Monday, February 29, 2016

The Law of Equality?

I hate math much like most of humanity. (I know! I know! The very idea that you may share any trait with me makes you want to crawl into a hole and pull it in after you. But, before you start digging, just think. After all, you too probably have a couple of eyes, only one nose, one mouth etc. and so do I...) The funny thing, though, is that I shy away from it when it IS required but insist on using it where it is not applicable.

Take this Law of Equality, for example. When someone says 'If A=B, then B=A', my mouth opens in a huge yawn, my eyes turn up and I keel over. All of which ought to mean that I will never apply this so-called Law in life. And then...

Back in my youth, someone said, 'Truth is Bitter'. First of all, I assumed that Truth = Bitter. You know how it goes. Most of us cannot recognize the truth if it ups and bites your nose, most times. Especially when it comes from another person and especially when it is about you. So, here was a nice and simple test for the truth. If you disliked what they were saying about you, then it must be true. If you liked it, it would be false. Ergo...whenever someone praised me (it happened rather rarely, yes, but still...), I assumed it was only flattery. Whenever they insulted me, I assumed it must be true. So, naturally, I grew up into this self-confident, assertive person who mumbled his way through life, practically apologizing for being alive.

And then, of course, Bitter = True. Which effectively meant that I had to ensure that if I told the truth of someone, I had to ensure that it also sounded bitter to him. NO 'You have bright ideas, but you need to be more meticulous in your analysis' and all that. Just 'Who gave you a degree? You ought not to have been allowed to graduate from fifth grade". There - THAT would be bitter enough to be true! Naturally, after a lifetime of speaking the truth, I am awash in friends - who scatter like a flock of birds, when you throw a stone, at the first sight of me.

Law of Equality, forsooth! Now you know why I HATE Math. It just does not work in real life, I tell you!

16 comments:

  1. There is some bitter truth in this post, Suresh :) You are trying to hide it in between your Suresh-esque humor, but it is showing. And I, for one, am happy for that. In some ways your post reminds me of this quote/question I have seen often being circulated on social media - do you want to be kind or right? (Or something to that extent.) I just can't understand these kind of simplistic binaries - why does it have to be either? And why place excessive strength on any one virtue? Why can't what is right be said assertively, not unkindly but firmly? And why should wrong be accepted just because it is presented kindly? Somewhere in there also is working that same misunderstood and misapplied law of equality about Truth=Bitter. Reminds of something from Mahabharata too. But will stop here, otherwise this comment will become a post in itself.

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    1. Almost ALL my posts have a kernel of bitter truth in them as who knows better than you, Beloo! :) In this one, THAT was precisely my point. Why are we looking for mathematical certainties in human relations, when we so HATE Math? :)

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    2. Well written post Suresh , as usual they hide some philosophy within :) Just happened to read Beloo's comment and I agree forcing relationships to adhere to this binary thinking is definitely being too simplistic. For that matter, life were indeed binary.. how do we account for the shades of grey :)

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    3. And we end up forcing binaries where they are not even the right options :)

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  2. As a fellow hater of maths, I empathise with you, Suresh. It is a fact though no one wants the truth no matter how kind or sweet it is, if it happens to point to some flaw, even unintentionally.

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  3. Nice! Short and decidedly not an em'bittered' post. Being diplomatic and sugar coating what needed to be bitter doesn't always help, you sometimes postpone the need to be upfront to a later and even more sulfurous date.

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    1. Hahaha! True - but not every truth needs be told bitterly and not every bitter thing told is necessarily true :)

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  4. Some deep thought there..
    Loved it in the light hearted way of your presentation or else it might have been a dose too heavy for weak (in math) systems;):)

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    1. How could it be otherwise when I am as weak at Math? :)

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  5. Not fair is it, this mathematical world! I always thought so too, how they put two and two together and apply the same logic to life too! This post has thrown me in a quandary....do I take compliments as false and brick-bats as true? Oh, you sure know how to complicate things! Enjoyed ;)

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  6. I also somehow assume that anything bitter someone says about me is absolutely true :D

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  7. Haha.... Really hilarious.... But you have beaten the truth this time. Congrats..even maths would be surprised of its own law, if you dislike it, then it definitely is true.hats off to you but I don't wear a hat....haha

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