In this live workshop, Haritosh Srivastav leads a 10‑minute activity where participants watch a silent 1‑minute animation of geometric shapes moving around a house. After the video, each participant (Sachin, Venkat, Dr. Alka) shares a personal narrative they inferred from the shapes. Their accounts differ—some see traps, rescue missions, or relational conflict—illustrating how the same visual stimulus yields multiple stories. Haritosh then reveals the origin of the exercise: a classic 1944 psychological study (Heider & Simmel’s “An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior”) that demonstrated humans’ innate tendency to attribute agency and story to abstract motion. He uses this to argue that audiences automatically construct narratives; therefore, presenters should deliberately tell the intended story rather than leaving the audience to fill the gap. The discussion highlights how individual belief systems, perception, and mental faculties shape interpretation, and participants reflect on the takeaway that understanding others’ perspectives is essential for effective communication. The session closes with a reminder of an upcoming evening talk by Dr. Vyomesh Bhatt on balanced emotions.
Chapters
Okay, so welcome to day 3. We are going to have an activity first before the concept. We are going— I am going to play a small video of about 1 minute 11 seconds, and the participants who are here live will then share their observation of what they thought is happening in the video. And afterward, we will discuss a very powerful concept. So let's get started. I am playing the video now. So Alka ji is just joining. So Alka ji, we are going— I am going to play a video right now and I want you to observe what is happening in the video. And then I am going to come back to every one of you to share your observation. And after the observation, I am going to share a very powerful concept which is related to storytelling. Okay, so let's get started. There is no audio, so just focus on the video part. All right, so the video is done now. Okay, let's start with Sachinji. What did you observe in the video?
Basically, there are 3 figures I could see. One rectangular figure is there, one triangle is there, and one circle is there. That's the first observation. I'm a PC. Secondly, there is— I probably believe that rectangular portion is or some kind of trap or something like that, okay? Uh, where, uh, one figure goes inside, probably a temptation is there, something like that. Temptation is there, goes inside, and they realize that it has got trapped. That is what is— then the other figure comes, another figure comes, and one triangular figure probably tries to rescue all the remaining two figures. And that is how— that's what I believe, that's, that is what I could understand, okay? Yeah, thank you.
Okay, amazing. Okay, Venkat, what were your observations?
Yes, good morning to all. Uh, it's, uh, I felt that it's related to my journey. Uh, I searched one thing and I find and reached that place. After reaching and I wanted to go out from that place, so that's the first triangle. First it goes to inside and after a few seconds, it reach out and fight with others. Then there also nothing there, so want to enter again into this rectangle box. That is my observation.
Awesome, brilliant. How about you, Dr. Alka? What were your observations? Unmute yourself.
Getting the hang of it. But one thing I saw was the triangle— first the circle went inside, then the triangle went inside, then they both came out. And then what happened, I didn't understand, and everything broke after that. Is it a result of conflict? Is it a result of— so if the three could have got together, maybe there would have been something better. They could have collaborated better if there was a friendship between the three of them. I felt that there was a discordant between these 3 people, and that is why that house broke. I looked at it as that house that was looking like a house to me.
Awesome. See, everybody has got different observations. So time to know the secret, and the secret is— let me present the truth behind this. So I'm gonna put the version of the story of what this person who created this study, what they put up the story, and then the real reason. So the story in that person, which is somebody named Nick Michelian something, he said that once upon a time there was a big bad triangle who lived alone in his house. One day he happened to see a happy couple, a little triangle with a little circle, gliding past He immediately took a fancy to the little circle as she was so pretty. So he came out of his house and attacked the little triangle. Frightened, the little circle hid inside the house. The little triangle defended him, but the large one was too much for him and he managed to chase him away. With his rival gone, the large triangle went home to claim his prize. The poor little circle retreated while the large circle tried to corner her. In the meantime, the little triangle had come back and he cautiously opened the door of the house. Seizing her chance, the little circle dashed out of the house and together the two of them locked the large bully inside. Happy to be reunited, they danced around each other. Then the large triangle managed to get out and started chasing them around the house, but the little triangle and the circle was too fast for him. And they escaped. Left alone, the last triangle threw a tantrum and smashed up his house in frustration. Now this is the version by the original author. Now let me tell you the secret. This is just some figures, some geometrical shapes who somebody is moving around. So what is the point of doing all of this? Is that our brain is designed to develop stories. All of you saw the same video, but all of you came up with your own stories. This proved that our brain actually— our DNA actually loves to create stories, and that is the way we observe and learn. And this study is called— the study was originally done in 1945. I'm just checking the name. It's called the An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior by the American Journal of Psychology. '57, 1944 was the study. This was done since then, and this has been used in lot of psychological tests because what is going inside is what people will see in that story, and somewhere something will come out of it. How many of you are just blown away by knowing these were just shapes? Venkat, you want to say something? Go ahead.
Yes, it's a different perspective, so that's— I understand the story also interesting.
Exactly. So when you understand this concept, think about Why? And this session is all about understanding why storytelling is so important. We are in the week 1 and foundation stage, and that is why I'm bringing this small exercise that we sometimes feel that it's not important, but just looking at these figures and, and shapes moving around, you can figure out that there is a story we are trying to cook. And sometimes what happens is, as a presenter also, as a speaker presenter And storyteller, if you don't tell the story, your audience will anyways make up a story. So it's better you tell the story versus they making up story. That's another aspect to it. Rajesh ji, I think you are probably at the end of the session. We are almost done. So I will make that video available afterwards. Any takeaway? This is going to be a short session. Any takeaway before I stop? The recording.
So we interpret any situation in our life with our own value systems, with our own belief systems, with our own journey of our own life.
Absolutely, absolutely, 100%. So what is the takeaway for you, Sachinji?
It's a perception what we have, you know. There are 6 mental faculties, I believe. And perception is one of the powerful faculties, and I believe that how you perceive one particular thing— because as you rightly mentioned, two, two people, two of my fellow participants were there, and all of us are different versions, and we were having a prima facie only. And when you go inside, which will have a lot of clarity, that brought us into picture.
Back to you.
Awesome. Thank you, Sachin. Okay, Venkat, what is your major takeaway?
Yes, as per our belief system, we always stand in that place and we speak in that way. We do not agree other person's perspective many times. So this is the takeaway from the story. So think about other perspective.
Absolutely great. So I hope you got certain values within like 10 minutes. And go ahead and apply this and understand that even if you're seeing the same thing, other people may have different version of story running in their mind. And it's about how you can make sure that you and the audience are in sync. So have a great day, and we're gonna meet tonight. We're going to have a guest speaker, Dr. Vyomesh Bhatt, who's going to talk about balanced emotions. So make sure you tune in at 7:30 PM. And I'm going to stop the recording. And for those who are watching, I know some of you watch online and don't come here because of the timing. Please write in the comments or create a video and post it in the group. What were your observations from the video? Take care everyone, keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of your comfort zone.
Haritosh Srivastav, I won't be coming in the evening.
I mean, that's all right. Yeah, that's fine, I understand, no problem.
