An Uncorrelated Regression

Read in the papers today that courier companies are likely to be barred from carrying letters which weigh less than 300gms. This is in order to promote the postal service, which is reeling from the loss of corporate and personal business. Incidentally, the Speed Post has for some time been advertised as the “Government’s own courier service”. Perhaps, they will pull back those ads, just in order to avoid confusion.

Some time back I wrote a rather verbose and laborious post on reservations in the IIM. (And then Anonym shatterred my random illusions of "writing well", by asking me to clarify certain things- I mean I wrote 2000 words and still left room for explanations!) Meanwhile, CII is urging the government not to go ahead with a certain social reform move, which includes job reservations in the private sector. Makes me wonder what next.

Are we regressing as a society and a country? Of course these two issues are uncorrelated, and it would be pointless to read between the lines. Which is precisely why I am doing it.

Consider, the Narmada Bachao Andolan- I really feel very strongly for the people who’ve had to be relocated- and think the issue should be handled sensitively and efficiently, but I am very clear that economic development almost always comes at a social price. Politics has had a field day. Courts have washed their hands off the matter saying that the one person who can resolve the imbroglio is the Prime Minister, who now seems like a politician who once attended a basic course called Economics 101. In my humble opinion, if the world had waited to ensure that each and everyone in Panama had been amicably relocated before starting work on the Canal, ships would still have been going around the Magellan Straits. I mean there will be broken hearts and homes. But the system just has to go on, while making things smooth for the ones affected.

I can only conclude that as a People, we are just pulling the country apart- and not just the politicians. Workers, Intelligentsia, Literati, Page 3, Media- everyone. Highlighting issues is one things, standing in the way of progress is quite another and trivializing it, is the worst. Of course, I am not prophesizing Doomsday. Nothing that bad- and if such things do happen, it will definitely take longer than my lifetime. We will continue to develop, at worst a little slowly.

I can go on but, Sadly…

Someone I was remotely interested in recently, today tells me that these days whatever I write seems rather “dry and tired”. After reading that now, I am in desparate need of some LOVE and AFFECTION! Wonder why? How does one end up needing the TWO? So rest of this post is quite something else. I shall begin by quoting Woody Allen (someone I resort to regularly when faced with such ponderous issues):

Alvy Singer: It was great seeing Annie again and I realized what a terrific person she was and how much fun it was just knowing her and I thought of that old joke, you know, the, this, this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, uh, my brother's crazy, he thinks he's a chicken,' and uh, the doctor says, 'well why don't you turn him in?' And the guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.' Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships. You know, they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd and, but uh, I guess we keep going through it...because...most of us need the eggs.
- Woody Allen. Annie Hall.

In a fairly inebriated state, I was asked last night whether I’d ever been in love. My interrogator was a friend (he is the category I find really difficult to handle- overly helpful, good at heart, thick in head, and a really bad sense of humour, but more about that later) who’s my age- or nearly, and has been married for five years to the first woman he proposed to. Now, that’s a really difficult question to answer. You obviously know what to say, but the problem lies in addressing the flurry of questions it leads to. A few days back his wife had asked me the same question. I looked away for a bit, then looked at him and said “Yes”. To be consistent between husband and wife. And then it started.

To be honest I have not been in a “full-fledged” relationship lately. I have been mildly interested in some people, but not quite as much to really take it forward. Sometimes I have been snubbed early. Sometimes I have just lost interest. Even in the prime of my youth, it was mostly “In and Out”. Actually, its almost like I have forgotten how it used to be like to be in one. All that I recall is the slightly warm fuzzy feeling. I don’t remember the terrible fights. Nor the incredible highs. Not the frequent walk in the clouds. Not the occasional plunges into the cold vat of sorrow. I guess at the end of it all that remains is the fuzz. After the crests and troughs have been ridden.

And then I began to wonder why is it that we seek relationships? And then I found my answer in the incredible Mr. Allen. Like he says, we NEED the eggs. Sometimes I have wondered about the futility of it all. The irrationality. The craziness. All of it. And then sometimes concluded that being in one makes one a little more human. I mean, what is a lifetime?

I guess a lifetime is about experiences. It’s a compilation of the good and the bad, the high and the low, and what you are left as at the end of each of those. It is a summary of the events in your life and the people who you shared them with. Of course, being in a relationship is an experience in itself, but having said that, it does amplify the effect of any other experience. I alternate between chasing relationships and running away from them, but I have enjoyed every single one I've been in. And then the other memories, good or bad, that I have are more vivid when they have been experienced with someone else. Someone else.

Actually, I think I am going to contradict myself a bit. Every relationship is unique in its own way. It a set of individual experiences, laid out beautifully, like snapshots on the mantelpiece. And they just cannot be compared, cannot ever be replaced. I guess its because of the way people are. I see, and remember, in them little details so specific to each of them that move me and that I miss, and... will always miss. You can never replace anyone, because every person is made of such exquisite specific details.

Too much to think on a Friday night- Tank Up Man!!!

(Sree calls, Hollers, T.O. scampers, shamelessly late)

=============================================================

Just enough time for a bit of Ghalib-

“Ishq se tabiyat ne zist ka maza paya
dard ki dava payi, dard-be-dava paya"