With the "Dumb
Ways to Die' video going viral, one day I decided to watch it. I think it is
one of the smartest ideas I have come across. It carries a very significant
message in an endearing and touching form. In case you haven't watched it,
please do so. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyZhw_DOe2M
It is a video that was created by the Melbourne Metro to inspire people to be safe around trains. However, it focusses not just on trains but on multiple aspects of safety. The unique thing about it is that when you look at it for the first time, it seems like the various activities that we are warned against are very absurd and no one sane would do that. But the video goes on in a loop inside your head, and soon you begin to link it to life.
For example, to take one of the most extreme examples, it says it's a stupid way to die to poke a stick at a grizzly bear. A lot of people, especially youth would perhaps do some foolhardy act like that just to 'show how brave they are'. It is also targeted at young children. For example, it says not to use the clothes drier as a hiding place. When kids are playing the fun game of hide-and-seek, they search for the best places to hide, and may not stop to consider the implications of hiding in a place like that.
Many people, to satiate their adventurous nature, may try some extraordinary antics such as keeping an exotic snake as a pet. The video warns us basically to think of the possible consequences before doing anything.
But the actual message begins only in the second half, with the part where there is a boy standing on a parapet listening to music on his headphones. He seems at bliss, listening to music, when suddenly, he loses his balance and falls off, just as a train arrives. Then there is a part where a man is waiting in his car at the closed boom gates across a railway crossing, and he decides to drive around them, and ends up being hit by the train.
There are many more instances like these, which we see everyday. In India, we read so many such stories in the newspapers everyday. It is quite scary when we read about it, and we may think that it is such a foolish thing to do that we would never do something like that. However, It is when we are faced with a particular situation that we are tempted into trying these dare-devil acts.
This learning from the video can be extended to the case of many other accidents that we see or hear of everyday. We must always be vigilant, and think of possible consequences before we do anything. Someone was telling me the other day that when they were on one of the local trains of Mumbai, they saw a man standing just inside the doorway of the train. He was chewing betel nut, and he wished to spit out (a bad idea in itself). Without pausing to think, he jutted his head out to spit onto the tracks. Before he could withdraw his head, he was hit be a pole which the train passed by and ended up with a fractured skull. He lost his life just because he didn't stop to think before doing something.
So, I think it is in order to repeat the clichéd wise saying: Look before you leap. We may think we know something like the back of our hand. But I staunchly believes that Murphy's Law can't ever be disproved.
It is a video that was created by the Melbourne Metro to inspire people to be safe around trains. However, it focusses not just on trains but on multiple aspects of safety. The unique thing about it is that when you look at it for the first time, it seems like the various activities that we are warned against are very absurd and no one sane would do that. But the video goes on in a loop inside your head, and soon you begin to link it to life.
For example, to take one of the most extreme examples, it says it's a stupid way to die to poke a stick at a grizzly bear. A lot of people, especially youth would perhaps do some foolhardy act like that just to 'show how brave they are'. It is also targeted at young children. For example, it says not to use the clothes drier as a hiding place. When kids are playing the fun game of hide-and-seek, they search for the best places to hide, and may not stop to consider the implications of hiding in a place like that.
Many people, to satiate their adventurous nature, may try some extraordinary antics such as keeping an exotic snake as a pet. The video warns us basically to think of the possible consequences before doing anything.
But the actual message begins only in the second half, with the part where there is a boy standing on a parapet listening to music on his headphones. He seems at bliss, listening to music, when suddenly, he loses his balance and falls off, just as a train arrives. Then there is a part where a man is waiting in his car at the closed boom gates across a railway crossing, and he decides to drive around them, and ends up being hit by the train.
There are many more instances like these, which we see everyday. In India, we read so many such stories in the newspapers everyday. It is quite scary when we read about it, and we may think that it is such a foolish thing to do that we would never do something like that. However, It is when we are faced with a particular situation that we are tempted into trying these dare-devil acts.
This learning from the video can be extended to the case of many other accidents that we see or hear of everyday. We must always be vigilant, and think of possible consequences before we do anything. Someone was telling me the other day that when they were on one of the local trains of Mumbai, they saw a man standing just inside the doorway of the train. He was chewing betel nut, and he wished to spit out (a bad idea in itself). Without pausing to think, he jutted his head out to spit onto the tracks. Before he could withdraw his head, he was hit be a pole which the train passed by and ended up with a fractured skull. He lost his life just because he didn't stop to think before doing something.
So, I think it is in order to repeat the clichéd wise saying: Look before you leap. We may think we know something like the back of our hand. But I staunchly believes that Murphy's Law can't ever be disproved.
