by Kunal Thakore

BINARY

We’re all measured in digits. Adjectival words no longer have any worth, we’ve been reduced to numbers, where a denomination determines your value.

People look at your pay cheque. Your bank balance. Your net worth. The dimensions of your flat. Your pin code. The size of your car. Its engine displacement, top speed, acceleration. The price tag. The size of your waist. Your butt. Biceps. TV. And phone. The number of servants. The number of girlfriends and your “score”. Your children’s marks. Their rank at school. Their IQ (but never your’s). How many MB that flashy gizmo of yours packs. The number of hits your site generates, the number of friends and followers. The karats in that ring. The air miles you clocked last year. The books that are part of your at-home library (“my God, you still read books?”), the number of pages in their on-display coffee table books (which they’ve never read).

And in their mind it all comes down to just two numbers. 1 and 0. So either you’re a numero uno, a 10/10. Or a big, fat zero.

I say: status can perhaps be counted, but can true class be quantified?

17 Comments

  1. Well observed and articulated Kunal. Numbers probably make everything in everyone of us comparable and lableable. In a world that celebrates only success the numbers you mention allows us to at a glance put a sticker on the individual. Well observed again.

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  2. Kunal! How talented are you? I’m enjoying your writing, musings, and poetry. Some fun, some reflective, some soul searching.. Quite a repertoire.. Such a treat:)

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  7. Wow, it’s interesting that we wrote on this topic at the roughly same timeless year. It was a thought provoking read. I sometimes forget my own advice but rereading that article Envy and this one, I realise that we are really in a terrible state as a civilisation. We suffer when we are judged but don’t want to stop doing that to others. To me, there is no value in living up to another person’s temporary, arbitrary standards.

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      1. It happens sometimes. That’s why I call it a humming. On the extracellular level we resonate with each other and that is why the quality of our emotional offerings are so important. Hence those non material elements take on greater significance for our well being.

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