A Busy Person
How do you define a busy person? I asked this question to several persons. The replies I received were so varied and amusing
"A busy person is the one who keeps oneself engaged in something or the other all the time", said one person. May be at first reading it would appeal as close to the real meaning. A critical analysis of it later would not impress at all. Supposing a person has several things to attend to and does not know from where to start and likely to mess up a few or most of the things will also be busy all the time. Such a person also falls into the meaning of the definition. Would it not be more appropriate to call such person a ‘confused one’ rather than a busy one?
A more senior person who looked knowledgeable said "a busy person is the one who finds time for everything". Very funny! If one could find time for every thing, one must be having a lot of spare time. Then how do we justify calling such a person busy? This question was countered by another question. ''how else could one become busy if one could not find time for more and more things?" To me it sounded a bit perverted. I was utterly confused. I took some time and went into more thinking and realized that there was some sense in it. And some non-sense too.
Still not satisfied, I continued with my efforts to find a suitable definition. I came across a worker in my factory. Going by the widely accepted norms of classifying 'well learned' and 'less learned' persons, this man belonged to the latter classification. (A factory worker in comparison with a Professor or a Lawyer). Though I did not expect a great discourse from him on the subject, I felt that the conversation could be interesting. And I was not disappointed. When I asked him, he just stared at me for a moment, never looked embarrassed to have been asked such a complicated (in my view!) question and gave a confident smile. It was his turn to ask me a question.
'"Sir, do you know what this machine is", pointing to an Air Compressor, he asked. It sounded silly to me. I didn't show it, but. Since I was familiar with all the machines in my factory, I said ‘’yes, it is an Air Compressor, but what is the connection?" I demanded.
"Sir" he went on to describe the entire machine "this is the motor which runs the compressor. The compressor pushes the air in into this tank which stores the air in it to the extent it can take. And this is the devise which stops the motor when the storage tank is full to its capacity at a certain level of pressure. It starts the motor when the storage tank does not have enough air (or pressure) in it. And Sir, this is the out-let valve which regulates the release of air with the required volume and pressure, as and when needed". He continued with his narration of the functions of each part of the machine. I did not interfere.
"Sir, this is a machine which keeps taking the pressure in, knows how much to take, when to say 'enough' or when to say 'more' and knows when and how much to discharge. More importantly, even when there is tremendous pressure inside, it does not show it to the outside world, keeps its cool all the time. All these things work properly when the entire system is well organized. If any one of these functions fail, the whole system collapses. I guess, a busy person is one who matches this machine in all its characteristics.”
I was stunned with his extraordinary imagination. The so called 'less learned' man had made me learn a thing. In the bargain I had found a perfect definition that I was looking for. Did you?
