Free Fall

The capacity to let go is rare as most humans seek security. But to stand still is to risk even more - it is to risk being overtaken by change. It is to risk being ‘dragged, an unwilling victim to be sacrificed on the altar of technology’ as Jawaharlal Nehru feared.

Free fall is like bungee jumping. You let go without knowing definitely what will happen. Creative ideas are a kind of free fall. You generate ideas that have never been suggested or heard before. You risk the contempt of your peers; their jeers and laughter.

There is the old story of Columbus, who discovered America. When he returned his friends said, ‘Anyone could have done it. You just kept sailing West till you found America. We too could have done it.’ Columbus brought out an egg and said ‘Make it stand up straight’. No one could do it. They said ‘It can’t be done’. Columbus tapped the egg lightly on the table, so that it cracked slightly to form a stable surface and then made it stand. Everyone said ‘That is cheating. You can’t break the egg.’ Columbus said, ‘Who said you can’t break the egg. You are imagining limitations and boundaries that are not there. Then you are saying it can’t be done. That is why you could not have discovered America’.