There is this famous story in PANCHA TANTRA (The five treatise) from Ancient India. Once a group of three friends saw a Brahmin carrying a goat on his shoulders. They wanted to acquire the goat and came up with a master plan. The first friend came walking to the Brahmin - "Sir, you are carrying a pig on your shoulders". "Can't you see", dismissed the Brahmin. This is a goat I am carrying.
After a while the secondnd guy turns up in front of the Brahmin and starts laughing - "Pundit jee, how silly of you to carry a donkey on your shoulder ? ". "What ? Today it seems I am having a bad day today encountering some blind and crazy people", said the Brahmin and walked on.
No sooner he had walked a furlong than he saw the 3rd guy approaching him with an inquisitive look - "O' the pious one. How on earth a sacred brahmin like you is carrying a dirty animal like dog on his shoulder ? " The Brahmin was now scared to death. He was convinced that he is not carrying a goat but a ghost who is metamorphing into different animal forms. He threw the goat away and fled, leaving it to the mercy of the 3 amigos.
We have heard of the Odia proverb "TINI TUNDARE CHHELI KUKURA", meanin when word travels from three mouths a goat can be transformed into a dog. So true. As words gets transported from mouth to mouth they can get distorted beyond words, same when one message travels on the Social media gets transformed with its far reaching ripple effects.
The best example was a comment I saw the other day under a friend's post about the actress Sridevi's untimely tragic death. A person simply jumped into conclusion that the actress was drunk when she passed away. The forensic report circulated by media reported "traces" of alcohol found in her blood post mortem. Alcohol found in blood does not necessarily mean that a person was drunk. This is another instance of NAI NA DEKHUNU LANGALA (Becoming naked before seeing river) - meaning jumping into conclusion too fast, too furious, too soon.
There was an Amitabh's movie in the 70s (forgotten its name). Amitabh and I think Saira Banu were colleagues at work (office). They had a casual talk, followed by their colleagues talking about them which cannot be taken casually. The first person told the second one that they were seen talking. As more and more this news travelled from one person to another, more and more spice and flavor were added to it. The last person in the chain heard that they were married in a temple.
The propaganda machine in North Korea repeatedly feeds the masses that their dear leader Kim is a super human, so also were his father and grandfather. They are born with supernatural abilities and don't defecate like a normal human being should do. Many truly believe it.
Goebbels, the propaganda minister for Hitler once told lies told multiple times can be true. A few years back I took a class called "Effective Listening" at my workplace. Our group of 5 were told to stand in a line. Each one was told to whispers a sentence to the next person's ear. The message sent by the first person and received by the last had a disconnect.
Gossips do fly fast, often faster than light. We learnt in Physics that light travels faster than sound. It is not applicable to gossips, where sound travels at a lightening speed.
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