Tag Archives: Bias

Aren’t you one?

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An incident occurred in a friend’s office lately,

It was a Friday,

People were asked to come dressed in traditional attire,

Happily, he took out a pathani suit,

Thinking how handsome he would appear to the world,

And there he was,

All decked up,

Feeling confident about the kind of persona he exuded,

Then came a reality check,

“Aren’t you joining us for the Friday prayers (namaaz)?”-asked a group of colleagues who were passing by on their way to a mosque for the Friday prayers.

“I think there is some confusion. I am a Hindu and I don’t know how to read namaaz“-he smiled back with utmost humility.

He understood that his attire was being mistaken as a form of religious identity.

How many times, it might have happened,

That we have preconceived notions about the people,

Be it on the basis of attire,

or

Be it the manner in which one speaks,

Our mind somehow tends to refuse to grow beyond these very biases and prejudices,

Which can have major consequences,

Of course, on this occasion, though,

It was taken in good regard by both the parties involved,

Yet,

I wonder, would it have been the same if the situation was not cordial,

What if, one were in the midst of riots,

Would it have got the same kind of response?

Humanity, being the core of what we all are,

I guess, it’s high time one tries to think over and above the notions,

Which seem to have found a place deep inside the very manner in which we think.

Source for the Image: https://twitter.com/samiriqbal_/status/1446445433547526152

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Believe it or not!

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What do you do when you meet friends?

Chit-chat,

Get involved in some fun activities,

Discuss cardinal issues of life 🙂

And at times,

You tend to delve into discussing

Perceptions

and

Belief systems

Realizing that we all come from

Different backgrounds,

have had different kinds of upbringing,

and

might have experienced life in different ways altogether,

which in turn

shapes our thoughts,

opinions,

openness towards treating things contrary to our biases,

and

willingness to go beyond our bubble,

Believe it or not,

It’s extremely difficult for each one of us to do so,

Be it

accepting different point of views,

trying new things out,

or

make an attempt to re-shape our opinions,

easier being

to remain in our respective comfort zones,

for

we tend to block anything and everything

which seems contradictory to the same,

But does it help us in any manner?

Does it make our lives better in some sense?

Does it make us human beings after all?

Well,

Believe it or not,

Experiencing things for oneself and deciding

whether it’s worth it to be incorporated as part of self

might be a way out.

Choice is of course ours at the end of the day!

Source for the Image: http://sujaypaul.com/power-of-positivity-strong-belief/

Real Freedom!

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Every year it comes and goes,

Flag is hoisted,

National anthem is played,

We all get goose-bumps,

And life moves on,

Without realizing what freedom could mean in the truest sense,

After all,

Society is nothing but a conglomeration of its residents,

And

If the residents themselves are not free,

What could freedom intend mean!

Free from one’s biases,

Free from one’s judgments,

and

Free from forming quick opinions,

Question being,

Are we ready to take that first step towards freedom?

Source for the Image: https://zinginstruments.com/songs-about-freedom/

This Type that Kinds!

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Have you ever wondered why there is this constant tendency in us to categorise people?

Oh , he is this kind!

Oh she is that kind! 

Possible reason and explanation could be:

Who has time to ponder over such things, why not label and make things easier for our brains to comprehend and respond to. 

One may ask what’s wrong in the above?

After all, life is about making things easy for the mental and physical self. 

True to a certain extent as it might look, one needs to ponder whether it is truly making life easier? 

The more we tend to label the more we keep falling in the prejudice trap, 

Unable to look at situations as they are,

Unable to give benefit of doubt,

In short

Unable to act and be humans.

For that’s what we supposedly all are, 

As believed emerging from the same source yet different in our own ways, 

Who would once again merge with the source when the time comes. 

So, be it this kind or that type, 

The thing to think is whether we are willing to give ourselves a chance, 

To take risks and not pass judgements,

To learn all through in this beautiful journey of life,

And most importantly 

Finding the being what we are supposed to be. 

Source for the Image: https://www.ted.com/playlists/9/all_kinds_of_minds, https://resources.workable.com/category-manager-job-description

I want to be Born Fair!

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If you have fair skin and you look good, then half the battle is already won. This is one fact of our society that no one seems to talk about but is implicitly applicable in nearly every facet of our lives.

This is very well depicted in the advertising World where a fair and lovely girl/guy is able to gather all the applause for her/his excellent speech and is received very well by her/his boss, solely because she happens to be using fair and lovely cream which claims that it has the ability of making a person fair and thereby altering the entire perspective of people towards that person.

Yesterday, I happened to see this advertisement of Everyouth cream, wherein a girl receives a message that she needs to meet someone for a business deal in just 5 minutes time. Not having the time to go to a beauty parlour, she insted realizes that she has what others don’t have and that is the cream which would make her reach the level of prettiness required to impress the other party in order to clinch the deal.

And guess what! The meeting comes to its culmination with the pretty lady grabbing all the applause and praise for having given such a wonderful presentation.

Why is it that our society and we ourselves have become so obsessed and biased towards an aspect of life over which no one seem to have any control over? Imagine a good-looking guy, who was born in London, if he would have been born in Africa, would he have received the same kind of reception as he is so used to getting now?

Coming back to our own country, this kind of bias is very much visible in our print media as well, in the matrimonial section of our newspapers. If you have ever gone through these pages, the first line that you notice is: “want a fair and good-looking bride for…..“.

A couple of days back, I was having a conversation with an acamedician who has done some research on the influence that advertisements seem to have on people. He was of the opinion, that such preferences of humans towards good looking things in life is very much a consequence of the genetic make-up, which has evolved over time and is now contributing to all the biases that our society has got so accustomed to.

It might be true to some extent of what he told me about the genetic make-up. But the relevant question that we all need to ponder over is whether such a thing is conducive for our society in order to be able to grow in a healthy manner? If not then what all changes can we bring so as to get rid of our biases, so that at least our next generation and the generations that would follow do not have to face the same kind of biases that we faced during our times?

The first thing that we need to do is to start thinking over and above and beyond our personal greeds and needs, and to think as to what’s good for our community, society, country and the whole World for that matter.

The reform process needs to start in one’s own family. Parents need to take full care and caution about the kind of values they are instilling in their children. Children seem to learn a lot by watching others. Parents should take extra care that they don’t exhibit any such behaviour which seem to transmit any kind of unwanted bias to their children, till the point they become mature enough to decide as to what’s right or wrong.

The media, both print and online, should take care that they don’t propagate the biases which have become very much a part of our society, in order to just gain a few bucks or in order to increase their ratings.

The schools and our educational system play an extremely critical role in helping individuals develop the cognitive skills needed to evolve into a well-functioning individual in our society. The teachers should therefore ensure that they transmit all the right kind of values to their students.

There is an urgent need for all the above institutions and every individual for that matter to play their part in this scheme of things.

Let us try to get rid of this bias, which has seemed to conquer the minds of so many in our society and has become a ubiquitous phenomenon.

Source for Image: http://www.superbrandsindia.com/images/brand_pdf/consumer_1st_edition_2004/fair-n-lovely/fair-&-lovely.htm, http://www.stylesindia.com/fair-lovely-ayurvedic-fairness-cream-p-103.html