Window Seat Syndrome!

Ohh, please don’t get frightened. This is not the name of any new virus prevailing these days, though it seems like one. It is indeed a psychological virus in every human mind which forces us to behave in a certain manner, sometimes even if the situation does not fulfil the logical conditions for such behaviour. Please forgive me for being mysterious again in my writing style. It is again the same virus which is forcing me to adopt the same writing style I have used for a different group of readers earlier. Ok let me try to put it in a simpler way.

How many times have you travelled in a train or bus or even plane? What is your natural tendency when you book a ticket? “Give me a window seat” – isn’t it? Everyone does, even I do. Why do we ask for a window seat? Let me collate some of the probable reasons:

- Fresh air will flow in
- Allows me to enjoy the outside view
- Keeps me isolated from other passengers
- I can throw anything outside easily or even throw up if needed

Every time I book the ticket, I would prefer to get the window seat. I term such behaviours out of these natural tendencies developed over time, as the “Window Seat Syndrome”.

I used to ask for a window seat in older times often. But that was the time of non-AC buses/trains. Air travel, then, was not so frequent and cheap. Over the time I developed a practice of asking for the window seat always. Now is the time of AC buses/trains/air travel where I cannot actually open the window to let the fresh air flow inside and in night travel I cannot have an outside view. In fact during the day also mostly windows will be covered with the blinds to avoid direct sunlight. In air travel there is hardly anything to see outside except while taking-off or landing. Moreover, I get the screen right in the front of my seat to have different views of the outside but still I ask for a window seat!!!

Let me tell you one incident which happened with me during an air travel in the night. I had got a window seat by chance. Hmmm, actually (let me be truthful) I opted for it by choice (:D ). One old man had got the seat beside me. When he boarded the plane he requested me if I could swap my seat with him because he strongly needed the window seat. He told he was not feeling well so it would be kind if I could cooperate. I could not understand how a window seat in the plane can help a not-so-well person. Anyway, I said “ok” and we swapped the seats. Unfortunately, the old man was suffering from diabetes and later, he realized aisle seat might have been a better option. I realized this too and we again swapped the seats.

How often we ask for corner seats when we go for a movie? Everyone does, especially when we go with our partner. Why? Privacy?? In a movie theatre? Hehehe what are you talking about? Anyway, “no more comments/arguments” about the corner seats.

Let me quote another example. We go to restaurant for a change when we get bored of usual food. Like others, I ask for the menu, scan it completely and then, like most of the Indians, end up ordering some variety of paneer and some daal (pulses). And this will happen every time I go out irrespective of past experiences.

You must have heard the story of an elephant which was kept tied up with a rope since childhood and made to believe that elephants cannot break this rope. When the elephant grows up it still believes the same and does not try to break the rope, even if it has become capable of. Its mind is conditioned in such a way to strongly believe this.

Certain beliefs of ours are just like that rope and we do not break them as our minds are conditioned to follow the practice without giving it a single thought of logics.

Can you recall any such instance, where you have displayed the “Window Seat Syndrome”? Can you figure out the reasons why you do that and actually analyze if that holds true (this is the benefit of being in knowledge network, we are naturally inclined to use the word “Analysis” everywhere, again the same syndrome.)

Do this and you will realize in many of the cases we behave illogically because of the conditioning of our mind due to past experiences. Once you realize this you can break the rope and defy the “Window Seat Syndrome”.