Slumdog Perception

Slumdog Millionaire rocked the Golden Globes. It has a whooping eleven nominations in the Bafta awards and is slated to finish its winning roll with an Oscar!

So now I wonder. Is perception more powerful than education? Can a child seriously learn so much by mere perception and win a million rupees? I suppose he can. When the slumdog (not yet a millionaire!) answered Benjamin Franklin to a particular question, he did not remember a book or a paragraph or the line where the answer was written. He remembered the incident years ago. As a child guide, not only did he earn the one dollar note, but also this piece of knowledge. And all this just by looking at the note!

When we look around the world, we see many things. We remember some things while some are stored at the back of our brains. These things stored at the back may or may not come into our conscious mind. Some people have a knack of analyzing things. These people even remember each and every detail about an object they’ve seen several years back. Such people have a high level of perception. The slumdog millionaire was one of them. However, not everyone is as sharp. There are people with a low sense of perception. Such people are those who cannot even remember what they saw an hour ago.

Perception is not something that can be taught. Neither can someone have it overnight. Each individual has it inside him. Its upon him to use it or not. If he uses it, his brain gets used to the process and after a while his brain adapts to it automatically. A strong sense of perception automatically leads to a sharp brain.

When a little child begins his education, the usual alphabets, numbers etc., some importance should be given to develop his sense of perception. Once a child starts analyzing things, it becomes a habit and his brain automatically works that way. A person who cannot analyze things and learn from them, i.e. perceive, slowly stops noticing everything around him. And ‘not noticing and learning’ thus becomes his habit.

We can learn a lot by simply looking at the basic things happening around us. The chances of a person remembering a visual image is more than that of him remembering a paragraph. Other than learning, perception boosts the sense of imagination and creativity. And the whole process makes the brain sharp. Our brain learns to be on alert all the time. And it notices even the smallest unusual activity around.

So, awards or not, the message from Slumdog Millionaire is clear. Perception is an amazing thing. It has the power to help you win a million rupees. And you don’t need to be a slumdog for that!