THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Section 1 – The Story

It was the final examination time in the year 1994. I was in the 6^th Standard and my brother in the 4^th. Like most parents, my mom and dad also wanted to motivate us kids, using one of those old and eternal tricks and hence they threw bait at us. If both of us were to secure the first rank in our respective classes that time in the exams, we would be presented with a carom board. Alas! The very imagination of owning one had made both of us start drooling.

Fast forward 2x and it was April 10^th, the most awaited date for some and the most dreaded one for most othersJ. We brothers went to the same school for your information. Anyway, the results were out and it was a totally filmy scene in our house - the two brothers holding their heads high and flying their marks cards aloft with glee and joy-abandon. My parents were just too happy to learn that both their kids had topped the exams. We were greeted with all the praises, hugs and sweets. But in the midst of all this there was only one thing playing on our minds – The Carom Board! And hurray, we had at-last laid our hands on our prized possession!

During your academic years, generally for 16 long years, you would always want to outshine and outperform your own chummy, be it in the examinations, the quizzes, the running races, the talent competitions and what not! But in the end and more so in the retrospect, it would all be fair – competition-wise, judgment-wise and obviously result-wise because the whole environment in which these tests are conducted is quite transparent. You run faster = you stand on Podium-1, you perform better = you are the inter-school competition winner, you prepare/study/write better in the exams = you get the 1^st Rank.

By now, I think you would have guessed that I am not going to talk about Physics here nor would even dream of challenging Albert Einstein or his Theory of RelativityJ.

Section 2 - The Viewpoint

In any contest, looking from the Winner’s perspective, he would obviously feel thrilled about his victory, which he understands (or should understand), is the result of his hard work/ merit/ talent/presence of mind and may be a bit of luck, if you may like it.

Again, in any instance, looking from the Loser’s standpoint, he would certainly be disappointed about his defeat, which he understands (or should understand), is the consequence of some lesser preparation/lesser merit/lesser talent and may be a little lesser luck.

And yet again in any situation, looking from the Evaluator’s angle, his job is pretty simple- all the rules would be put down and he just has to follow them in the fairest of ways to adjudge the rankings.

So in any kind of race in life, if the influencing parameters are all fair with a level playground, a precise yardstick and clear cut rules to compare any 2 persons, like a high school examination/competition, then it is very easy for everyone and more importantly for the 3 people concerned-Winner/Loser/Evaluator, to be quite sure that the success/failure was because of one’s efforts/abilities alone and not because of anybody else’s mercy or mistake or intuition.

But the problem arises when the situation gets a bit different and a little iffy – i.e., when the Evaluator’s instinct and sixth sense come to the fore, as it happens, say for example during our AppraisalsJ! To be reasonable to the Evaluator, his job becomes more complex in such scenarios because the set-up is unlike the high school examination.

Section 3 - The Theory

As kids and grown-ups alike, we always bother about the relative status or should I say we are forced to worry so! The very crux of life coerces us to a state of outclassing the next person and standing on the topLJ. This competition might be self-inflicted or system-imposed. It is surely not confined to just one single point or phase in our lives. It is a continuous process running throughout the lifetime starting from the womb, to school, to college, to career, to achievements, to social status, to sports, to wealth, to business, to politics, to each and every ‘comparable-affair’ and the list might never end until the tomb. It is an ever pervasive subject covering every child, every homemaker, every professional and to sum it up briefly – EVERY ONE.

All said and done, these kinds of competitions/struggles are certainly inevitable in the current-world framework and I dare not challenge this structure! J. Else, Charles Darwin would reply on my Facebook Wall - “The Fittest Bloke Survives:-P “

At this point, I would like to turn the attention towards the ‘end-effect’ of any result on a human mind rather than its practical-world implications. It is here that I would like to define 2 kinds of Relativities which can encompass Person, Place, Animal or ThingJ, but let me confine it to humans alone.

Absolute-Relativity: It can be described as comparing oneself against one’s own self. A graph would show ‘Triumphs’ versus ‘Time’ w.r.t the self alone covering diverse contexts in life. A Triumph can be success of any kind - materialistic or psychological, of any level - small or big!

Relative-Relativity: It can be described as comparing oneself against another person, which is ever existent in our society. The graph would obviously have two or more Y axes showing ‘Triumphs’ versus ‘Time’ on X axis, w.r.t all the ‘people in contention’, again covering various contests.

We know that eventually, there is a Winner, a Loser and an Evaluator in every case; sometimes the Evaluator might be an unknown/unseen entity, the God himself notwithstandingJ. The rule is simple - in the aftermath of any event, the Winner/ Loser himself should become the Evaluator, review the incident, clearly analyze the situation, identify the suitable Theory and attain the eventual goal of finding happiness. I have tried to explain it by citing a couple of very standard scenarios below.

Scenario 1: The self/system-imposed challenge in a ‘fair’ environment

On a very generic note, here, Winner/Loser should rather apply Relative-Relativity to check what went right and what not and strive for excellence, because the goal is clear and the rule is straight forward – ‘Do the best to be the best’. Applying Absolute-Relativity here would prove to be a mistake, for it hinders progress in such cases, as we can visualize. Nevertheless, it still does help in self-assessment based on the individual’s analytical ability. This kind of scenario would generally be prevalent throughout one’s academic life and specifically in professional sports.

