From Jugaad to Connector - Moments of Realization

It was after coming to IIT that I started hearing this term - Jugaad, more often. Loosely it means to make arrangements for some thing to be done/obtained. And very rightly Indians have been an expert in Jugaad for several years and extrapolating a bit further, the current lot of students. This will include me too, as I know myself that I am no exception. Some times this makes me wonder whether we should be ashamed of this or take pride in the fact that we can make arrangements for anything within such a short time. And in the process of Jugaad you learn that unmistakeable Indian value of co-operation amongst strangers.

It was by some fortuitous circumstances I bumped into this article. The article talks about connectors- people who can arrange for things to happen without even looking for reward from that activity. I know for sure that with my current set of contacts this is one profession where I am excelling currently. The only drawback that my close ones may find with this is that, it is never remunerative and can often act as a sink for hard earned money. I have always wanted to be extra careful of not being typecast as a connector but always end up as one. It was this reality that made me write this blog.

Exploring further, the article describes connector as one possessing 

" Traits such as energy, insatiable curiosity and a willingness to take chances "

 I am not fully sure on the energy part, but I do agree that I do have an insatiable curiosity on almost everything under the sun and the foolishness of taking chances whenever they present in front of me. I do share fair amount of critics and well wishers for these qualities of mine. The only major difference that I see, in recent times, from the article's definition is that I connect for people whom I know more often than for strangers. So is doing Jugaad different from being a Connector? Or within the Indian context can we interchangeably use the both? I do not have specific answers for these questions and I think I am in that process of finding out the answer myself.