Two girls sitting under a tree by the roadside. Hair neatly oiled and plaited, clothes clean though faded. They sit cross-legged next to a makeshift stall selling ripe mangoes, tended by their mother. The mother watches as the girls play an ancient, mostly forgotten game with stones, where a stone is thrown in the air and the remaining ones have to be gathered before catching the stone.
Capturing all the stones means a point scored and another turn. Missing one, or not catching the one thrown is a point lost. A simple game of coordination and skill, a happy way to pass the time.
A passerby could see pure and simple joy in the scene. Or catch the deprivation in the faded garments, the fact that their day is spent under a tree. It's all a matter of perspective. In Chennai, a sari store has spent months creating the world's most expensive sari.
Woven into it are versions of paintings by Raja Ravi Verma, bedecked with precious stones. Of course, the sari, priced at about Rs 5 million, will find its place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Many would feel great pride over our country's wonderful craftsmanship, and the audacious imagination that made such a creation possible. Others might worry whether the craftsmen, the weavers and embellishers who worked on the sari, will get a mention in the world records.
Or if they were paid handsomely enough. Still others may say that the money spent on the sari could have fed a thousand and more families. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest, most-loved love stories ever written. It has seen many stage and screen adaptations, and teens as well as mature audiences have shed tears and clicked their tongues over the needless waste of two beautiful, young lives over family rivalries.
A radical new production of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe sees it as a 'parable about depression, teenage suicide and societal failures'. Ola Ince, the director, sees in Shakespeare's play, a mirror to the problems of today and 'parallels with modern concepts of mental illness'. She thinks the idea of anyone killing oneself for love is ‘not romantic, it’s sick'. Again, it’s all a matter of perspective.
Dog lovers believe that canines are man's best friends. Regardless of whether they come with certificates that bear witness to their faultless bloodlines, or whether it is a loving, grateful mutt adopted off the street, the dog remains a symbol of unconditional love and faithfulness.
Dog owners find in their pets the ability for quiet, unjudgemental listening, for conveying love even when chastised and a capacity for lifting sagging spirits with their zest for life.
In China, a contingent of dogs were disgraced for 'failing in their duties'. Others, less trained, and of poorer provenance, tend to be served up as part of a daily mail. As we say, it’s a matter of perspective. So, let's learn to see the world as a kaleidoscope of viewpoints.
And even if we do not respect or agree, realise that each one of us is the result of conditioning and environment, and entitled to his own opinions. Let us then agree to disagree. And learn to live and let live.
(The writer is an author & consulting editor, Penguin Random House. She can be rached at saran.sathya@gmail.com)