The Idea Maker
Dena was a man of cheerful disposition. He laughed easily and lived a decent life in the town of Marina.
Everyday he woke up to the sound of birdcalls in the morning and retired soon after it was dark. In his wardrobe he kept a set of neatly pressed clothes, which he himself washed on the weekends in a nearby mountain stream.
Marina’s market place was Dena’s favorite haunt. He would find himself a place on one of the concrete benches made for the tired and busy shoppers. He would watch people buy vegetables and shop in the malls across the street. The place was always bustling with people. If anyone wanted to talk, he would join the conversation with gusto. He loved talking. He joked sometimes and laughed cheerfully. His amiable nature made him easily accessible to both the rich and the poor, who came to him for making light conversations and sometimes for his brilliant ideas.
He lived by his ideas. People came to him with problems and sought his ideas to overcome them. He would listen to a problem intently, with absolute attention. He asked questions and remained silent for long periods of time. No one disturbed him when he was working on a problem. They knew that out of the silence came an answer that would solve the problem once and for all. He had a talent for ideas and they paid him handsomely in return.
One day a man who seemed quite wealthy by appearance came up and sat beside him. Dena was reading a newspaper. The man fidgeted and did not know how to start the conversation. Dena noticed his discomfort, but continued to read, waiting for the man to make up his mind. Then the man burst out.
“Hello!! I need your help,” shouted the man, almost discourteously. Dena nodded and asked him to continue.
“I have a number of problems as I am heading a business empire – and the problems are many and diverse.”
Dena said, “Let’s take them one by one. Start with the one that you think needs immediate attention.”
“Please join my business,” said the man. “I will employ you as my personal assistant and give you all the luxuries a man could have. You certainly deserve them.”
He loved solving problems – that was his passion. Here was the man who had many problems and he could churn out ideas to solve them. He was also taken in by the promise of a life of luxury.
He agreed and the two immediately set off to the man’s place of business. It was a huge multi-storied building in one of the busiest commercial centers of the town. The man led him into a special room on the fifteenth floor. This was to be Dena’s office.
He worked hard in the office everyday, except on Sundays and special holidays. He had to report in the office punctually by 9AM; however, there was no fixed time to leave the office. He worked late often, returning to his luxurious apartments only to flop into his oversized bed and lie down like a log until morning when the alarm rudely awakened him from a troubled sleep.
He lost his cheerful nature. He became irritated easily and ideas occurred to him less frequently. The problems he was appointed to solve grew in number and complexity, but his brain seemed incapable of generating ideas. The idea-making capacity declined rapidly until he could not solve problems anymore.
Dena was often rebuked by his employer for not getting ideas, for allowing his problems to grow, for enjoying the wealth that he gave but not receiving the solutions to his mounting problems.
He grew restless. He became desperate for ideas. But the ideas have abandoned him. He looked around him and saw the oak table, the polished floors, the modern amenities in the room, the huge glass windows overlooking the town below and the far mountains. There was wealth everywhere he saw, and yet his mind was utterly poor of ideas. He became conscious of losing the ability to produce ideas, for they were coming less and less as he worked more, and now they were completely gone. He felt distraught.
He stepped out of his office, walked listlessly down the stairs, and trudged slowly into the busy street of honking cars and macadam road. He walked and walked until he came to a bus station. He boarded a bus that took him to a small town where nobody knew him. He ate in a roadside restaurant and checked into a small hotel to rest.
The next day he woke up early and went to a nearby market place. He had slept well last night and had woken up when a cuckoo bird cooed softly on a tree near his room.
The market was noisy and bustling with people like market places all over the world. He sat on a bench and watched people milling about, window-shopping, buying things. A man came and sat beside him. The man had bought a few things in the market and probably wished to rest a while.
The man started to talk and Dena joined the conversation. As they talked the man felt his cheerful nature and camaraderie. He related a problem that had been bothering him for a few days. Dena became thoughtful and silent. The man waited, not knowing what to do. Then an idea zoomed into Dena’s head. He casually told the man what he could do to solve his problem. The man thanked him and left, wondering if it would really work, but nevertheless decided to give it a try.
The next day he woke up early in the morning again to a birdcall. He got up humming a cheerful tune and looked eagerly to face the new day. He was getting ready to go to the market place when the phone rang. It was from the hotel reception. There was a man waiting in the lobby to see him. He dressed quickly and took the stairs to the lobby area.
As he glided down the stairs he saw that the man waiting for him was the same man who met him yesterday in the market place. The man looked very pleased. He held a large bouquet of flowers in his hand and a big box in gift-wrap. There were a couple of other people behind the man who seemed to be working for him.
Dena froze in mid-flight of stairs. He turned and rushed back to his room. He called the concierge and paid up his hotel dues. Picking up his belongings, he slunk out of the hotel through a backdoor.
Last Updated: March 3, 2006
