FORWARD

For the past five years, a similar message is forwarded ‘afresh’ by many friends onto my mobile phone and email id: This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays – this happens only once in 823 years. In Chinese Feng Sui, this is called moneybags. Forward this to your friends and you will receive money in 4 days...

So often we forward to others things we receive without considering whether that thing is worthy of being passed on. When we forward anything to somebody it is a reflection of our considered opinion that it is found by us to be factual, useful and relevant. And hence we assume responsibility and confirm our approval of the ‘forward’.

The about information, for instance, is full of flaws. The calendar order of days repeats every 11 years. Nearly every year has a month with 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. July 2011 was one such month and July 2012 is not so. Obviously the ‘forward’ is the one that was sent last year. It was wrong then and now, too… for the same reasons.

The basic intention behind the forward is not dubious. In fact, the attitude of sharing is noble.  But it is pertinent to consider that when we share food, we ensure that it is worthy of eating. When we mindlessly forward trash, we are being unfair to our own ability to think and discern. To empower our competency to separate grain from the chaff, we must be better at restraining our impulse to click on the forward tab and do so only after applying the test of our thinking.  

Before hitting the forward tab, we must check and confirm

Let’s BE BETTER at the onus to understand and discern!

- Pravin K. Sabnis