Indian without the dot...

I am not the health conscious types and d not go for regular workout but this weekend I was not doing anything special and I decided to just go for some exercise in the park. The park has different sections depending on what type of exercise you want to do. I was in this section where you could use poles to do all sorts of things. I am not sure what it is called.

After a while some kids showed up and one kid started doing a 270 degree flip around a pole. I always wanted to learn how to do it, I have tried doing the flip a few times but I usually have ended up landing on my big bum and hurting myself. Today, I thought I can try it with some help from the expert kids. I asked the kid if he will teach me how to do it and he agreed. As usual, I failed to do it properly a couple of times but managed to save my bum. I was about to give up but my reputation was at stake plus the kids really wanted to see me do it and kept motivating me to do it. I gave it one more try and did it. It felt really nice to know my body could do this and you know me, I am fat, lazy, foodie, lazy, fat, etc so it really meant doing something that special. We exchanged hi5s. The kids really wanted to do the upside down spider man but were really afraid. I taught them how to do it and all of us were having a great time.

I am talking about 7 or 8 year old kids. They were Singaporeans. An Indian kid walked in a little later. Now at that age, you don't expect them to know a lot and I am in no way criticizing them in any way but see how the human mind works. The first time the mind sees something it takes that as a reference point every other exposure to that concept slightly changes the mind's opinion. It is very rare that the image that the mind builds is completely changed ever and only dramatic events make it happen. Subtle daily exposure does not change the image that the mind built on its first interaction.

Coming back to the story, so as this Indian kid walked in, the Singaporean kid said, he is an Indian without the dot. What he was referring to is the bindi. It is worn by Indians especially belivers in the Chakra Philosophy who believe that forehead is the 6th chakra through which energy escapes and that putting on a bindi will prevent this energy loss. There are a lot of Indians here in Singapore and a lot of people of Indian origin who moved to Singapore a few generations back. I was surprised to see that some of the Indian communities follow the culture with more respect and dedication than what you get to see back in India. As part of that, you will see a lot of Indians wear the bindi and I am guessing this Singaporean kid in the park had seen these Indians here and his cute little brain made an image of Indians with these initial interactions. This image will not undergo massive changes at his age. Once he grows up and learns more about all this, he will realize that not all Indias were a bindi.

Maybe, he will read this blog post and learn the fact sooner :-) 

Anyways, I was thrilled to learn how to do a 270 degree flip and the events at the park gave me something to think about on an unusually empty Sunday. If you read till this point, take a step back and see if you remember something that you changed your opinion about dramatically and let me know what it was.