(Story told by Jayakumar K R, during the “My Practice” session leading to Watts Humphrey Award, instituted by SPIN, Chennai on 27 Nov 2010)
Once upon a time there was a Lead Assessor who lived his assessment life satisfying organizations, himself and also the SEI. He appeared before the God after passing away, to know the results of his life whether he is chosen for the Heaven or the Hell.
“God I am thankful to you for the generosity. As I have some additional score above the “cut-off,” can you give me an option? I would like to assess how the hell the hell is and compare with heaven before getting into the heaven.
After thinking for a while the God said with a cunning smile, “You can visit the heaven and hell once and come back to me with your choice. I will honour your choice. Good Luck.” God promptly sent a message to the Heaven and Hell about the visit of Lead Assessor for an audit.
The assessor entered the heaven. It was a Friday evening, and he could not see any parties to his disbelief. It more looked like a lunatic asylum. People seemed to be in their own world laughing at themselves and doing what they want to. It was difficult to map to the happiness maturity level model that the assessor was familiar with. Assessor managed to award ‘chaotic’ level to heaven.
“Welcome to the Hell,” the board at the hell read. Assessor was very pleased. In the so-called heaven there was not any welcome sign and for that matter there were not any entry/exit gates. The night was still young on the Friday there. Lots of fun everywhere with music, dance, food, colours, and the parties do not seem to get over. Assessor rated the hell with the highest level on happiness maturity model and rushed to meet the God to pronounce the option.
God said, “Go to the Hell.” Happily, the assessor landed at the hell.
It was a real hell. He saw there everybody put into hardship and undergoing various types of punishments prescribed in the sacred texts. Even the “Welcome to the Hell” board was missing! With a lot of shivers, the assessor approached one of the sinners who was in a brief break between punishments and asked, “When I came a little while ago, I saw a happy world here. How come everything is different now…?”
The sinner said, “We were told that Lead Assessor will be visiting us and we were prepared to demonstrate our happiness level.”
“I am the Lead Assessor.”
“You have come now without any notice….this is what usually happens here…”
The lead assessor unfortunately did not regret the choice to go to the hell.
