Imagine for a second, asking this question to someone you know, your wife, mother, father, brother, friend, colleague: what do you think when you think of me?
Imagine what pops into their heads? I guess the first thing that pops up would be the strongest image of you they have in their minds, and most likely all different from the image you have, of yourself. Then, there could be sub-versions!
You are different to you, your family, friends, co-workers. “You” have been battered, buttered, fitted, tunneled, changed, morphed, adjusted, encapsulated, formed, deformed, there is possibly an exhaustive list of adjectives that can be utilized to represent the transformation of your “image” before people make up their minds about you. Every person who notices you on street, train, shopping malls would take a “snap shot” of you from what they see of you, and make an image about you without even knowing you. You may see each other every morning for ten years without exchanging a word or even a smile, and the “snap shot” has morphed into the image you make of each other. I’ve had instances where what I had in mind about someone was completely different to what they were like in real life, so the version was upgraded in an instance.
So who are you? Isn’t it funny you think you know “you”? A different version of you exist for everyone who know you. But I guess there could be some common traits that would be common between all the versions that goes into making an image of you. For example, for your mom, you could be her favorite son who can do no wrong so lovely smiling young boy or girl; a golden egg laying goose for your employer, so probably a running belt in a factory; a drink partner for your co-worker, so a full and oozing mug of lager or an ass hole who made him look bad; a ka-ching pot of cash for your favorite restaurant, so a golden goose again, different you to different people.
Hmm..you live in other people’s minds, just like others do in yours, just like you have image of others, imagine. What about your boss, your neighbor, your spouse? Is that the true “him” or “her”? It is only one of the many versions of someone you know.
I guess we should at least give a chance to ourselves to have an “open mind”. Now imagine
Ravi Tandukar 