Perspective

We were in Goa and wanted to know of a way to get to another beach.

And we asked a man, "How do we get to the beach".

He looked perplexed with the question, pointed to the sea with an "obviously" gesture, drew a wide arc with his hand and said "like that".

It was our turn to be puzzled.

We had meant a land route and he meant a sea route. Thats when we realized that he was, after all, a fisherman and for him the obvious way from one beach to another was by water. It was as simple as that.

And we course corrected and asked him, "How do we get there by road?"

It was now his turn to be puzzled. He scratched his head and mumbled a few directions that we could not comprehend.

We thanked him and left and finally found someone who explained the land route in a few steps.

But that left us thinking about perspective. Very often, we see things only from our own perspective - land or water. And sometimes, for someone, it is the other perspective that is the obvious one, as obvious as our perspective is to us!