Cluttered Desk

March 3rd is celebrated as the founder’s day at all TATA concerns and is no different at IISc. On that day, the TATA premier visits IISc and also participates in the IISc council meeting that decides on the list of students who are to be conferred the Doctorate degree, in addition to many items on the agenda.
The TATA premier also makes it a point to visit one or two of the departments and learn about the latest research that is taking place there. It was the turn of my department that year, to be blessed by Tata’s visit. These are not announced earlier and are chosen on the fly by Tata himself. I was in the last year of my research and was in the process of writing my thesis. I was off for lunch and had left some unfinished work on the desk hoping that I will be back in an hour and would resume work.
During my absence, i.e., during the lunch hour Tata paid a visit to our department. After having a look at the experimental labs he asked for visiting the research students’ work area. When he came over to that place, he observed that many of the desks had no books or research material on them and that one of them was unusually cluttered. He enquired about the number of active research students and found to his dismay that there were more than one in the finishing stages.
Looking at the cluttered desk he commented saying that that particular student was very organized in the brain and could multitask with ease. He also told the others around that a clean desk only proves that the person is doing research like an office job – 9 to 5 and not fully involved in it. He further expounded on the cluttered desk and said that one could pick any paper from the desk and pose a question and that the particular student would probably provide explanation instantaneously. He also mentioned that it would be possible for only those who are very systematic in their thought process.
He left the department and went over to the next one. I just returned from lunch and there was all praise showered on me by the Head of office staff who accompanied the other professors when Tata visited our place. I sought further explanation for the praise and she explained to me all that Tata said while looking at my desk.
After this incident, I really don’t take it an insult when someone tells me that my desk is cluttered!!!