So, life goes on. The lows of the last post have largely, albeit temporarily, been abandoned by gritty conscious efforts from me. Cool, am I not! Borrowed some energy from the universe and deliberately met people for two days, eating, roaming, doing all kinds of masti possible in this dark yet beautifully lighted-up-in-the-festive-season city just to pinch away from the circle of woes. So even though life is more or less back to where it was, I'm trying not to feel gloomy about it and at least now it's working. One would be stupid to miss a beautiful life getting depressed over nothing. And besides, God has been listening to me a bit. It's finally freezing again here, and this morning I woke up to ice gleaming under the sun again. People who lost their minds a bit in the last few months finally regained their old sensible charm in the lazy December chill. And all my cooking experiments seem to be working miraculously well once again!
So, it's all down to the last exam tomorrow, and after that I'd be officially free...hopefully shopping, a cruise, a couple of parties and all that would fill my time till it's finally time to pack my bags again! Till then, I'm free to worry about WHAT to buy, and also cribbing about having to stop being a teenager in just about 10 days...eeks that sucks!
Ok, now that the crappy updates are done, I wish to write about one of my various theories today. Oh yes, I got many many theories about life and people, and how things work or don't. Most of them are observation based and empirical, and a lot of them make sense many a times. However this one is one of my favourites, and I write it because I want someone to read it (hopefully you will, it's not sugarcoated...)
Right, so here I go. I think/believe that each one of us is at the centre of a number of concentric circles of increasing radii, and all the people in our life -- and I mean every single person --are situated at one of these circles. The closer the person is to us, the nearer his/her circle which means less distance. The farther you go, the larger the radius, the larger the circumference and thus the larger the number of people who could be accomodated on the circle. This means that there could be only a certain number of people who could possibly be really close to you because there is only that much space, and the list of acquaintances is invariably the longest because it's so far away. Everyone has their own circles and circles for everybody intersect at various points but it's rather complicated to imagine so better use spheres for imagination purposes. Also, it's not necessary that the circle number we occupy on someone else's cluster is the same in the vice-versa scenario. Which explains a lot of pain that happens in this world, when we give someone more value than they give us.
The first few circles around everyone are empty, because they signify the innermost reaches of us that our defence mechanisms don't let anyone get to. This is what we call our private space that we value a lot. The number of these empty circles varies from person to person. If you feel lonely in life, it means there are more circles empty than you'd like or you need, and that is when you feel the need of someone to come a little closer and fill in the 'emptiness in your life'. Again, most of us have a limit, and if someone comes closer than that, we start getting uncomfortable and try and push her away a little radially outward.
Centrifugal forces are inversely proportional to distance, and hence the closer the person, the shorter the radius, and the harder it hurts. Similarly, the more this distance, the less it really matters.
So far I always find my theory making a lot of sense at many practical points. I, like many introverts (even though I'm more like an ex-introvert), lived/live within a shell that enclosed some of the innermost circles, and everyone else positions herself/himself at points on the circles beyond, so that no one could hurt me with a force more than I could handle though I had to cope with loneliness in return. Yeah, I knew/know like a thousand people, but that simply suggests that I have many circles in my cluster, and a lot of the people are on the far-off large circles. No co-relation at all with who I really was, or thought I was, what I really felt, and how alone or happy I was.
In the past year, I think I have grown tremendously. Most of all I opened up and came out of my shell, or at least, moved it inward a bit that allowed some people to come closer to me than ever before. Of course that makes me more vulnerable, which is the part I've always hated and still do. A few times, I've felt so vulnerable and weak I wished to rush back to the old shell and push everyone away who's come in. So far though, I've manged to hold on. I chose this for myself, perhaps experimentally. I have given myself the possibility of getting hurt a lot more than I ever could. And I've already had my share of unprecedented hurt a few times. But then, it's brought me more joy than ever before too. More of both joy and the sorrow that comes tagged along.
In short, more of life.
So, it's all down to the last exam tomorrow, and after that I'd be officially free...hopefully shopping, a cruise, a couple of parties and all that would fill my time till it's finally time to pack my bags again! Till then, I'm free to worry about WHAT to buy, and also cribbing about having to stop being a teenager in just about 10 days...eeks that sucks!
