Profundity.

When I was studying 9th (1990), I asked meaning of 'profound' to my great English teacher, Mrs Elizabeth Thomas (without her and the other English teacher, Mrs Alphonsa Jacob, I dont think my English would be where it is today) and she said 'not superficial but with deep realization or understanding'. In some sense, I have always tried to reach the state of 'profundity' in whatever I do. Kancha Ilaiah says - casteism is profound racism. Thinking a bit, yes, it does sound true - after all there was some effort in India to include 'caste'ism as part of World conference on racism or race-related issues. My friend used to question when we went from school to college, are IITians intelligent or knowledgeable? Now it is almost 'proven' that they are at best 'knowledgeable' - they know to solve some patterns of problems. I think even in criticism of MBA, they talk of empirical studies. One may know how one kind of problem was solved by one person in one country with one method. Problems are not the same globally, scenarios change, people are different and how can one solution be just 'retrofit'ted into another situation?

I was seeing video of Richard Dawkins again - where he talked of religious beliefs and IQ. Here he chose 'Mensa' to denote the people with high IQ. For one, I dont know what is meant by evaluating IQ. I remember that I had an IQ test in my school (Jawahar Vidyalaya) when I was 10 or 11 years and still have the report which stated that my intelligence suited that of 13 or 14 years and my intelligence is 'well above normal' ('paranormal'?). Going even before, as I passed out of 5th std in Shakespeare Convent, I was given one certificate, not for scoring high marks or representing sports or even being class leader, but for my 'intelligence' :o How the hell did they evaluate that? Because I could remember many things 'ad verbatim'? Because I could multiply two digit numbers without pen and paper? My foot! One of my colleagues at TI did mention about Mensa test and even at that time, I refused. I hate 'pigeonholing' and more importantly, uselessness of such a grading. What is their social relevance? Do people with high IQ become Presidents or Prime Ministers or great sportsmen? :o To me, it looks that intelligent people are more likely to be 'single-minded' and 'adulation' can also be 'detrimental' for some people (including me).

Maybe 'intelligence' is 'profound knowledge'. Another thing that some have told me (again since childhood) is that I have great 'intuition' (I heard first when I played chess in school). I think intuition is 'profound intelligence'. It may look paranormal but it is like the phenomenon that William explains in Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'. The main thing is that unlike the book ('nature speaks to us in many ways and we just have to listen'), intuition cannot be explained in simple words. Infact, I myself cant reason out. Chess is where I can explain easily. I made moves because I felt it was a 'good move' and not because it was a 'right move'. Maybe it has some 'risk element' and 'dependence' on opponent. To put in Ian Chappell's terms, as a captain, you should be a quick judge of character of not just your own team members, but also your opponents. In chess, some 'tutored' players later told that I 'wrap' up games against minnows with 'scotch' opening. I dont know if it is scotch or whiskey ;) - basically it is 'aggressive' and you try to win by 'intimidating' your opponent through your moves. So intuition is profound intelligence and it is useful if one is intuitive instead of just being intelligent. Maybe for this reason, I consider politics as the most challenging 'sport/game'. One has to judge the character of atleast million people while charting a election manifesto and starting the election campaign.