The dictionary defines the word ‘true’ as something in accordance with fact or reality. And ironically fact is defined as something true. That is such a neat way to fool people and manipulate these familiar words. I wonder how many erudite or imprudent people have given these four letter words a thought, but I have come to realize there aren’t even half as many truths as we claim every breathing moment of our lives.
Come to think of it, there are billions of people living lives, sharing the world, bustling in the crowd, feeling feelings, seeing light, not seeing in the dark, appreciating colors, fouling on foul mouths. Who in the right state of mind claimed that all of us saw the world in the same manner? When we are born, we open our eyes to confront a world completely unknown to us, even the body bestowed on our soul is like a new friend to be understood, to be communicated with, to be teased to know your limits with it and to draw the lines consequently. A baby just a few hours old maybe doesn’t even know that if he just pulls his eye lids upward, he would be able to ‘open’ his eyes. It might sound a little weird, but I don’t think he would be able to define ‘opening your eyes’ as lifting his eyelids and rolling his eyeballs in all direction. In fact, I don’t think he is even grateful to be gifted with the sense of ‘vision’.
Till the time he is spared from all the learning, he communicates in a language with no sounds and actions. I think if one wants to see how magic happens, one must observe a young soul getting on with his daily chores with just no visible mode of communication with the people and objects around him. Once the learning spree begins, he sees a thing and a name comes up for it. Everything has a name; name is the most important thing in the world, words are names, every word is a name, and to connect to anything I must know its name, to be respected by it, I must know its name, to like it, to dislike it, to get angry at it – I must know its name. The child perhaps takes his five sensory organs a little more seriously for the first time when he sees his mother shrink her smiling face into other expressions such as a frown or a scorn or even delight for that matter (although her face wouldn’t shrink in that case) or starts to tickle him. In fact the first time he realizes his own forte for opening his mouth and controlling the air in his lungs to make him feel nice and happy would be at the same playful moment (for your reference I mean laughing).
There is a world in every eye. What appears red to me might be blue in your eyes, a circle for me would be a shape with no corners, for you it might just have two ends, or for that matter corner for you must mean no corners at all! I know it sounds little obnoxious, absurd, are-you-out-of-your-fickle-mind sorts. But how in the world can you be sure of what I am seeing? There are words; there are languages, which are man-made and on the other hand we have us, humans, lives that are created by something supernatural (okay we come out of our mothers’ wombs and our parents have ‘created’ us!). We have named everything so that there is something in common in all of us. Hence the sky is blue (on most sunny days), no matter what color it appears to you. And since we have heard this since our fleeting memory can allow us, my saying that the sky looks different from what it looks to you sounds absurd. I hope I am making some sense to you!!
So much for the colors and the shapes, but how does it relate to my subject? Since everything is subjective, differing from person to person, these cannot be called facts. Consequently, I am not as true as false I am when I say I love having tandoori chicken. “Now where does food come into the scuffle between truth and lies??!” Emotions are just the consequences of hormonal imbalances – like the rise and fall of a stock market (!!). When you love, hate, envy, excite, mourn, or feel any emotion, it is either a surge of adrenaline swelling your heart (not literally of course!) or some other biological process. It is probable, that when you like some one and think of him/her day and night and fantasize all happy (again through your perspective) and gay moments that you would want to spend with him/her your face curls into a scornful look instead of the more accepted and observed smile. Also maybe when people hate someone, you have butterflies in your stomach or you skip a heartbeat. I say so because maybe the first time you felt like despising and emulating someone in the same moment (jealousy) you were told, “hey, guess you like her!” and so what seems to be envious to others appears like love to you. So emotions aren’t facts that can be true or false. So I would not lie in saying I hate my mother because maybe my heart is filled with a sense of immense care and joy when I ‘hate’ my mother!
Our sense of direction is also not a fact. Nobody asked me before defining right to be right and left to be wrong? Maybe my ears hear right to be left and left to be right. Maybe the sun rises in the west for me because the world appears upside down to me!
