Monday, August 17, 2009

Seeing is Deceiving


We believe what we see, and generally we are very sure, what we have seen can’t be wrong. Mostly we live life driven by this tenet. First impression plays gargantuan role in our life.

We shop based on first impression, we make friends based on first impression, we pick job based on first impression, we fall in love based on first impression and I’m sure it applies far deeper in our life.

While shopping based on first impression may have negligible impact on our life, other decision based on it could alter our life enormously.

You might have heard instances of Evening wedding Morning divorce around. If you ask the parties involved, they’d say they could’ve taken more time to decide.

I read this story somewhere..

The children on bus hated him because his face looked horrifying as if burnt in fire. They took no time to give him a new name..Villain. Nobody talked to him and the journey continued in darkness. It was 1130 pm and the bus stopped with a screeching sound. The tire was gone. The driver pulled out the tire and lifted by the passing bus to the reach a garage. Everyone was stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was scary being at the centre of the desert with no populace in the radius of 40 miles. It was dead silence and any uncalled for event could not be ruled out. All were shaken. A passenger talked about the robbery in this area last week that manifolded the fear.

The man with burnt face stood up and waved at a kid. The child moved ahead hesitatingly. He started sharing a story. Gradually more kids joined in. They were cracking jokes, and shouting poems. Soon the parents also got involved. Misery turned into instant celebration.

Later, the passengers realized that he was a firefighter, who got hurt while saving people from sky scrapper on fire. Despite injury and deep burn on his face, he was able to save 7 lives.

Now, the same man turned hero to the kids.

Take time to understand before you reach a conclusion. Seeing may prove deceiving, at times.

Count the Stars

Last night, fed up with air-conditioned environment, I decided to breathe some hot air (Remember! I’m in Kuwait) and rushed to the balcony. I closed my eyes and loved the smooth warm blow on my face. It felt better than the recycled AC air. Then, I looked up at the sky and realized I had stopped noticing the stars up there. So, I started counting the stars. It was fun, but not easy. Before I could complete the count a few would disappear or new ones showed up.

I kept trying for 30 minutes and thoroughly loved it. This reminded me of childhood days when my kid brother and I would lie on the cot in the courtyard and counted the stars. Our count never matched and we squabbled to prove ourselves right. We even fought and finally it ended up with recounting.

Our life is so mechanized that small acts like these make us feel so happy and different. You too can try this out.

I guess it was much better than toggling keys on computer games. It was far so different, yet simple.