Wordmasters?

The following is my entry to a creative writing competition called “Wordmasters” organized by Google across 10 cities in India on 30th September 2006. The rules were simple. Contestants were given two topics to choose from and for each topic, a list of 20 words were given which must appear somewhere in the writing, without any kind of alteration. Those words are highlighted in the text below. And yes, one can not exceed the 200 word limit and the whole exercise has to be finished in an hour. The topics given were “Angry? Who me?” and “Innovations”. I wrote on “Innovations”.

It's a different matter that Google didn't like my "Innovation". Probably it was "Beyond Goooooogle's comprehension". :) Nevertheless, here it goes.

I’m a prisoner of my own thinking hat. Ditched by own imagination. Blinded by my own observation. I am trying to create ideas that haven’t yet entered the cranial confines of the human brain.

I conjure up weird images. Of absurd devices and some impossible experiment. I compete with myself. The multi-coloured jelly-like thoughts turn in a blur inside my head. But still, no luck.

I analyze. Do people who innovate think out of the box? It’s strange, because all my thinking devices are placed inside my spherical box of bones. What reaches my inquisitive neurons is filtered by own ability to imagine. Can I transcend myself?

I give up. I feel drained. As if someone has sucked out all my energy. But wait! My horse sense has just taken over. Has anyone really ever innovated? It either struck them out of the blue or they did what everyone knew would be done one day. Can someone really innovate? Something that is so far uncaptured by thoughts, unfettered by imagination? Something beyond what humans already know? No, I don’t think so.

Eureka! I just got a new direction. Innovations are not about thinking what you don’t know. The phenomena are about knowing what you think. That’s practical.