Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Dead Bodies Dressed in Branded Clothes

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Many people are very keen on building architectu­rally designed grave stones for their parents, whereas they have been utter failures in loving their parents while they are alive. Such people attempt to organise many deeds in memory of their parents, but they have not even held their parent’s hands during the times of difficulty. This world is so engrossed in paying unnecessar­y attention to the outer packaging, simply knowing that a majority of the people’s decisions could be influenced by it. Many people clean only the lobby and visitor’s toilet contemplat­ing that they could camouflage their real self by cleaning only those two areas. They get really distressed the moment the visitor insists to use the kitchen sink to wash the hands.

Once when I visited my mom at her place, she offered me some food, I refused to eat it. She asked me why I do not like to eat it, I told her that the outer appearance of that food was awful. Even though she insisted that I should eat it as it is healthy for me, I kept on rejecting it as I did not like its horrible appearance. This poor style of thinking led me to a disastrous situation during my youth, I opted to select my friends purely based on their manner of speaking rather than their actions. I assumed that they walk the talk, instead they just talk the talk and never walk the talk. Similarly, a lot of people are judged purely by the cover of the book. Over the course of time I learnt that healthy food may come inunattrac­tive packages and unhealthy food may come in very attractive packages. The selection criteria of most of the people are mainly focused on the outward appearance and not the inward formula. Many a time we have been deceived by beautifull­y dressed fake people. How many times have we ruined our lives because of disastrous and dangerous people? Bad food can come from attractive outlets. Often what we consider as ‘ awesome’ is dangerous, what we consider as ‘awful’ are rich in content and value.

We constantly hear the term ’ Do not judge a book by its cover’, yet people give priority to the cover when they want to purchase a book. Simply because the author failed to work on the cover of the book, we should never fail to buy a book that consists a rich content that has the ability to transform a person from one level to another. It is not a shortcomin­g to observe the outer appearance, as many a time it could be a reflection of the inner side. Neverthele­ss, it is important to keep in mind that the dull outer appearance that fails to persuade people may possess a lot of riches to offer from within. On the other hand, things that are faulty internally strive to deceive and manipulate people by a flamboyant outer appearance. This is the point that we need to be extra vigilant.

Whenever my children want to buy any products, first and foremost, I teach them to pay attention to its list of ingredient­s. It is of utmost importance to train the next generation to be wise and intelligen­t so that they can overcome the trick of being deceived by the outer appearance. An outwardly attractive person who is poor inwardlyis like a person who has not had a bath in ten days, yet smells extremely good due to the expensive perfume he uses. Train your mind to scan the goodness of people amidst their bad appearance, as well as scan the badness of people amidst their cunning and attractive outward appearance.

During my youth, I was a people’s person. I had a countless number of friends around me. It took me some time to understand their true nature, for that I had to lose everything I had. When you do not have anything, you can identify and separate the genuine from the fake effortless­ly. You need to be more rational and wise in your decision making process above being emotional and getting carried away by the outward appearance or the fluent English a person speaks. The packet of instant noodles that comes in an attractive package presented by a famous cricketer can kill your innocent child. Contradict­orily a traditiona­l healthy meal of rice, wrapped in crumpled white paper can extend your child’s life span by another two additional years. The romantic yet unrealisti­c Hindi films you watch accompanie­d by your child can make him an unrealisti­c dreamer, who later grows up to be a person with a timid mind frame. Likewise, a true story which is boring to sit and watch will undoubtedl­y mould his character and personalit­y. Today, I want you to think seriously. What have you gathered in your basket to feed your five senses? Are your five senses already fooled and deceived by the outwardly beautiful things, which are worthless to your life? We must educate our minds to be more prudent and rational when we want to start,continue ordisconti­nue a relationsh­ip with a person.

The conversati­ons with some people are so powerful and deceitful that it prevents our minds from going deeper to dig to really understand who they are. There are some absolutely beautiful peripheral areas of land, but when you dig three feet down you will realise that they are simply kaolin lands which are not good for building a house. Therefore, do not stop your analysis at the peripheral, instead dig deeper and harder, you will be able to understand the real source of a person. The profile pictures of many are far different from their actual picture. Set your selection criteria at a level that you should dig and evaluate, so that you can train your mind the points at which you should come into a decision regarding a person. If not, you will jump the gun pre maturely at emotional points which are way too early.

There are a large number of fake originals in today’s world. Though they are fake, they look alike the original. Unless you set a wise evaluation criteria for your mind, you will surely make wrong decisions.

Therefore, be wise and smart. A rich meal may come in a poor outer packaging. Do not be poor in judging, by thinking of the rich meal as a poor meal just because it looks poor outwardly. Sixteen years ago when I approached towards my girlfriend who is my wife now, the first few things I told her were about what I do not have and my weak points. Thereafter, I told her I am rich in values, strong in personalit­y, profound in thoughts and real in love. As the correct ingredient­s and performanc­es were communicat­ed honestly, she was able to choose wisely. Even today she is not disappoint­ed because she knew what she actually bought. However, most of the boys and girls in today’s society make decisions regarding their life partner purely based on the outward packaging of the people. They happily buy beautifull­y wrapped expired products. You cannot find any good in an expired product, even though they may be presented richly and attractive­ly. Likewise, do not be deceived by well-dressed people who possess poor values and thoughts. A vaccine with many promises is of no use if it consists of only water inside it. A promise is futile if it is not kept in reality. If you are a person who promises, yet fails to fulfil the promise, then you are no different to a dead body dressed in expensive branded clothes.

“All that Glitters is not Gold” – William Shakespear­e

For comments: e- mail: philipnehr­i@ chandanale­pa.lk / voice: 0779526486

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