Andhon ka Haathi!!!

Arent all of us trying to judge and describe 'others' as blind men trying to describe how an elephant looks like (or rather would like) to ourselves(and to the world)???

A thought just struck my mind and as always I decided to pen(read: type) it down. Neither is it self indulgent, Nor is it supposed to start a deep thinkin process towards self realization. And ya, It is too common sensical too.. I mean its too obvious that these things happen.. and hey, i am not claiming that i write 'thought provoking serious issue' type gyaan only.. and ya one more thing, For all of my yesteryear's DramSoc friends.. No, The post is also NOT about the play that we performed in 2001 at BITS pilani. ;-)

For eg. In the classic story which all of us would have read already. 5 Blind men are trying to describe how an elephant looks like. Somebody who feels the tail, describes him as a rope. The one who feels the stomach, describes him as a big Wall. And so on and so forth with other body parts and different interpretations and They keep fighting that the elephant ONLY is like the part as THEY(individually) describe him.

Well, I think over the years I (as all of us) have met 100s of people and most (depending on what stage of your lifecycle you meet them in) have formed an opinion about me. For some, I am a carefree, snobbish guy who wouldnt care a damn about anything or anybody. For some, I will always be a Happy go lucky, PJ King kinda guy who would just keep cracking jokes at every single moment possible. For some, I might be a senti idiot who will take everything to his heart and just cannot get over stuff and move on with life. For some, I was a dopey with shoulder length hair and a goatie (ya, even though i never took a drag everrr in my life, I was always asked.. Batla, you got some grass!!!). And for others (for obvious reasons) I am the biggest loser to have walked this planet EVERR.

My point is(and its very simple and straight foward), that I dont think ANY of us can be described as ONE individual trait. I mean, X is funny, Y is an Idiot, Z is a loser etc etc. Of all the people we have met (and i am not talkint about 5-6 'close' friends who know you in an out), we tend to spend very little time with them and then in that small amount of time we tend to make judgements and create our own 'images' (or perceptions) about those people. And try to fit people in those cilos. Similar to the elephant story, We try to just think about that person as what WE think, he or she is. (I am also a part of the same group and its human tendency coz obviously we its practically impossible to know EVERYBODY in detail and try to analyze each and every person, anyways).

Okay, Honestly I am not clear as to why i am writing the post or even if i HAVE a point, let alone put it across. i just believe that nobody is one trait. Every single person is complex and behaves differently according to the situation. So one can be funny, serious, senti, carefree all in a single day. What i only wish to convey is that, rather than just judging a person on what ever little that you know of. Do not make judgements. Do not fit a person in YOUR silo. Do not think of him/her as a unidimensional characteristic. Rather, if you like THAT part then try to just let it be or better still, explore more, learn more, and THEN formulate your opinion(if you have to have to formulate, that is). Just dont generally categorize people as funny, dumb, senti, carefree, careless, mature, immature, loving, not loving, rude, sweet, etc etc etc. KNOW a bit, then know some MORE, and THEN formulate your opinions.. Good, Bad, whatever that may be..