Ok, now that the crappy updates are done, I wish to write about one of my various theories today. Oh yes, I got many many theories about life and people, and how things work or don't. Most of them are observation based and empirical, and a lot of them make sense many a times. However this one is one of my favourites, and I write it because I want someone to read it (hopefully you will, it's not sugarcoated...)
Right, so here I go. I think/believe that each one of us is at the centre of a number of concentric circles of increasing radii, and all the people in our life -- and I mean every single person --are situated at one of these circles. The closer the person is to us, the nearer his/her circle which means less distance. The farther you go, the larger the radius, the larger the circumference and thus the larger the number of people who could be accomodated on the circle. This means that there could be only a certain number of people who could possibly be really close to you because there is only that much space, and the list of acquaintances is invariably the longest because it's so far away. Everyone has their own circles and circles for everybody intersect at various points but it's rather complicated to imagine so better use spheres for imagination purposes. Also, it's not necessary that the circle number we occupy on someone else's cluster is the same in the vice-versa scenario. Which explains a lot of pain that happens in this world, when we give someone more value than they give us.
The first few circles around everyone are empty, because they signify the innermost reaches of us that our defence mechanisms don't let anyone get to. This is what we call our private space that we value a lot. The number of these empty circles varies from person to person. If you feel lonely in life, it means there are more circles empty than you'd like or you need, and that is when you feel the need of someone to come a little closer and fill in the 'emptiness in your life'. Again, most of us have a limit, and if someone comes closer than that, we start getting uncomfortable and try and push her away a little radially outward.
Centrifugal forces are inversely proportional to distance, and hence the closer the person, the shorter the radius, and the harder it hurts. Similarly, the more this distance, the less it really matters.
So far I always find my theory making a lot of sense at many practical points. I, like many introverts (even though I'm more like an ex-introvert), lived/live within a shell that enclosed some of the innermost circles, and everyone else positions herself/himself at points on the circles beyond, so that no one could hurt me with a force more than I could handle though I had to cope with loneliness in return. Yeah, I knew/know like a thousand people, but that simply suggests that I have many circles in my cluster, and a lot of the people are on the far-off large circles. No co-relation at all with who I really was, or thought I was, what I really felt, and how alone or happy I was.
In the past year, I think I have grown tremendously. Most of all I opened up and came out of my shell, or at least, moved it inward a bit that allowed some people to come closer to me than ever before. Of course that makes me more vulnerable, which is the part I've always hated and still do. A few times, I've felt so vulnerable and weak I wished to rush back to the old shell and push everyone away who's come in. So far though, I've manged to hold on. I chose this for myself, perhaps experimentally. I have given myself the possibility of getting hurt a lot more than I ever could. And I've already had my share of unprecedented hurt a few times. But then, it's brought me more joy than ever before too. More of both joy and the sorrow that comes tagged along.
In short, more of life.
22 comments:
Interesting theory indeed - detailed and easy to visualize. Allow me to chip in.
Circle number we occupy on someone else's cluster could be different - yes, and I think that's what makes us make efforts to be good people. I can't help but compare a situation where mutual circle numbers would be equal, to socialism. It appears like a perfect model providing 'happiness for all' except that it's not meant for humans. Unequal numbers, on the other hand, keep us working on ourselves and make the world interesting.
Pain when we give someone more value than they give us - Might I say, it could be the opposite. When after a long time one realizes that someone else has been giving far more value to him than he has been giving, that can be a lot more painful.
See this:
"How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me. "
Full Poem
And those empty innermost circles are wonderful personal playgrounds. Real necessary, should be preserved, agreed. That became a long comment, interesting theory really!
Dear V,
You're the best :)
Yeah you are right. I totally agree. Should have put in this perspective as well, especially because recently my frame of mind has been a lot into the hurt I caused by giving insufficient value types frame. socialism doesnt work in a real world. If there were no hearts involved, perhaps capitalism with perfect competition would have worked. Sadly none do. Life is always dangling between the extremes.
Nice poem. :) thank you.
First of all, good one! You should tell us more about your other theories of life. Atleast I would be more than willing to listen to them since I am myself looking for such stuff, something I can put down in such simple and understandable analogies. They make life much easier. They may not be 100% correct all the time, but such moments give us chance to revise them.
Now coming back to this theory, I do want to extend the theory to explain the following observation that, "as people get more closer to you, you sometimes start taking them for granted and this hurts them.. and possibly pushes them away".
