A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eying each other’s cups.
Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”
Don’t let the cups drive you… Enjoy the coffee instead!
Cheers
8 responses so far ↓
1 Ankesh Kothari // Oct 16, 2008 at 11:47 am
Good story.
Neurologically inaccurate. Tongues are not the only things that go in forming a taste. Things like memory and momentum play a big role too.
Memory: People in USA like Coke better than Pepsi. In blind tests, everyone says Pepsi tastes better. But when they are drinking in cans while their brains are being scanned, their brain shows that they prefer drinks from the Coke cans – and not the Pepsi cans.
Momentum: A comedian always gets more laughs when a good sidekick warms up the audience before he goes on stage. But if the sidekick is lukewarm, the same jokes by the comedian can fail too. (This is the reason all musicians and comedians have others open for them.) Its the same with coffee cups. A good cup will increase the tastiness. At least for your brain.
Scientists actually performed a test on people with wines. Gave them wines in expensive looking bottles. And the same wines in box packaging. Everyone liked the wine in the bottles better. Whats more, when they were put under brain CAT scans – their brains lighted up more while drinking from bottles too.
Seen a horror movie? Mute the sound and you’ll never get scared – no matter how gruesome the video. Switch the sound back and close your eyes – you won’t get scared even then. But when sound and sight work together, you’ll shit your pants. Feelings multiply exponentially when two or more organs are involved.
Same with coffee. Taste alone is not the only feeling that plays a part in making you enjoy the coffee.
2 ahmed // Oct 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
so are you *really* saying that money doesn’t change the quality of life? can i quote you on that? ๐
3 sonal // Oct 16, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I won’t argue with the logic. The sentiment is lovely ๐
4 Dhwani // Oct 16, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hey, very nice story. The cups in a form of job, status, power position cant hold you from achieving the true goals of life (Coffee). People always think that their family background, education or some other situation has affected thier success path and happiness. But as you said all this are just cups and what matters is coffee i.e life which should be full of dreams and attempts to achieve those dreams. Great going Kunal:)
5 Zoos // Oct 16, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Very nice meaning to life and how to look beyond and enjoy the things that you have.
Cheers Bro..
6 ankita // Oct 16, 2008 at 6:19 pm
i so totally agree.we forget intentionally or unintentionally to enjoy the essence,the taste and the warmness of the coffee.How i wish we all could really follow what the porf says.but alas the world no longer lives that way.send it to mom n bro as well.
n is anyone in the story a bachelor?;)
7 Nishit Shah // Oct 17, 2008 at 10:19 am
Kunal, you should be the last person writing this post. You are the one who doesn’t have time for lunch coz of work and the last time we met, you had lost a lot of weight coz of this.So, who is not enjoying the coffee ??
8 Reeteshinator // Oct 17, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Hmm.. never drank a full cup of coffee/tea in my life…ever, so cant say ๐
But yeah, I get the gist of it. Nice story, really thought provoking, thanks for sharing ๐
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