Creativity in Everyday Life
Aug 09, 2019
A
talk on “Creativity in everyday life” by Dr. Vinod Balakrishnan, Professor in
English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National
Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, was conducted as part of ECH-Awareness Series1 at the Bharathidasan University by Bharathidasan
University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH).
Dr. Vinod Balakrishnan in his talk explained to students the relevance of
creativity in entrepreneurship. Treading a path different from the conventional
style of lectures, Professor Vinod Balakrishnan explained his ideas to the
students using four stories of successful people and their behavior from the
famous book “The Element” by Ken Robinson, a renowned American educationist. He
talked about four epiphanies through the four stories, the epiphanies being the
importance of having belief in and communication of a creative idea that one
has mentorship, ‘synergy’ to create huge results from small efforts and having
the passion to achieve one’s goals. The first story
Dr. Vinod cited was that of a girl who tried to draw a picture of God despite
discouragement from all sides, demonstrating the qualities of optimism and
confidence about one’s own creative idea and the need to communicate it. Then he
narrated the story of Gillian Linn who was asked by her teacher to withdraw
herself from regular school because she was hyperactive but at the insistence
of her mother and psychiatrist joined Dance school and went on to become a
dance legend. The story demonstrated the importance of a mentor figure in one's
journey to success.
The
third story was that of Matt Groening who used his free time to
doodle and went on to become a world famous cartoonist by creating the cartoon
strip ‘Simpsons’, personifying the spirit of ‘synergy’ of achieving big through
small but consistent efforts. In the last story, he told about Paul Samuelson,
who using his passion for mathematics created mathematical models for economics
and went on to win the Nobel prize. Dr. Vinod used this story to underline the
importance of personal passion and natural aptitude to achieve one’s goals. He
asked the students to find a career in which they can ‘be in their element’
having both natural aptitude and personal passion for that.
Bharathidasan
University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH)has been created
to integrate the idea of Innovative Entrepreneurship in the curriculum in
teaching and research as well as to create a spirit of Innovative
Entrepreneurship among the students. To further this objective, the BECH will
conduct programmes by eminent people who have established themselves in their
field of teaching and research at the global level, motivating students and
scholars to be innovative in thinking and to become entrepreneurs in the
future. The thrust is to empower students’ community to meet social needs with
innovative solutions.
Prof. M. Ravichandran, Director i/c,
Bharathidasan University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH) of
welcomed the gathering and Dr. N. Prasanna, Dy. Director i/c, Bharathidasan
University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH) proposed the vote
of thanks. The talk was attended by a great number of students and faculty from
various departments of the university.
