Sometimes things just happen

Sometimes things just happen. In a part of the movie Jurassic Park there is a over simplified explanation of chaos theory. A butterfly flaps its wings in Japan and a tsunami hits the coast of Peru. Such is the way in which the mathematics of chaos theory works. Small perturbations in one place has a cascading effect, totally unexpected, somewhere else. But that is how life also seems to work for many, certainly me. An evening with students at a club in Sector 5, a chance encounter with a young researcher at Kalyani University, a Zoom conversation with a colleague in Indiana, a drink of beer with a young social entrepreneur from France. In Newtown. A visit to a bondhu’s cousin’s place for a day leading to Korean chicken wings at the Club and making connections that solidify. Before you know it the things come together. And 2,600 hundred children get a small gift of cake on Christmas Day in Calcutta. The plans are made over aloo paratha and singara at D50 Mahavir Vikas. This is the kaleidoscope of connections and in the end good things happen. A business seeing a three-fold increase in revenue to vital government paperwork done because of kindness of yet another bondhu. One learns to connect the dots and new dots keep popping up. “Can you introduce me to..” A request from a bondhu. And I sit there and try to figure out how to fulfil the request. Then the dots appear. You connect and before you know it a cup of coffee is shared between people who would not have met unless the proverbial dots were found and connected. This is what we have to do. My son has remined me that networking is the name of the game. Just the other day, I was in a room with people who came from so many places, and the connective tissue was my son and me. There is a rare pleasure in seeing the fundamental human connection. One evening, not too long ago, three of us were siting together and brainstorming a book. And a fourth person showed up. Somewhat unexpectedly and I watched in awe as the connections were found, the dots were discovered. Sipping a gin and tonic at the airport, another time, a relationship develops with another person, and before you know it events are being planned. This is what makes us human. Finding the connections, nurturing them, and then seeing the magic that erupts. A coffee conversation with a bondhu when a plan of action sketched on a napkin (which the bondhu eventually lost) but etched in our minds as we develop a plan for things that only come from the power of relationships and a commitment to each other to reach the goal. All that “work,” building the connections, leads to things. And we may not even realize it, but somethings just happen. Actually some things just do not happen, we work towards making them happen. And that is vital work. In our networks we live. And thrive. And the real work is the work of building the relationships, knowing how to overlook the blemishes and celebrate the energy. We fool ourselves in believing that we did it all by ourselves, when indeed it is the invitation to the dance floor at a pub, anywhere in the World, that rekindles or births the relationships that become a part of our lives. This is what Sister Sledge meant in saying, “We are family (get up, get up y'all)/Get up everybody and sing.” On Smule.