*Crows, not Harvard, can teach this* [image: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/14229/crow18.jpg] They don’t teach about *crows * at Business School, or in any management institute. *Why should they?* MBA and crows — what an absurd idea! Not if management studies are supposed to be all about imparting experienced knowledge on building a cohesive and effective *‘team’. *[image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif] Here, crows can demonstrate a thing or two about team-building and collective action sans any textbook gibberish. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] I have my friend’s first-hand experience to vouchsafe for it. He had a papaya tree in his yard, which yielded him a regular supply of the sweet and luscious fruit. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] He guarded the tree and its produce most zealously, keeping the neighbours at bay. His sharp rebuke made any kid foolish enough to venture near the ‘tree’ take flight. But this strategy failed to deter a pair of crows from building their nest and laying their eggs on his tree. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] No longer could he use his bamboo pole to pluck the papayas. What if he disturbed the eggs? He decided to wait. But hardly a week had gone by before his patience ran out. One day he picked up his pole and poked a large papaya with it. The fruit fell down without breaking its ‘crown’, but two of the eggs came tumbling after. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] He picked up the papaya and left the shattered remains of the eggs frying under the sun. By the time he took out his scooter to go to the market, the crows and their broken dreams were forgotten. But he had hardly gone beyond the boundary wall when he felt a thud on his helmet. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] He looked up to find the crow couple circling over him. They tried to peck his head, again and again. But he was not perturbed. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] Without their eggs to be hatched, he comforted himself as he drove away, the crows would soon lose interest and leave. How my friend had misjudged the birds! By the time he returned from the market, his house looked like a citadel of crows. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] At a signal from one of them (probably the aggrieved father or mother), a hundred crows descended on the poor fellow. It was all he could do to scramble his way through the horde into his house. When he sent his servant out to shoo the birds away, the latter picked up the same bamboo pole that my friend had used and shied it at the crows. [image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif] That was like waving a red flag before an agitated bull. The air reverberated with loud cawing all around —frantic, shrill, energised, explosive. But, even in the midst of this mayhem, the crows never deviated from their target — my friend. [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] [image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] [image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif][image: http://crowsauto.homestead.com/crow_animated.gif][image: http://www.freewebs.com/earthschild/crow2animated.gif] They laid virtual siege to his movement outside the house, while allowing his servant unrestricted passage.
A couple of days of such quarantine and my friend could stand it no more. He fled the house and the town at dead of night, never to return. It was a remarkable display of group motivation and joint action by the crows. But for all that, their dragnet failed to ensnare my friend in spite of massive mobilisation of *‘crow power’. * *Was it lack of killer instinct in the crows’ strategy, notwithstanding how brutally Alfred Hitchcock has portrayed them in The Birds? * Maybe they are ‘programmed’ to only peck at their target to drive home their point, and not be blinded by anger to prick their victim to death. *Live and let live.* My friend and we have a lot to learn from the crows. And maybe Harvard Business School. [image: http://www.akhilrajendra.com/images/pic-home.jpg] Sriram Savarkar © Hinduism is more a way of life than a method of worship. Dharmo Rakshati Rakshithaha If you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you. Hindus, If people slap you once, slap them twice! -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OWNER : [email protected]; [!! Sriram Savarkar ¡¡] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sriram Savarkar" group. To modify your list subscription, please send a blank email to: For posting Messages: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] Visit Group : http://groups.google.com/group/sriram-savarkar?hl=en
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