Thought For Food

On a lovely August morning, about 15 years ago, my father came to me with a question as I was about to rush to work. He looked at me in the eye as I was wearing my socks and asked calmly, “Son, suppose you were travelling by car from Bangalore to Madras, would you fill in  petrol when you reach Madras?”

I was working as the HR Head for a Greenfield automobile project at that time and the reference to a car seemed logical. In fact Greenfield projects do take up a lot of your time and energy, but being polite and not wanting to offend him, I replied hurriedly disguising my irritation, “Dad, of course before starting the journey... at Bangalore.”

I could see a glint of triumph in his eyes, he was almost 70 at that time and then he asked me again sweetly, “Well, when you fill in petrol for a car before your journey, is it not fair that your body needs breakfast before you go to work?”

On wearing my shoes, my feet led me to the breakfast table to have some cereal and fruit, much to Dad’s satisfaction. He had tried several times earlier to get me to have breakfast unsuccessfully until he used a metaphor which I could relate to.

Needless to say, breakfast as a meal, is now institutionalised at our home, along with the ritual of tea in a pot.

As I reflect on this slice of memories I shared with my Dad, it also dawned on me that to influence our readers or listeners, we need to put an effort to use metaphors that they relate to. We usually depend on the trite terminologies. We do not realise that contexts have changed and so have peoples’ understanding. You  can really influence when you have Empathy.