So, may be to maintain these circles, I, as the center, has to put in some effort. The closer a person, the more effort I have to put in to keep them closer and not get away farther. The farther a person, the less effort I need to keep them from going even farther. But, from my observations again, there is a "nearing-threshold" too, which when a friend crosses, he/she becomes so close to me that I can let them go.. that I need to put no efforts to keep them close to me. Once a friend crosses that threshold, we become so comfortable with each other, that just the force of me (as a person) keeps him/her from going away.
Need to go now.. have some more comments.
Good stuff, keep them coming!
ur theories of life sound pretty interesting mate! if Im standing in the center of a circle, I consider the distance to others should be more n more n more right now...cos the cost of Love is very dear and Im beginning to distance myself from some ppl. Atleast thats how I feel now.
But I liked what u said towards then end. The more hurt u have encountered in life, the more LIFE it has brought to u. So true!
Keshi.
"In short, more of life."
Brilliant words to end a really interesting post.And nice to know that you are feeling better than what you were during your last post.
Yeah, I agree with AB. Brilliant ending.
And a very interesting post indeed!!
'Bout the post: Just like you and me work in phases. the concentric circles do too. Hence, the circles increase or decrease in radii over time.(Atleast for me, they do). It not necessarily has to be the "I" who keeps them from moving away. It could be the circumstances.
i was never too good at geometry in school :( i guess i score zero in this post ..
Hey...had written a similar one at http://chitraaz.blogspot.com/2006/03/going-around-in-circles.html :-)!
[ritesh]
thanx for the comment. Yeah I got a lot of theories..will share more sometime I guess. It's fun fitting observations in models and trying to predict or assimilate other things from it.
your point is correct though, and as they say relationsips need to be two way. A simpler way to see what you have to say is this:
Each person in my clusters is at his/her position because of what he/she means to me, and what kind of forces he/she exerts on me. And I do the same to him in his cluster vis-a-vis the position i occupy. The situation stays dynamic like this until an equilibrium is reached and we attain comfortable positions on each other;s circles.
It's another way of wording the same concept.
[keshi]
:-)
Yes life exists in sorrows and joys.
And well, u maybe getting a little more in ur shell but i am sure it's temporary , being the full of life person that u r.
[ab]
Thanx :)
[venom]
Thank you...and yeah wat u call as variability is true, or it cd be alternatively said it is the path to wquilibrium, but no equilibrium again is forever.
[chitra]
read it
[arpzz]
oh koi na...zyada complicate ho gaya na:P
Interesting theory. One wonders though if everyone's 'innermost' circles are the same size...some ppl accomodate a lot more individuals in their innermost groups, while others just cannot.
Am suddenly also reminded of quantum mechanics...what makes an 'individual' 'jump' rings?
well that's what I said..that we all we have a few empty circles before we allow people to fill in, some have more n sm less, n that is how the number of people closest differ. What fills the space inside the very first circle is the 'self', and its size matters too.
In terms of classical quantum mechanics, u can perhaps imagine individuals have to gain something...trust confidence love something to move inwards, just like electrons need energy to go outwards and stability keeps them in.
i like the circle theory :)
sorry can't make a bigger comment. [if i wud hv soo much work and enthu, i hv updated my own blog :(( which is long due]
happy birthday in advance in case i forget [actually i dont know d date, but still :P]
boy staring too long at those circles made my vision blurry :P
btw me off to home ...so thought of sending some early wishes in....for b'day, x-mas and new year in advance.
have d most rocking times and keep flying higher...n i hope u wont have to rise again :D
i love your theory girl! :)
but i have added my own technicalities to it... i mean im wondering if there can be people in ur life who break the circles or change the shapes... etc etc...
I loved the theory! I had though on similar lines way back in 2003, the only difference was that I had assumed a 'spiral' structure as opposed to the concentric circles. The spiral, I think can be enveloped in a cone, and the cones put together in all directions make up a sphere, which I refer to as the 'real' earth.
Loved your post like anything, good thoughts.
:)
Happy Birthday in advance :)
I know :), ok kidding. Sad for the systems that don't work, we people can go on having fun whatever comes. It's difficult to confine humans into systems and isms!
Awesome theory! Seems pretty much alright to me. So this was the one you had referred to on my blog a few years back.
:d Think so.
Look at the date when this was written! Oh man.
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