Elevators- Up or Down?

07.02.2010

I spent a leisurely morning with my Family. Around One, we went out for lunch at Ashvitha a new multi-cuisine restaurant. Located in a huge renovated bungalow on a lane off Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, the restaurant has a unique ambience. The tables placed on the verandah around the main house are comfortable and surrounded by greenery and flowering plants. (Whether this will work in high summer?)

A fountain tinkles nearby and adds to the general calmness of the place. The building houses more air conditioned rooms and displays of books, jewellery and soft furnishing for the discerning and extremely tasteful guest.

They serve five different platters with unlimited helpings. The food was good and filling.

While we were eating, my son related this story:

The man who invented and manufactured elevators for the first time ever, found that they were too slow. People simply did not want to use them. Even after improving speeds, elevators were not popular. He was incurring heavy losses. Suddenly he had a brain wave and did something that not only made elevators extremely popular but also resulted in people thinking that that they were too fast! Do you know what he did/

Well, he simply fixed full length mirrors on the walls of the elevator. People were so busy looking at themselves that they thought they had reached their floor too early!

The man, of course was Otis!

This tale is a classic example of perseverance, creativity as well as lateral thinking in problem solving. But, there is also a lesson here about the human proclivity for Narcissistic behavior.