Work day begins. What’s the first thing on the list? Get some stuff done at the neighbourhood bank. Wait in the queue for about ten minutes. Just when it’s time for your turn, a lady walks in. She walks right past you and goes straight to the bank teller. She demands help with her stuff urgently.

You lose it! You tell the lady that you have been waiting and would appreciate if she respected your time. She says “I’m sorry but I really need to get this done.” You think to yourself - “No shit, Sherlock!” She gets her stuff done, walks out of the bank in a hurry. You get your stuff done and leave as well.

You are seconds away from establishing that the world is turning inconsiderate by the day. That’s when you see it. The lady is helping an elderly man operate the ATM machine outside. She probably did not want the old man to go through the hassle of dealing with the teller so she helped him take care of that as well earlier.

WOW! Now, that’s a U-turn! Your feeling of resentment instantly turns into admiration. You feel blessed to have people like her around who make our world more awesome. You feel bad about jumping into conclusions. You get an idea of how easy it is to be a victim of wrong perception. This reminds you of Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote which you recently read.

“We act on the basis of wrong perception all the time.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

You make a mental note to self. Next time when you are about to make a judgement about yourself, other people, the world, basically anything or anyone, remember to ask yourself “Are you sure?” before jumping into any conclusions.

You take a picture of the lady helping the old man. The picture above is for real and this happened to me. I will always remember this incident.