Here's a simple story of what happened in our office this week. We were working seriously last Monday. Somebody came and told in the afternoon, "Its raining". This is nothing new in bangalore...nowadays its cloudy for weeks here. What came to my mind is "This is like the London weather". When I told one of my collegues, " Its raining", she said "Gosh! There are clothes lined up in the terrace and they'll get wet again!" When she told ("Its raining") to another friend of her, she said, "Today I brought an umbrella!", another replied "How can I attend today's party?" Phew! Two words and no two emotions are the same. So, how can we really expect people to share same point of view or opinions on so many other different things, which are more complex than "Its raining!" ?
We all know we cannot compare apples with oranges. I am not sure whether we can even compare two apples. What I know for sure, taking reference from the different apples available in India are Kashmiri apples and different from apples from Shimla, which are different from the Washington apples...the list is endless. I bet, even in Kashmir the experts will tell you that this garden's (or may be this tree's) apples are sweeter than the apples of that one. It is to be noted that we can differentiate them though we have a very limited interaction with them, albeit eating. Ask the owner of two similiar breed of dogs and you can hear a list of things which differentiates one from the other, starting from their sound of barking to eating to playing. Then why do we compare any two human beings when we are so different from each other?
In the kinder garden when you hardly know whats going on around, in the same class, some fare really well and others not that much. Even in universities when the lecturer delivers a lecture, each one interprets the lecture in his or her own way. When asked to write a synopsis of the lecture no two writing will be the same, word to word. If we all were same then how can this happen?
This is the root of all the problem - comparison: my home vs your home, my wealth vs your wealth, my kids vs your kids. How long shall we continue with the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses syndrome? Perhaps, much without our knowledge, this syndrome creeps within us - from our parents, teachers, neighbours, relatives, friends. I was annoyed with some people when my daughter was born as they started comparing her weight with those of others. Now that is ridiculous as you put that innocent baby in a rat race from day one! Give her a break! This disease called comparison results in a lot of fall-out between siblings, commonly known as sibling rivalary, relatives, friends etc. Just because he or she is my brother or sister, does not mean our parameters should be compared in all fields - be it in in the playground or academics. I had a very good neighbour-cum-friend. Today I realise that we had lots of things in common and we could have had a much healthier friendship. Just because he was my next-door neighbour and we studied in the same class and same school, people around started comparing us. I would like to point out, that till standard four we studied in different schools and thats when the friendship blossomed. But from Class Five, we were in the same school. People around got another topic to gossip. Whenever the results were out, there was comparison between our marks. How foolish! From good friends we started drifting away. You cant ignore the cacophony around and that too when you are that small. Now we both have become matured and have admitted and realised the mistake. Really, comparisons can ruin good relationships.
I sometimes wonder, is there any need to compare in the first place? If I am compared to X, then my achievements are limited to that of X. After a certain age, we all choose our own path...live our own life. So, today, the childhood rivalary is of no significance now, perhaps were not even then. Likewise, today's comparison regarding my car vs your car or my bangalore vs your london seems utterly foolish. After all, we all live the life that we choose to or are happy to live. Ideally, my 32 inches LCD TV should not make me proud because my neighbour has a 24 inches flat screen normal TV, but only because I love my TV's sound and picture quality.
Its like running a marathon race, which is our life. We all our running. While running some only look forward, towards the destination, dreams about how to get to a better place in a better way. Some keep on looking on the left, on the right, behind to see who is closer. If somebody is closer, then they foul the person, the fall of the person brings that temporary wicked sense of amusement to them. Then somebody else fouls them and they fall and cry, vowing to take revenge. The leg-pulling continues - starting from the kinder garden (or may be from the first day of the life!) to the last day. And in the process of rise and fall, they constantly think about how to score one against the relatives and neighbour; they very often get diverted from their destination, which is very different from the person who enjoys running, irrespective of whether somebody is breathing down his neck or not. He knows what he wants and where he wants to go...surely, he is enjoying every moments of the journey!