I can site almost everything to be subjective, opinionated and hence not suitable to be categorized between truth and fallacy. THIS is the only truth – the truth about lies.
Come to think of it, there are billions of people living lives, sharing the world, bustling in the crowd, feeling feelings, seeing light, not seeing in the dark, appreciating colors, fouling on foul mouths. Who in the right state of mind claimed that all of us saw the world in the same manner? When we are born, we open our eyes to confront a world completely unknown to us, even the body bestowed on our soul is like a new friend to be understood, to be communicated with, to be teased to know your limits with it and to draw the lines consequently. A baby just a few hours old maybe doesn’t even know that if he just pulls his eye lids upward, he would be able to ‘open’ his eyes. It might sound a little weird, but I don’t think he would be able to define ‘opening your eyes’ as lifting his eyelids and rolling his eyeballs in all direction. In fact, I don’t think he is even grateful to be gifted with the sense of ‘vision’.
Till the time he is spared from all the learning, he communicates in a language with no sounds and actions. I think if one wants to see how magic happens, one must observe a young soul getting on with his daily chores with just no visible mode of communication with the people and objects around him. Once the learning spree begins, he sees a thing and a name comes up for it. Everything has a name; name is the most important thing in the world, words are names, every word is a name, and to connect to anything I must know its name, to be respected by it, I must know its name, to like it, to dislike it, to get angry at it – I must know its name. The child perhaps takes his five sensory organs a little more seriously for the first time when he sees his mother shrink her smiling face into other expressions such as a frown or a scorn or even delight for that matter (although her face wouldn’t shrink in that case) or starts to tickle him. In fact the first time he realizes his own forte for opening his mouth and controlling the air in his lungs to make him feel nice and happy would be at the same playful moment (for your reference I mean laughing).
There is a world in every eye. What appears red to me might be blue in your eyes, a circle for me would be a shape with no corners, for you it might just have two ends, or for that matter corner for you must mean no corners at all! I know it sounds little obnoxious, absurd, are-you-out-of-your-fickle-mind sorts. But how in the world can you be sure of what I am seeing? There are words; there are languages, which are man-made and on the other hand we have us, humans, lives that are created by something supernatural (okay we come out of our mothers’ wombs and our parents have ‘created’ us!). We have named everything so that there is something in common in all of us. Hence the sky is blue (on most sunny days), no matter what color it appears to you. And since we have heard this since our fleeting memory can allow us, my saying that the sky looks different from what it looks to you sounds absurd. I hope I am making some sense to you!!
So much for the colors and the shapes, but how does it relate to my subject? Since everything is subjective, differing from person to person, these cannot be called facts. Consequently, I am not as true as false I am when I say I love having tandoori chicken. “Now where does food come into the scuffle between truth and lies??!” Emotions are just the consequences of hormonal imbalances – like the rise and fall of a stock market (!!). When you love, hate, envy, excite, mourn, or feel any emotion, it is either a surge of adrenaline swelling your heart (not literally of course!) or some other biological process. It is probable, that when you like some one and think of him/her day and night and fantasize all happy (again through your perspective) and gay moments that you would want to spend with him/her your face curls into a scornful look instead of the more accepted and observed smile. Also maybe when people hate someone, you have butterflies in your stomach or you skip a heartbeat. I say so because maybe the first time you felt like despising and emulating someone in the same moment (jealousy) you were told, “hey, guess you like her!” and so what seems to be envious to others appears like love to you. So emotions aren’t facts that can be true or false. So I would not lie in saying I hate my mother because maybe my heart is filled with a sense of immense care and joy when I ‘hate’ my mother!
Our sense of direction is also not a fact. Nobody asked me before defining right to be right and left to be wrong? Maybe my ears hear right to be left and left to be right. Maybe the sun rises in the west for me because the world appears upside down to me!
I can site almost everything to be subjective, opinionated and hence not suitable to be categorized between truth and fallacy. THIS is the only truth – the truth about lies.
