Who moved my cheese? – Review

Cheese here, is not cheese as it sounds, but a metaphor that stands for things we pursue in life. A job, a relationship, money or any material for that matter. Cheese can even be an activity which we cannot do without doing. The cheese having disappeared implies change. Change of a routine which hits us right in the face when we least expect it to.

Sniff and Scurry are mice with a smaller brains than humans. Naturally, we tend to think they are less intelligent than human beings. But in reality, smaller brain implies lesser complexity; fewer rules to follow; faster decisions. Sniff is good at “sniffing out” cheese, and Scurry excels at “scurrying” after the cheese once he knows where it is. The two mice don’t really think about things. They just react to them. They find cheese; they eat cheese. They don’t find it; they go places, looking for it. Unlike us, they don’t over-analyze and waste time doing paperback calculations. They don’t plan. They act. Spontaneously act. And most of the time, it is what works well. Sniff and Scurry are ready to handle the cheese crisis. They, without second thoughts, get back to looking for more.

Hem and Haw, you could say, are a little bit too complicated than the simple mice. They can’t help using their brains more because they have them. Hem, in particular and as the name suggests, is someone who is afraid of change; One who cannot take a break from the routine. Is this not the situation in which we find ourselves most of the time? It might even be too late before the estimation and other careful planning are done. The hesitation to move on and the lame reasons we state in defense are also brought out pretty well.

The two little people, however, mope around, blaming someone for moving their cheese. They claim they don’t deserve to be in such a situation because they worked hard through the maze to find that cheese. They are not prepared to look again for more, even though it is their only source of survival. At an instance, even after Haw came over his fear, laughed at himself for being so foolish and moved on without Hem, Hem stays stubbornly put, insisting that someone will put his cheese back. Haw, on his way, scribbles on walls for Hem to know the way, just in case he changed his mind and decided to follow him. These scribblings are the goods the author wants to deliver.To make a long story short, (I know I could have done it in the first place, but still…)

Price: $8.41 in Amazon and  Rs. 109 in India at Landmark outlets.

Spellbinder
Editorial Team
GSG