Perspective & Paradigm Shift and a touch of humour

 

Some of you would remember the 'paradigm shift' story about a man in the train being troubled by the kids of another man who is doing nothing to discipline them. The man (being disturbed) is irritated and thinking ill about the father (irresponsible, unconcerned, no civic sense, no common sense, bad father and so on ). When this man comes to know that the 'father and kids' have just lost their mother and they are probably returning from the last rites; his outlook suddenly changes. His feelings and thoughts about this person take a u-turn and he is filled with compassion and not anger/irritation.

We might have experienced something similar in our lives. Think about it.

Another thing is our perspective that stems out of our way of life or often by our career and job profile. A housewife, a software engineer and a saree shop owner … all watching a typical daily soap on TV … each of them will see the same thing BUT notice a different thing … the housewife will notice the jewellery of the actresses, the software engineer will comment on the computers shown in the serial never being connected / never having wires around and the saree shop owner sees nothing but sarees. It happens to us too. We begin to look and perceive the world as we do it in our jobs. A new lens, a new filter gets added to our already clouded perceptions.  

Here is a small parable which brings in the aspect of the 'paradigm shift' as well as 'perspective' with a touch of humour !

A clergyman, a doctor and a business consultant were playing golf together one day and were waiting for a particularly slow group ahead. The business consultant exclaimed, "What's with these people? We've been waiting over half and hour! It's a complete disgrace."

The doctor agreed, "They're hopeless, I've never seen such a rabble on a golf course." The clergyman spotted the approaching greenkeeper and asked him what was going on, "What's happening with that group ahead of us? They're surely too slow and useless to be playing, aren't they?"

The greenkeeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind fire-fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The three golfers fell silent for a moment.
The clergyman said, "Oh dear, that's so sad. I shall say some special prayers for them tonight."

The doctor added, rather meekly, "That's a good thought. I'll get in touch with an ophthalmic surgeon friend of mine to see if there's anything that can be done for them."

After pondering the situation for a few seconds, the business consultant turned to the greenkeeper and asked,
"Why can't they play at night?"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mumbai Local - First Class v/s Second Class

Image
    It is an old joke that the difference in the first class and second class of the Mumbai local trains is that people in first class use deodorants and hence you are exempted from the smelly underarms while travelling. The mute point being; both class of travel experience a passenger overload during the peak hours and you are almost equally squeezed and pushed around in both. Of course, the seats in First Class are cushioned (unlike the hard seats of second class) but then that would make a difference only if you get to sit (which would be a likely probability only if you get into the train from the station it originates). My father holds a first class pass from Churchgate to Andheri (since past 7 years, ever since we moved to Andheri). He often travels by Second class in the evening. Strange, isn't it? This is why he does it … In the First class, there is an unwritten rule that on the seat, only the designated number of people (which is 3) will sit. No sq
Read more

Tongue Twister - V for Vendetta

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." - V for Vendetta
Read more