Earlier in my life I never understood how truth could be
relative. Truth could never be relative. Either it is there or it is not there.
It is a binary equation. One or zero. Either you speak the truth or you are
lying and if you speak the truth then you are not lying.
It took a whole lot of experience to understand it
otherwise. Now I argue against the absoluteness of truth. There is no such
thing such as the absolute truth. Everything is relative, situational and
depends on perspectives. I should have guessed this as a kid. I remember as a
kid, possibly in third standard or so, thinking to myself… how do I know that
the blue I see id the same blue you see. You must be seeing the blue I see as
green and since you are taught to call that color as blue and so have I, we
will never know if we both see the same color in the same way, though we call
it the same. I still love that argument.
That was an interesting introduction for me into relative
truth. And now that’s what I believe in. it’s difficult to say something is the
truth. There are always more variables at play than you can imagine. That’s why
economics is so difficult. Earlier on the economist thought that they had
cracked economics. You put in the variables in a formula and voila – you have
human behavior. But you never know all the variables and you never know the
relative behavior to any of the mix. So to the economists who thought they
cracked it all, they came out pretty confused. They should have understood it
when they saw Giffen goods. Giffen goods. One of the earliest theories taught
in economics showing the surprising side of economics. Simply put – it talks
about a phenomenon of demand for a good going up due to the rise in its price.
It violates the simple demand curve. So this made economics fun, but then the
boring teachers got into the game and completely killed economics in college. I
wish we had some exciting economic teachers who loved the fun of the subject as
opposed to the weariness normally associated with it. bloody hell, I learnt
this stuff for five years and I never understood its true principals till much
later in life.
So coming back to the relativity of truth. It’s always
depends on the point of view. It’s easy to pass judgment on the side. One so
many things we just don’t understand the complete implications. We want terrorist
killed but we fail to realize that one era’s terrorist is another era’s freedom
fighter. I always question Jispa on many things. I ask her simple questions and
leave her to ponder. I think she is now old enough to understand even more
complex equations. On Sunday we sat down to eat breakfast. It was the same
breakfast we ate on Saturday. Roti rolled up with paneer, fresh veggies and
some chutney and sauce inside. On Sunday as I put in the green chutney and then
put the red pizza sauce on her roti before putting the veggies, Jispa wanted
the brown sauce on it. “Brown sauce? There is no brown sauce” “yes, yesterday
you put in a brown sauce, there was one”. “no Jispa, This roll is the same as
yesterday. There is nothing else missing from what I put in yesterday. It’s the
same dam thing. I am the cook, I should know”. “No dad, there was a brown sauce
in it. Can I have that”. Arey yaar. What the hell. Till Jasmine figured… “Jispa.
yesterday dad had premixed the green and the red sauce and that’s why it looked
like brown sauce. Today he is just applying it on your roti separately”. Oops.
After a minute I explained to Jispa. You were right and so
was I. There was a brown sauce and the roti today is same as yesterday. Both
were right but we were both fighting with each other thinking that the other
was wrong. Many times two people can see two versions of the truth. It’s not
necessary for one to be wrong for the other to be right. Sometimes it’s not
even necessary to know the difference. It’s simply best to let it be. Many times
the truth is too difficult to dig out and then the relativeness of truth makes
it possibly an exercise in futility. Move on! But isn’t that such a difficult
thing to do.
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