Analogies

They run through my mind like scurrying ants. Totally random. Completely pointless. Rather keep the mind bogged down with amusing thoughts than let it fall prey to people-judging, comparing, self elevating and people deprecating ones. So here goes. A compilation of some of the analogies I've come up with.


Driving on a jam packed freeway

Do you stay put on the slow moving lane, not think of it too much, enjoy the ride, the radio, the company? Or do you constantly plan and make lane changes so as to reach your destination in the shortest possible time? Moreover, do you ride on the right-turn-only lane so that you can get ahead of the rest and cut in up ahead? Do you drive at the fastest possible speed that won't get you a ticket?

It all seems so similar to how people live their lives. Some of them like the chase. They have this need to get ahead. They'll do everything possible to get there, faster than the others, ahead of the others. Others like their life just the way it is. They don't think the benefits of making a change is worth the trouble. Or they just plain don't want to think. Especially when all is going smooth just the way it is.

I personally think both styles are perfectly fine. Who do I associate myself with? I alternate.

You can keep adding more aspects to this analogy. A five hour long drive, all by myself gave me enough material to write a thesis on this topic.


The rate at which to consume the limited amount of side dish you have

Think chapaties and a limited amount of sabzi. You don't want to finish the sabzi too early least you have to eat the last few morsels of your chapati all by itself. You don't want to be too careful and have sabzi left over even after the chapti is gone. You wouldn't then have derived the most relish out of the dish. (There is this third option where you can show complete apathy and not really care, which is probably what most of you would be doing. Depth lacking, non-thinkers you. I quote Monthy Python when I say, "I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of old elderberries!".)

Seems so similar to saving for the future. You don't want to be too parsimonious. What's the point if you are gone and there is money left. Neither do you want to reach a state of all the money being gone and, well, you being left. To spend at just the right rate so as to optimally utilize all that you make.


Homework doing. Team up or go solo.

"You could submit your homework in pairs", the Professor said. "Fewer papers to grade would make my life easier". I look around. One girl I know. Something tells me she has her partner picked out. Either ways, the proposition of pairing up with her doesn't interest me too much. I wait through a few classes. A couple of weeks pass and the first homework is around the corner. Still no success in finding my partner. Then one class, on one of those 'need-to-get-business-done' days, I notice a guy next to me reading a tech magazine. Cool I think. The class over, I ask him if he's interested in joining forces. "Why not", he says.

Till date, the move to pair up has proved beneficial. I don't know if I could have done better. One thing is for sure, it's definately worked out better than going solo. I think to myself, 'is this how marriages work?'. You never know if you could have done better, but you are sure to do better with someone than without? It's possible that a you might have been able to build a stronger team but it's certain that a team will be stronger than the individuals by themselves? The catch however is, how alike are the goals. The sum of two vectors in the direction of one of the vectors will greater than the original vector only if the angle between the vectors is less than 90 degrees.

Do we then continue on this line of reasoning and conclude that a "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" scenario would be even more beneficial?

These words from the Sunscreen video come to mind.

"Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…
what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either
your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s."

"Half chance", she said. She wants to take it. I'm a safe player.


On a completely different note, to all the men out there (in case you haven't already come across this list), this. Don't judge me.

And ladies. How could I ever forget you. This and this.