Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers

  INTRODUCTION There is an age-old belief that Talent is inborn, i.e., it is genetically inherited, or God gifted. However, since the mid-1800s, this belief has been questioned, sporadically, in various academic conversations. Such conversations intensified over the past couple of decades, peaking during the four years between 2006 and 2009. During those four years, distinguished scientists and best-selling authors published valuable contributions on this subject.   As it happens, all of them take the same view, which is a contrarian view. They debunk the age-old popular notion that 'Talent is innate'. Instead, based on their case studies, they argue in favor of the contrarian hypothesis that 'Talent is not innate. It is developed'. They contend that it is developed through hard work providing certain constituents are present. In what follows, in the first part of the article, I cite two representative case studies out of the many case studies done by those scient

  Figure 1 Sibdas Chakrabarti making a presentation at Bengal  Engineering and Science University - 10 Nov 2009 I met Sibdas Chakrabarti OBE, for the first time, on 10 November 2009. That evening he made a presentation at the civil engineering department of Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), which is located at Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal Figure 1 . An alumnus of BESU, Sibdas had moved permanently to England in the 1960s. In November 2009, he was visiting his family in Kolkata and taking advantage of that visit he had prescheduled the presentation at his alma matter that evening.   As it happened that same evening, another person, also visiting from England, was invited to make a presentation at the same civil engineering department. This person was Dr Graham Owens, President of the Institution of Structural Engineers. The two events clashed. I was then a council member and the country representative of the Institution. At Graham’s request, I tried to and did resolve th

Figure 1 The library of the Institution of Civil Engineers - I sat here for  my membership qualifying examination in 1970 - photo by my wife Kalpana Sen, 2014 Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1970, I sat for the membership qualifying examination of the Institution of Civil Engineers London. I sat in the library of the Institution, at this table, and on this chair. Since then, the Institution will have refurbished the furniture. But this is where I sat and took my examination Figure 1 . On that occasion, I was the only candidate for the membership qualifying examination. I sat in one of the corners of the vast library. Aside from me, there were a couple of women who worked there. I could not see them but could only hear their infrequent whispers, and the silence suited me fine.   Having earned my PhD in structural engineering at Imperial College London, the previous year, I had fulfilled the educational base requirements for membership. (Then the Institution did not recognise my unde