Per Spectives

    Try this : When watching something funny with your friends, do you find you find yourself laughing more than you should? Would you do the same if you were watching it alone?  

      To read or watch something thrilling can be exciting but doing the same with the climax known can be huge spoiler. In spite of this, the latter point of view can throw up some really interesting aspects in the movie that provide a different kind of different viewing experience.

          Arriving ten minutes late is not the same as arriving ten minutes early (well, obviously). But what if we hurry ourselves to arrive ten minutes early by adjusting the time to be ten minutes late?

     Imagine someone (A) gets caught at a signal for two minutes. Now B is another someone who comes just at the end of the two minutes and speeds up just in time to escape from the same state as A (two minutes ago). Now, even though A had reached first, he is a little irritated on having to stop at the signal whereas, B would be in a better frame of mind for having reached just in time.

     These are what perspectives are all about. Mostly inconspicuous yet intricate. Perspectives have an effect that impacts us at the subconscious level. They can be thought of something like 3-D glasses. They are not compulsory but provide us with an edge that enhances our interpretation of the situation. It is not like people are always late (maybe sometimes or most of the times) but adjusting the watch to be a little early can really be helpful. Perspectives can… well just read on to know more about it.

      Movies are front-runners in providing an insight into perspectives. They achieve this in two ways:

•  They furnish us with perspectives and
•  The fact that movies are made with a view to manipulate the viewer’s        taste/perspective. 

       Coming to your rescue (my rescue, rather) for this abstract concept, consider this story-line: Hero is a corrupt cop. Hero beats the hell out of the good guy (villain). Hero is immortal. Corruption wins. If the situation were reversed: Hero is a good cop. Hero beats the hell out of the bad guy (villain). Hero is immortal. Corruption loses. Analyzing this situation one can see that films manipulate our minds us to support the hero even when we realize that he is corrupt. 

   How harmful or useful can these perspectives be? Sometime they seem worthless but they can be made to be useful by utilizing them effectively. There is the classic (which translates as often used and boring) example of a glass of water which according to the pessimist is half-empty and an optimist half-full. What we are can really decide how we put things into perspective.

  Almost everyone must have found themselves under trying last minute circumstances which leads to the most abused question-‘why me? Why leave a million people and put me in this situation?’ This is from our point of view. Thinking in this manner develops kind of a negative mindset. How about this - the situation was inevitable and had to happen to someone, and that someone was me. As an example, why does there have to be no electricity when I’m doing something important? (OR) the unavailability of electricity was inevitable, and I’m just someone who has been affected because practically it is impossible for anybody not to be affected by it. Perhaps too idealistic. This does not develop a positive mindset by any means but avoids the negative one and helps us to get on with our work.

    Introspection is another aspect of perspectives. This can totally change our way of thinking with regard to dealing with others as well as ourselves. It can be thought of something as……

தொடரும்

(to be continued)

-Paul Roshan