Options Please !

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

Everybody knows that just three apples were enough to change the world and our destiny; one of them Adam ate, next one fell on the head of Newton and part of the third one was with Steve Jobs. But, as of today no more apples are going to make any impact here, because the world has become either madly crazy or foolishly stupid. Tomorrow, ‘how do you do?’ might be replaced with ‘what are you, crazy or stupid?’ It is almost sure that the upcoming generation has got only these two choices to be.

I have heard the story of an executive who happened to be in a posh hotel just for something to drink. See the conversation in the restaurant. “Fruit juice, Soda, Tea, Chocolate, Milo or Coffee?" “Tea please.” "Ceylon tea, Herbal tea, Bush tea, Honey bush tea, Ice tea or green tea?" "Ceylon tea." “Black or white?” “With milk.” “Milk, Whitener or Condensed milk?" “Milk.” "Goat milk, Camel milk or cow milk?" “Cow milk.” “Freeze land cow or Afrikaner cow?"  The executive understood that questions are never going to cease; he said, "Um….., I'll take it black." “With sweetener, sugar or honey?" "With sugar." "Beet sugar or cane sugar?" “Cane sugar.” "White, brown or yellow sugar?" The executive was about to get mad. "Forget about tea, just give me a glass of water instead." He said. "Mineral water or still water?" "Mineral water" "Flavored or non-flavored?" “Wait a minute.” He said and slowly rose up to leave the restaurant.

Choices are there everywhere; it never ends. We know how much in trouble a plus two pass out is; there appears an ocean of choices for him. Look at any patient; the physician floods him with a long list of choices. Neither the farmer nor a business man is free of choices. Even a religious aspirant has got more than a hundred ways to choose for his road to Realization. It is choice food we eat, choice dress we wear, choice mobile we use …. so goes. One exception is perhaps the air we breathe.  Instead of asking someone who your father is, it has become much more pleasing to him/her to have some options and a few clues too. Options have become our very need. After a brief review of similar classic situations, I understood that it is options that are going to decide the destiny of the world; never any apple. I also found that there are only two choices to recommend, ‘allow the world go crazy and people remain stupid or …… or the other way round’. 

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