It’s Usually All Grey…

I don’t know if it’s the fact that I was born under a sign that enjoys debates and discussions or is it the so-called questioning attitude that I have always had that makes me get into all these conflicts and debates with myself. Either ways, I enjoy them quite a bit.

I can’t even think of all the infinite times when any of us would have gone on discussing stuff ranging from the “true meaning” of life (love is also a popular one) to how we were so dreamy in our last relationship(s) or if the career choice we have made is the right one or not, did JLo do the right thing by insuring her legs so and so forth. Basically, there aren’t topics left that we haven’t dissected or over-analysed sometime or the other. And if you’ve been in a hostel…multiply the topics and the depth of discussion by ‘n’. Vague or serious…there have been all kinds!

How these discussions end is also quite interesting if you look at it. There’s the classic way of one or all of the participants passing out due an “xtra-happy-booze-party”, then there’s one or more of the people walking out coz’ “they’ve-had-enough”, or when one of your roomie reminds you of the early morning class, or when an “un-wanted” person enters the room / discussion and does not understand the hint that “Sir…please f***-off”, and then of course there’s the all time favourite, “lets-believe-what-we-each-want-to” approach when the discussion gets a bit too heated or we all loose interest coz’ it dragged too much.

Personally, I do enter into the discussion with a viewpoint of my own but it’s not the “last word” for me. I’d be lying if I say there haven’t been times when stuff that I was so damn convinced about was brought in front of me by someone else with a completely new flavour that I had to take a step backwards and re-think on my fundas. Quite frankly, I guess I have taken a lot back from these sessions which I have had with everyone from my closest of friends to teachers to someone I just bumped in the bus, just about anyone in fact...

I can still re-call a class of one of our professors who said that no matter what we say, all of us have a price we can sell our values for. What I had never understood earlier was that the word “price” was not just a synonym for money alone. The example of which that he gave still ties me up in knots!

However, the most important thing that all these discussions and long chats have done for me is that I no longer view things at being just this or just that. I mean…there are a plethora of fundas that I have about stuff…all kind of stuff. But I no longer have them engraved on a slab of granite till time immemorial like some kind of Gospel truth. I have slowly but surely begun to understand that it’s not all that clear cut. I guess that’s what time does to you if you are student to all that comes with it. It makes you realize that there are in fact...very few things in life that are either black or white...

It’s usually all grey…