Thursday, April 24, 2008

Mind Trading

In B-schools, you are asked to wear others' shoes, esp. when you are analyzing case studies. In Edward De Bono's lateral thinking, you are required to wear different hats. I am sure, most of us would be receivers of "Can't you sympathize with that poor fella?", "Why don't you empathize with me?!", "Think from my perspective." Hope all of these would help in better understanding of people and the situation.

8 PM, last Wednesday. The dinner plan with my friend didn't materialize, my bike got punctured and the auto-walas in front of the Bangalore Central asked insane money for a 5 km journey. Decided to experiment something - Walk till Trinity Circle, explore people and places on the way & travel in the local crowded bus. Quite an interesting experience it was!

Walkers, Riders, Pillion-Riders, Sleepers, Road-Side Enterprises - the aggressive entrepreneurs and its loyal customers, Beggars, Traffic Police, Poojaris, Auto-walas... I told myself "Let me play the Mind-Trading-Game" - When I see a random person in the road, try to think of what might be running behind his mind - his joys, worries, concerns, ambitions, objectives etc in life. Most people seem to be lost in thought. I guess they don't even realize they are walking in M.G.Road or crossing the ING building. But apart from the usual ones, there are lots of interesting observations!

Next time, dont tell you are bored when you have to travel all-alone or when you have nothing-to-do at home. Just take a walk and start noticing people around! It's interesting & fun!!

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