and my friend pretended like we were really interested in reading things like Harvard Business Reviews and got in and grabbed some glossy health magazines and fashion magazines to pass time.As a sidenote, this guy who was with me is a typical girl-chaser, desperate , dying to impress girls type of guy.If he goes to somebody's condolence meeting and meets the deceased's daughter there , he would tell her shes looking pretty in the white saree and ask for her telephone number and ask her out to a coffee.

And as we chatted in the library as the rain pelted outside ,he tells me he wants to move away from his parents after he gets married.He tells me parents have to realise that kids have their lives and flying away to better pastures is life.He tells me life is about enjoying and about pretty girls and luxury cars.He tells me all he wants is to enjoy life and grab all the luxuries of life.I should not have found it strange.In a way , he reflected a part of most of us.Anyways , the rain ceased , we got back to the hostel and the day ended without me getting murdered.

The next morning ,the Times Of India carried a news about a baby girl left crying on a Kolkata street while her mother boarded a city bus and left the poor child behind.The mother abandoned the little girl and the baby would be now taken in by some state welfare society unless someone adopts her.

And suddenly , all the talk in the library about being successful , rich , and corporate bigwigs came together with this news about an abandoned baby.And it was a restless combination.Imagine Rabri Devi and Laloo Yadav addressing a packed press conference.Suddenly Rabri stands up , throws herself into Laloo's lap, grabs him by the hair on his ears and kisses him passionately on his lips.If this is unsettling , I suddenly felt super-unsettled.

Now we guys cracked CAT and got into IIM Calcutta , so our collective IQ is higher than that of a bathroom slipper.After some years , most would be found in some air conditioned office , happily working on a laptop with a pretty secretary .Even I may manage an office with a rickety ceiling fan and a pentium II and a fat male secretary.Most of our lives may turn out to be about selling fairness creams which cause terrible skin burns to girls wanting to look like Nicole Kidman.

And in a way , we are so worthless and incapable.Now as a student of one of the nation's coolest business schools and a so called academic achiever ( not considering the one time i flunked in the class III hindi grammar test),that one cry of the little girl which must be resounding in some small room of Kolkata right now makes me feel so worthless.

We read about the baby in the newspaper over breakfast at the mess.We finish the tea , grumble about the potatoes in the dosa being half baked , wash hands and get back to room , listen to music,sing in bathrooms , attend lectures,do the assignments due for the next class , chat around , play table tennis in the evening and the next morning , the newspaper is thrown in a corner of the room.We are all brains who would pull out our hearts for smooth girls ,but not for a little wailing baby in need.

To be a leader in a true sense , we need a set of noble values more than a bright mind.A good heart than a fast brain.But the education system values a bright mind.The set of values is left behind in the little nursery books which carried innocent tales preaching love and brotherhood.The education system checks if you know how to light a bulb.It never checks if you WANT to fight the darkness.

If some person adopts that girl and takes care of her to help her grow into a self sufficient and happy lady, that man deserves to be in the papers more than the guys who pass out of business schools and spend their lives building soaps and condoms and shaving creams business. All I have done and achieved till now is for myself and my family.Will my sphere of contribution be limited to such a miniscule part of mankind ? I may have the brains to pull off a decent career, but when will I have the heart to move towards a meaningful life ?

Why am I unable to do anything to help her ? Maybe the fact that I am still dependant on my parents holds me back.Maybe I dont feel about it so strongly.Maybe I am just trying to fake how sensitive I am.Maybe all I want to do is write about it in this blog and slip the next movie in the CD player.I dont know.But any resemblance of meaning in this 'all brains no heart' life would appear only on the day I actually go ahead and do something to help such a baby in need.God.Sometimes all this seems as frustrating as having to watch Osama Bin Laden trim the hair in his nose.Someday Ill just have to break out and do what I want.