The Incident of Perceptual Bias

                        Perceptual biases

Introduction

Perceptual biases are the errors that disrupt or distort the perceptual processes thus leading to faulty judgements based on the notions from the past experiences.

We all encounter plethora of such incidents in our daily life and needless to say it affects how we perceive people further.

The incident

The incident of perceptual bias for me goes back to the time when I was a kid. And from the little thst my childhood taught me, perceptual biases have their highest degree of impact in our childhood given the innate sense of innocence that a child has. I think I was 10 or 11 when it happenend with me. My grand father had passed away in the early days of my childhood. And the memories I have with him are still so clear in my head. He was my best friend growing up as a kid. I have had a fair share of first steps as a kid with him. When he pointed for the first time towards the sky to show me where the stars are, I did not look at the stars, I looked at his fingers. I called it faith. I trusted his fingers for the first steps as a kid when my legs were barely capable of making me walk. And he was always my teammate when we played in the evening. My inclination towards people in the older side of age and sports is still due to my grandfather.

Initial days and months after his death were really hard for me. I had no one to play with. No one to confide to. My grandpa was perhaps my best friend for the little time I had spent with him. And then at the age of 9 when we shifted to Indore, I found a daadu in our neighbourhood. (That’s what everyone in our locality would call him) My relationship with my grandfather had actually induced the persona of the people of the older age. I had a warmth for them that every grand kid would have. And so when I found daadu who was our neighbour, I was more than delighted. They had a big house that had a mango tree and playground amidst other things. I was always welcomed there whenever I went. Rishi uncle and his wife would let me play football with their kids rohan and moneka.  Some of their other friends would join them too. Sometimes daadu would join us too. He would pat us and cuddle us amidst the game. And in the summers he would give me a mango each day. There were days when he would hide the mango in his vest pocket and hand it over to me when no one would be around. And I would hug him in delight. There were times when he would gently kiss my forehead or just stroke my head as if to give blessings.

It was one of the winter evenings when the incident took place. Just as we were retreating back to our homes after the football game daadu had called me to give my favourite chocolate. Uncle and aunty were out to Bhopal that day and were supposed to return late. It was dusk and a little dark by the time we had finished playing that evening. Just as dadu handed me over the chocolate, he cuddled me in his arms. It was longer than usual. Longer than my grandfather would do. After a moment when I felt a bit uneasy, I tried to break contact. But he held me tighter. Pushing me towards him, my body rubbing against him. He then held my cheeks, rather tightly, it was more in a squeezing manner and tried kissing me. What are you doing daadu….I shouted. I am your dadu beta, you are like rohan and moneka for me. Come, dadu will give you the chocolate na. I tried pushing him away but he held my hand tight and pulled me back towards him. He had held me by my waist and tried laying his hands on my breast. I was shell shocked. It was hard to swallow what was happening and I was too numb to react. I did not see it coming. None of us see such things coming. He started pressing my breast and started clinging on to me. It was a pathetic feeling. I wasn’t of the age to determine why he did that and what he meant by that but it wasn’t what I had known of aged people do to kids. I had such varied and contrasting perceptions of people of his age. And so undergoing something like that was more depressing than shocking. I had laid my faith in him because of what I had seen of my grandfather. And so it was easy for me at that age to believe that all grandparents are like that. That was my basic perception towards it. He was still not done. The moment he held my hand and started leading it towards his thighs I bit his hand and ran away crying.