What meets the eye...., need not be true...

What meets the eye, may not be true, well, most of the time. I read a story recently in a whatsapp message (sent by my close friend). A cruise ship was about to sink after an accident in the sea. There was space for only one in the life-boat. The requirement was for two (a husband & wife). In the split second they had, to decide, the husband jumped on to the life-boat, leaving his wife to sink with the cruise ship. Now, what is our conclusion? Is the man selfish, to abandon his wife? Or was there any hidden reason, known only to the two of them? Yes, that is right! Before they embarked on the journey, the wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness (she just had a few days of survival) and hence they wanted to spend the few days together happily on the sea journey. They had a very young daughter back home. She had to be brought up and that responsibility was already on the man.

What met our eyes is deceptive. On the surface, the man must have looked to be a selfish, irresponsible man, undeserving of being a human being. But the fact is different, the man being very responsible (having the responsibility of bringing up his daughter). Most of the time, we tend to jump to conclusions without understanding the hidden truth. 

Invariably, we tend to come to conclusions based on what we see or hear. These days we see a lot of fake messages in the media (all forms). We should never just believe just by seeing or hearing them. Unfortunately, on several occasions our conclusions would turn out to be incorrect. There is a saying, 'what we see with our eyes is wrong; what we hear is also wrong; but the truth is known only when we thoroughly study the case'. So we should refrain from taking a stand just by seeing or hearing, superficially.

I wish to cite another example to explain this. A surgeon was urgently summoned to perform an emergency operation on the son of a very rich and powerful man. It took some time for the doctor to arrive at the hospital to perform the operation. The father was very disturbed and impatient and shouted at the doctor, as to why he was late to come. The doctor did not stop to explain but entered the operation theater to perform the urgent surgery. An hour later the doctor came out, changed to his civilian dress and was about to depart. Before he was about to leave, he told the father that his son is saved and he can see him soon. The father yelled at the surgeon and asked why he was so arrogant that he could not stay for a few minutes and explain. The doctor told him to get the details from the nurse and swiftly left the hospital. The nurse explained that the doctor's son expired in an accident and the doctor was attending to his son's funeral, when he was summoned to perform the operation. Now he has rushed back to participate in the rest of the funeral function.

Some very rich people (having a philanthropic bent of mind) travel casually in economy class, but certain crooks (who travel in other's money) travel first class. A man having sufficient bank balance will travel in a two wheeler, whereas a guy who has a big debt burden, will travel by car. This is how the world is! We should never ever jump to conclusions without knowing the full facts. A book's cover may be attractive but the contents may not be worth reading. And vice versa is also true. So, never judge a book by it's cover.