I am a Harry Potter Fan!!

More than that, I am a JK Rowling Fan :-)

The day we got a copy of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, I was only curious. Just curious that what was all these hype about a Children’s comic book. I got it from a friend in my Engineering College Hostel. The reading turned out to be a worst experience when the book was stolen from our Room. Since we had to buy a new copy and return it to the owner, truly, I regretted for not buying that book on my own.

The first regret was about the loss of money occurred in the overall transaction. Still, it remained just an amusing piece of Children’s literature till I read its first sequel. I fell head over heels for it by then. The consistency in the terms followed and characters involved, even while maintaining the beauty of the subject… Why the hell I couldn’t ever remember the functional difference between an npn transistor and pnp transistor, even though I could tell the difference between a “expelliarmus” and a “Avada Kedavra”…

Bridging the gap

It was amusing for my 8-year old cousins, why would any elder person take interest in Quiddich and Quills and Spells? They considered it as their realm, a complete space created for their imaginations to wander around. They couldn’t imagine why anyone above school age would want to break into that territory. I had to give them some possible explanation, other than the silly Excuse, “I like Harry Potter”. They were not of the age to whom I could escape using the “complex intricacies occurring due to the collision of ideas and the interaction originating from that” (That was supposed to be stupid!!).

While raking my brain with an answer, I found it out. What is the difference between the interaction of Harry Potter and a kid, against the interaction of Harry Potter with an adult? Though the answer was to escape from my cousins, I know its a true fact. The kids read him as a fancy story topped with the moral, “In the battle with the good and evil, the good always win”.

What is it for the grown up people? – May be what Paulo Coelho does with his inspirational stories, JK Rowling does the same thing (or a little less) with a chocolate icing of fantasies whipped in the cream of adventure.

When Paulo Coelho says , “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”, Harry Potter demonstrates it with the way his friends stand firmly with him, with the way help coming to him through unknown ways, to fight the “worst” evil in the wizarding world. He never brags over his victory. He considers all of them as the interference of “luck”, or “coincidence”. If you are a Paulo Coelho fan, read this “luck / coincidence” as “conspiracy of the universe”. :-)
Paulo Coelho says, “If you can, try to make your own decisions”. Harry Potter does it, by executing the mission of Dumbledore, in such a confidential manner which finally enables him to get rid of the “evil” Voldemort.

Life lessons like these apart, I am amazed while Harry starts managing situations. Its just like how we manage a project in our everyday work. It is not about Harry alone. Each executed plan, is well-analyzed, with flaws identified and corrected. Each life-and-death situation happens to be part of a well-designed plan. Also, there are moments when the only possible way out is intuition.
Risk Handling and The power of Knowledge

As I see in my everyday project manager life that “Success of a project is never individual Heroism”, Harry’s mentors knew it better.
Harry is spontaneous in his decisions. He doesn’t hesitate to jump into any danger, if he feels that someone needs his help. Till the end, what decelerates this spontaneity and the risks associated with it, is the Knowledge of Hermione Granger, the studious of the lot. She takes risks , but only after planning it or studying it systematically so that they can see it through the end.

In the climax of the final Book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, Harry actually puts this question in front of his Headmaster-cum-mentor, Dumbledore. See the conversation:

“Why did you have to make it so difficult?”
Dumbledore’s smile was tremulous.
“I am afraid I counted on Miss Granger to slow you up, Harry. I was afraid that your hot head might dominate your good heart. I was scared that, if presented outright with the facts about those tempting objects, you might seize the Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. If you laid hands on them, I wanted you to possess them safely.”

Did you see any trace of project management there? :-)

If yes, my sleepless hours after work is not wasted :-)