Perspectives.

How often do you find yourself in a situation like this?
“I wish he was more tolerant….”

"I hope my boss will understand my needs this time…"
“Why can’t she appreciate my sense of space?”

Misunderstandings, lack of trust, feeble faith. Is it so? Are these really the root cause for such situations?


I remember a famous parable that I had read in my school days. It said that each one of us carries a long stick. This stick rests on our shoulders throughout our lives, such that we can see the front end of the stick. The stick has two bags, one attached to either end. These bags are called the bags of faults. They are called so, since they contain faults. But the most interesting part about these bags is which of them carries what. The bag in front of us always carries other’s faults. The bag behind us contains our own faults.


How confidently we arrive at the conclusion that it’s always got to do with the other person. In fact, we are almost un-aware that a different vision of it can exist. That we could only be staring at our own insecurities. There is an alternative to this situation. Look at yourself from a third person’s eye. Get out of that comfortable body where you are sitting smugly, blaming the world for all that is happening. Look at yourself. Look at others. Reflect back on yourself. On your behaviour. And then judge the situation. Think whether your actions were justified. For you can choose your actions, but not their consequences.

As someone rightly suggested once, “You can’t clap with one hand…”