Learning to Learn

  A Painting and a Story # 23

The second Friday of the month is special to her company. At exactly 4 pm most of the 27 of them assemble in the conference room. It is a short 15 minute session where an employee shares a video or a presentation. It is Harish's unique way of allowing colleagues to share their outside life and hobbies and interests.

Today Meenu (short for Meenakshi) reluctantly drags her feet to the conference room. Every attempt to satisfy the specifications of the client has fallen flat. Really! She has done this a zillion times and suddenly this particular client seems to object to everything she suggests. She is at her wits end. Her team is only adding to her woes. And she really has no time for this FRIDAY BONDING! Her head is throbbing.

The room is darkened. The projector throws a sharp white light on to the white wall. And the video of what appears to be yet another tiring Safari begins. But wait the camera zooms into a tree, a nest, a weaver bird nest. A well blended presentation of several short clips shows the male weaver-bird building a nest. He takes blades of green grass and knits them together to make the nest. It takes about 200 blades of grass to make half a nest. The lady flies around inspecting the incomplete nest. And with a toss of her small head she rejects it. The guy doesn't give up. He starts all over again. Again a quick inspection and a shake! Reject! The male bird flies around his nest. And begins again. Every time he modifies the location, or the way it attaches to the branch, or the selection of the branch. There is silence in the conference room as the bird builds for the third time. It takes about 300 blades of grass! And then he flaps his wings and calls the lady for inspection. This time she approves! And joyfully the young male completes the 'house'. She sometimes gives finishing touches to the interiors with some soft mud! The video ends with the lady getting into the tunnel shape of the nest and inspection done she hops to the edge of the nest and calls out her approval. The room erupts into joyous claps! And the session is over. 

Meenu walks out with a smile. At her desk she thinks, doing the same thing in the same way over and over again does not lead to perfection. That only results in mindless habitual thinking. Even the weaver bird evaluates every situation with a fresh look and here she was, basking in the glory of earlier success and blaming the client for being unrealistic. 

She takes a fresh note pad and begins to look at client requirement with fresh eyes. The solution she knows, lies in some important detail that they have all misunderstood. 

My painting for this week is an abstract in soft pastels. 

Co-existence - Soft pastels