| Points: | 5 |
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How at times perceptions turn into misconceptions
Every child, when young, has perceptions of things around it. For example, I had this perception that like us humans, the Sun too wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at dusk. That the seawater and sky were actually blue. Stars twinkled and while travelling by train, distant trees and hills also travelled, albeit in the opposite direction. As we grew up, went to school and became worldly wise, we realized that these perceptions, though amusing, were all far from reality.Not just children, adults also develop perceptions. We know that wars, battles and diseases were all too frequent in the not so distant past. Modern education and industrialization gave a different dimension to the world order. Countries concentrated on economic prosperity. Wars became rare, except for a few pockets in and around the Middle East. Most of us perceived modern education would be the panacea for all ills, be it wars, diseases, racial discrimination, religious divide, poverty and so on. I too perceived the same and believed in the power of education. Sadly, even that perception has failed to pass the reality test. Even with all the education, economic progress, globalization and popular phrases like 'whole world a global village'; we are today a much divided world; divided on grounds of colour, race, religion, language, national boundaries, etc. Few years or decades back, who would have perceived that the world, including India, would be today a hotbed of religious divide, that radical forces of Taliban will one day capture a country under the very noses of not one but three super powers. Weeks back, did anyone perceive that two modern European economies would wage a war to death against each other? Or China, after a relative peace between the two countries since 1962 would wage a barbaric attack on our forces in Ladakh. Recently, the whole world was brought to its knees by a virus, no matter our astronomical progress in modern medicine. Could anyone perceive it? These and many other day-to-day experiences show how at times what we perceive does not every time come true.
Entry for the topic based TOW contest
