PANCHATANTRA – 7 - 360 DEGREE ANALYSIS

360 DEGREE ANALYSIS

The students assembled around Vishnu Sarma in the evening and posed their query of the day….

Sir! Now a days we are hearing that students are being asked to report on their teachers. We know of teachers examining students and reporting. But this new trend appears strange!

Vishnu Sarma smiled and said -

Good! You can test and report on me!

Let me explain you with - again a story from an old classic journal.

There was a king. His washer-man who also serves as his body masseur, was massaging the king one day. He was always wondering about the hours of hard manual work he had to put in every day to serve the Palace and the disproportionately less compensation he got both monetarily and otherwise. On the other hand, he felt that the Minister hardly lifts a finger, only commanding others but gets a high compensation and respect from all. He could not control himself any more and told the king about his assessment and the purported injustice meted out to him. At that moment , there was a commotion out side the Palace and the king asked the washer man to find out about it.

The washer man went out and came back reporting that it was a procession going on.

The king enquired “what procession?”

The washer man went out again , came back reporting that it was a wedding procession.

The king enquired ”who is getting married ?”

The washer man went out and came back reporting that the son of the reputed merchant of the kingdom was getting married.

The king enquired “to whom?”

The washer man went out again , came back reporting that the bride was the daughter of another famous merchant.

By this time, the Minister came for his daily briefing with the king. The king then told him that he heard a commotion outside the palace a little while ago and wanted to know what it was about?

The Minister went out and came back in a few minutes and narrated all the details about the procession and suggested that it is a good development to promote trade and relations with the neighboring kingdom as the bride’s father is a very famous merchant in the neighboring kingdom and had a good access to the king there. If the king permits, the Minister concluded, he will take up the matter. The king gave his ascent and bade him good bye.

Then the king turned towards the washer-man to give his response to his submission. When the washer man exclaimed “pardon me Sir! I understood the difference” and left.

Well my dear that is the 360 degree reporting .

So it is important to consider all possibilities before jumping to one conclusion. We can call this as 360 degree out-look which is very much essential in every walk of life and learning too!. It is quite the thing done , when evaluating marriage proposals , we enquire from all around, that is elders , youngsters, colleagues etc.. This is also the modern thought in performance appraisal system of employees to write their confidential reports. Reports are sought from superiors, colleagues, juniors and the employee too. For example you can give an evaluation report on your teacher apart from that normally written by their head or principal . This along with the opinions of your teacher’s colleagues , all taken together is expected to give a true picture to improve matters. The key word here to be noted is “to improve matters” that is we should be really interested in “improving matters”.

It was getting dark and the students got up to go to their homes pondering over

the moral.