Scenario 2: The self/system-imposed challenge in a ‘not-so-fair’ environment

In such circumstances, the better way is to employ Absolute-Relativity and investigate if there has been an improvement in the graph or not and act accordingly. Applying Relative-Relativity in this scenario would certainly disappoint the Loser more and it might prove detrimental to the Winner as well, because of the ‘unfair’ factors. This kind of scenario would generally be prevalent in almost all spheres of life and more so in one’s professional life.

Section 4 - Conclusion

To conclude it all, I thoroughly realize that this is a very ambiguous topic to say the least, transcending various phases in our lives. All ‘You’ or ‘I’ can do is - as an Individual - analyze the existent system, accept the reality and move on!

The eventual purpose of any act in life should be to find happiness, look ahead and march forward.

---HMV

Say “Enough” - Stay Happy!

My dad always cites this example of an IAS aspirant who was in the interview room. The question thrown at him: Which is the place in this world where you feel all alone and can connect to your deep self. The lateral thinker’s answer was: the WC!I don’t know if my dad read it somewhere, as a piece of joke, or as a matter of fact. As far as I am concerned, some of the profound thoughts strike my mind, when I am taking bathJ.

It was a mid-September Thursday morning and I had just finished my jogging session along with my wife. Thanks to her constant persuasion, I had gotten up relatively early (7 a.m.J), to walk, jog and run, in-order to reduce the unwanted fat that I had un-intentionally accumulated over the previous couple of months. I drank my cup of milk and went into the bathroom to meet my very special person: my-self! J

No sooner did I start pouring the hot water onto my head, than my wife asked me to store a bucket for herself as well. I had never guessed that the idea which was due to strike me had taken its inception in a container of water!

Just think of the amount of water we use for taking bath – a bucket or two? And then, store another couple of pails for our dear ones, so that they also enjoy their bath with hot water, speaking silently to their own inner self. Come ‘on everybody does that or rather should do that if you ask me-speak with one‘s own self!

I prefer the phrase – ‘take bath’ to ‘have a shower’ because most of us use a plastic bucket and a mug rather than the bath-faucet, in this part of the world.

Coming back, I do not feel the need to store a 500L tank full of hot water for bathing purpose. That would be foolish and insane. We know our stay in the bathroom would be, say about 15 minutes which at the max might extend to half an hour! I finish my bath in 10 minutes on an average by the way ;). All we need here is a big bucket or two of water and we would say “Enough!” and stay happy in that moment.

At the same time it does not mean that I should not plan and store water at all for the household chores. Of course we need water for the next day and I am sure every one of us in this urbane era would have made proper water-storage arrangements with all those paraphernalia. But nobody would think of having a river in his backyard to fulfill his or his family’s aquatic requirementsJ.

After all, we do not consider storing water for the next twenty years, for the generations to come. Looking at it from a larger perspective, we leave it to the ‘system’ or the ‘government’ to think of the future. A good system will always ensure a well-planned structure - socially or financially.

By the way, I am not a ‘Save Water’ campaigner in any sense! My thoughts are a little more profound, least to mention.

Now, extrapolating the water-necessity to the food-requirements, just think of a buffet party. There would be loads of food items – starters, beverages, sweets, main courses, desserts and what not. Based on our preference, we would go in for a Vegetarian and/or J a Non-vegetarian menu. We might start drooling and our appetite might increase a little automatically but it cannot afford to become insatiable just because there are umpteen items available. I would have my share of food, say “Enough” and stay happy in that moment.

Again, we do not consider stacking food for eons to come, although we plan to store it for a couple of months at the max. We leave it to the ‘system’ yet again, to think of the future.

Luckily, God has created our tummies with a limited boundaryJ. But the same cannot be extended to the mind or the thought process of man. Fortunately or unfortunately there is no limit to our thoughts, the Gandhis and the Hazares use it for the well-being of the mankind and the Rajas and the Reddys use it for the ill-being!

I had never guessed that the idea which was due to strike me had taken its inception in the bucket of water! Black money it was!

I have always tried hard in vain to understand man’s unquenchable need for money or should I say greed for money. ‘They’ might argue that money doesn’t rot by catching fungus and so they want to stash as much cash as possible. How I wish the money had decayed like a radio-active element after a certain period of time!! J

I feel that beyond a point, we should all stop running behind money. The Ambanis, the Mallyas, the SRKs, the SRTs and all those Netas should come forward; show philanthropy and help the society at large.Some of our contemporaries like Sudha Murthy and even Bill Gates endorse this view, not only in their words but also through their deeds!

Ultimately, we are not going to carry any of this money into our after-life, if at all that exists, because the only account which counts there, is the balance of ‘virtues’. I do not want to sound like a saint here, for I am not one, yetJ. I too am materialistic and I too second the idea of ‘making good money’, but definitely not so much money that confuses me as to how to spend it, that snatches away my sleep, that embarrasses me in public, that disgraces me in front of my own people, supposedly for whom I had amassed all the wealth, that puts me behind bars and that kills me like a slow poison!

As far as I have seen and understood, in many of the developed countries, people do earn, live their life to the fullest, and sure create ‘some’ assets but they do not really scratch their heads about the lives of the generations to come. This kind of social structure sure existed in India, during the times of Kings of the Vijayanagar and the Gupta Empires, to mention a couple. I think, people in such cases just worry about themselves, invest in ‘systems’ at large like education and culture, depend on good governance for equality of wealth and law and order et al and try and lead a high quality life. Such people do understand the worth of money, do understand that money is just like water or food and they definitely do know - to say ‘Enough’ and stay happy in that momentJ.