I suffer a disability of cognition. I cannot remember directions. In past when I commuted in city buses, I spent many frustrating moments on a road trying to figure out the direction of the place I was heading to. Bus number 72 plied in both the directions. I would often board the wrong bus and learn the error only when the bus halted at its last stop. Today, if a traffic jam or any obstacle forces me to take a new route, I cannot reach home without getting lost in the maze of crisscrossing streets. Recently, on a foggy winter day, I was forced on to an unfamiliar street as I pulled my cycle with a  punctured tyre. The new route might be shorter, I reasoned. A right turn here and a left there and I was lost. I spotted a lonely walker and stopped him to ask the way to my apartment. He seemed dazed and stared hard at me for a few seconds, as if I had asked him the solution to the Fermat’s Last Theorem. He repeated the name of my apartment building slowly. Had he heard me correctly? I

The Moon and Sixpence – W. Somerset Maugham The Mind of an Artist Genius is defined as a very great ability or skill in a particular subject or activity. It is tempting to speculate that a talent that is exceedingly rare must be inborn. This lends an ethereal remoteness to the facility and enhances its appeal. An ability that can be improved by diligence appears too worldly to be called extraordinary. A closer look at the acclaimed geniuses reveals the truth of the cliched adage that genius is more hard work, i.e., perspiration, and only a little gift, i.e., inspiration. Michaelangelo, Newton, Beethoven and innumerable others, all undisputed prodigies in their fields, practiced their metier for decades to sharpen their skills. World saw the finished goods and marvelled at the unworldly nature of its beauty. Word genius immediately conjures image of Einstein in our minds. His theory of General Relativity is celebrated as one of the most elegant conceptions in modern science. Ein