Wavelength

“Dude… he isn’t my wavelength…” - Like so many other phrases I use, this too falls under the ‘not-so-well-defined’ category. Only sometime back, I decided to give it some serious thought and define what it could possible mean.

The first thing that people in the same wavelength share is the similarity in likes dislikes and prejudices. Liking the same rock star, hating the same prof, blaming the system for things that go wrong – these minor eccentricities make people sense a common connection. For a long time, I believed that similar interests and intellectual capacity keep people in the same ‘wavelength’, but taking personal experiences into consideration, I realized that nothing of this sort is really necessary – in fact, the thing that is essential is the (glaring) difference in levels of knowledge (Interestingly, MSWord suggested information as an alternative to knowledge… that makes me wonder… is knowledge just a memory capsule of information…?) in divergent areas among the so called pals. One guy’s knowledge of snakes compensated by another guy’s knowledge about sex at which the formers sophistication is as good as a 7 year old. One guy’s knowledge about computers is a great alternative topic to discuss when the other’s philosophical rhetoric reaches heights of boredom. This way people remain interested in each other, thereby forming a channel for knowledge exchange (simultaneously narrowing down differences).

The point I am trying to make is that people remain in the same wavelength as long as the abovementioned differences among them continue to exist. The moment this ceases to happen, people who once seemed to have the same wavelength turn into ‘pain-in-the-ass’ ones, engaging only in occasional small talk. Ultimately such associations end up in favor of new ones that look great on that day… and we once again foster them unaware of its fallibility.

Carved Dreams

Man sleeps for 8 hours a day, it doesn’t need an Einstein to figure that this sleep constitutes a third of one’s life. Some feel this is a necessity; a few consider this as an annoying, yet avoidable indulgence but most hardly give it a thought. For me, sleep holds the key to my next adventure, the gateway to this fantastic dimension – Dreams. I have been the gallant gladiator fighting for survival, traveled thro space and time… but hey, let me save them for a better occasion. Instead, let me tell you about the different types of dreams I have had. The first is one where you don’t know it is a dream; you wake up and exclaim ‘damn… that was just a dream’. The second one is just like the first up to the point where you find things too good/far-fetched/absurd that you conclude rightly that it must be a dream. But you still allow things to happen unconscious of the fact that you are making them happen, you are actually watching a movie without knowing that you are the director. The third types is where you know it is a dream and also realize that you have the power to make things happen… if the first type is Alice in Wonderland, this is where Alice rules Wonderland. This is the dream where you dodge bullets like Neo, develop spectacular psychic powers… in short defy the laws of physics and fast-forward biological evolution (hey… is this fun?). The last kind of dream (that I know of, and dream about having) is where you know it is a dream, you also know that you can shape it the way you want to but still include logic, commonsense and other real world parameters into it. It is not a dream anymore, it is pseudo-reality. This dream is the most difficult one to sustain, for throughout human history, having power and resisting the urge to use it is unheard of. This is like playing a game of chess… a game where you play on both sides, a game that you lose once you start favoring either side.

So… have you played one yet?