BY DR. ASHUTOSH APTE 

 

 

ITS AN old story. Once a man died. As per the orders of God he was asked to choose where he would like to spend his life after death? in the hell or heaven? He requested to have a glimpse of both the places ahead of deciding. God accepted his wish. He was first taken to a window of heaven where from he could visualise how the life was being spent by inmates over there. As he peeped in he could see a picture almost similar to that on earth. Everybody was busy in their daily routines but in a calm and quiet surroundings. He could not find anything attractive there. After a while he was taken to a window of the hell. As he glanced he could notice a serene beautiful surrounding. People were seen relaxing and enjoying their life without any work or tensions. Everybody seemed to be very happy and at peace with no hurry. Looking at this he decided to spend his post death life in hell and conveyed it to God. Accordingly he was transferred to hell. As he entered the hell he realised that the actual life here in hell was full of hardships. It was contrary to what he had glimpsed from the window. He had made his own decision very hastily and after glimpsing at only the outer aspect. But now it was too late to correct his mistake.

 

He had to spend his entire future in adversities for his one small mistake of getting carried away by the external display and deceptive images. He was be-fooled by the dishonest, superficial, sweet words and a deliberately portrayed false image. I distinctly remember an old television advertisement. It picturised how an apparently innocent looking, sleek, deceptively small and a harmless liquor bottle gently sneaks in a house of a happy family only to ruin the family at the end. Sweet tongued negative characters in many films are seen wrecking happy life of the hero under the veil of sweet language effectively camouflaging their sinister attitude. A spider is able to catch its prey with the help of a barely visible and innocuous looking web. Or some plants are known to attract the prey for consumption with help of an attractive colour of the flower. Many such shrewd characters are also seen surrounding us right from the childhood. New members keep on expanding the strength of this group as we grow up.

 

Their presence can be felt by the pseudo over politeness or sugar coated phraseology in a physical meeting. Even in a new age virtual interaction on an electronic media their existence can be underlined by their peculiar way of posting messages overflowing with sweet superlatives. They pretend to be your best friend or colleague till you need them the most wherein their coloured motive gets unveiled. Some of the more dangerous one’s are intelligent enough to successfully hide their untrue characteristic and keep you guessing till the end. We are surrounded with many personalities with a sweet dialect. Most of them are genuine persons. We have to learn the art of differentiating between a truly genuine and a superficial sweet dialect. It is imperative for us to identify a person intending a camouflaged deceit so as to safeguard ourselves from being deceived.