The line of thought is so much different from the line of talk. When we hear something through the word of mouth it is fine to think that that is probably not exactly how it must have been. When you tell a story to someone and that someone tells a third person, it is a given that there will be a few additions and subtractions in the story. It won’t be exactly the same. Now imagine this story being shared by hundreds of people. Somehow with time a story tends to change. That is why mythologies also have so many different versions. Either of them could be true or neither of them. We’ll never know.

Life is a game of Chinese Whispers: a sentence is whispered into the ear of a player and such becomes a chain of whispers of the same sentence. The goal being for the last player in the chain to say the sentence out loud and then compare it to the one originally started. Most of the time there is some sort of variation in the sentence. This is how life is as well, no story you hear is exactly how it happened given that it happened at all. So, don’t believe everything you are told and try to keep an open mind towards the situation.

This is also how gossip ruins lives, in school people go through severe mental issues because as children or teenagers we don’t know the consequences of these word of mouth explanations can do to someone. But is it really any different when you start working? Even adults engage in this and often cause issues with their colleagues, oblivious to the fact that things someone says have the power to hurt people mentally.

So, be responsible, even thought often many of this is done subconsciously. But we all can put a little effort into things we do and things we say.

Jahnvi