Rolling Stone Poem by BASAB CHAUDHURI

Whenever I feel bored, I open this page and start writing,
not because this will ever be a masterpiece, but because -
if something worthwhile comes out of my mind!
You know, I am an engineer, a scientist, an administrator -
all together, mixed and so well-mixed, that I am practically an impure variety, and I claim I am nothing.
Niels Bohr once said that an expert is he who has done all possible mistakes in a very narrow field.
This is another way of saying that he has mastered the subject.
I did not have that tenacity, and the objective reality did not allow me to stick to a certain thing for a very long time.
May be, I lacked discipline, or I had ADHD, or some other form of mind that desired diversity.
So I became something strange about which all questioned, or ridiculed.
I rolled on, as I felt, a rolling stone gathers no moss.
Moreover, you know, I was fastidious about scientific data.
I wanted rigorous experiments and rigor is missing in today's world of science and technology, particularly in Universities.
The fundamental question that I often ask is: if you do certain things, why do you do it?
If it is for your livelihood only, I have no objection.
As I have seen, most technology experiment is reinventing the wheel,
I did not like that.
I also saw that unless you beat your own chest in the high roads of science, you often get overlooked or despised or denigrated.
I also saw plagiarism; claims never matched the reality.
I did not like endless discussion, or tall talks, or smart maneuvers.
They never attracted me; they never made me passionate.
........
The world of words is different.
What I am doing now, they are all new.
These words, the sequence, the meaning, they are my sequence, my meaning, my understanding, and that understanding matters.
How do you perceive the reality?
This earth, continuously rotating with so much diversity, must make an impression upon you, in your mind.
Your meaning is yours only and no one else's.
No, do not be a copycat.
Be original.
Even if you fail by being original, you may have a little glory, although glory is not important.
Nothing is more important than your satisfaction.
Even satisfaction may be meaningless.
Creativity does not look for satisfaction, it creates.
Meaning or no meaning, just do, - not for name or fame or money or power or anything else.
Just roll on; a rolling stone gathers no moss.