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Thursday, October 7, 2010

If it's free... it's not worth it... general perception....

Taken from one of the forwarded mail.... not sure it's true or not ... but sounds true... :) ...
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In Washington DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a Stradivarius violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the DC Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
This experiment raised several questions:
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognise talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .

How many other free things are we missing as we rush through life?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Good one..

Anish Patel said...

Thanks sir....

Urvashi said...

hhmm.. I have read this earlier too & then seriously ponder upon the nature of ppl.. sometimes, I guess we are too busy to notice things around us & appreciate their beauty, not necessarily bcos they are free but bcos we are not interested in it.

In the above example, I feel most of the ppl who passed by would not be having any interest or knowledge abt the music being palyed. hence they did not realise their worth.

N hey, u reading "Osho"?? OD tell me how u found it..!!

TC.. :)

Anish Patel said...

Agreed Urvashi.... not everyone understand music well apart from hard core music lover, most of people like me knew about popular chart busters only.
And Osho, its been hard to think his way. You definitely never think before reading him the why he thinks but still you can, oh ya, he is right!!! so that's what Osho. Give it a shot, at least one or two books...

Anonymous said...

your blog post reiterated by divyabhskar today...see the link

http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/article/INT-for-people-to-appreciate-something-does-it-always-have-to-be-sold-2242709.html?HF-7=

Anish Patel said...

Well... its not my post.. I have also taken from one of the forwarded mail... which I mentionted at the start... :) ..

Anonymous said...

Anishbhai,

I posted a comment, on this particular post, as I remebered you post, from top to bottom. I just wanted to let you know, that your post is re-iterated.

I did not come accross any blog that has posted this, I remember you blog only.

Thanks :-)