“You have to be ODD to be number ONE”
“Age is just a number”
Did God really build the universe on numbers? I sometimes feel that numbers are overrated. I mean, yes, they can prove to be useful in some important stuff, but sometimes it feels like your whole life is dependent on numbers, numbers and numbers alone. Didn’t get it? Well, sit back and relax while I give you the history and daily examples of numb birds…. Errrr, I mean numbers….
The history of numbers is messed up (like, messed messed up). Some say that the Greek invented the numbers and some say the Sumerian invented them, but most of the evidence points to Egypt, who had a complete number system for various purposes. Now, sorry to say, but whoever invented them did NOT do a very great job there. In the modern days, almost everything is dependent on numbers. There is not even one thing that is not depicted by numbers. Let me give a few examples to explain.
They say time is the oldest thing in existence. Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, time is numbers… Yeah. What time do you get up? 6:00 a.m.? That’s a NUMBER! When does your school start? 9:00 a.m.? That’s a NUMBER! When is your tuition? 5:00 p.m.? That’s a NUMBER! At what time do you sleep? 10:00 p.m.? A NUMBER again! See? Your whole routine is dependent on time which is ultimately a number. Sometimes, this number can be mischievous. If you wake up late, that extra 15 minutes in 6:00 got you in trouble, didn’t it? And if that 10:00 p.m. becomes 11:00, you know what’s going to happen next, right? And don’t even get me started on the extra 5 minutes I take in the shower… anyway, point is, these numbers affect your life enormously if you think about it. Every number of a second that passes by, it feels like you have lost a moment of your life. It’s really scary to think. (By the way, I am not advising you to not pay attention to time. Although it is terribly annoying, trust me, you’re going to regret it if you ignore the oldest thing in the universe)
Checked your weight recently? What is it? 30? 40? How about 60? What’s that you’re saying? Oh, you’re overweight. Well, you’d better pump those numbers back down, or you’ll be the next person to get teased on in school. So, another thing to give you anxiety. Another thing to worry about. Oh, and another NUMBER. Weight is another annoying number we have to deal with. If you are 60.3 kg at this very moment, your 60.8 the very next day. It’s so annoying, you feel like pulling your hair out, but there’s no choice but to cope with it, because you know that if you don’t, you’ll have serious problems other than being teased.
Let’s talk about social media. Nowadays, applications like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram have become very famous. If you post something, your friends see it and you get “views” in return. If people like your post, they “like” it. On applications like YouTube, they even “subscribe”. The number of likes per post gets converted to money and that’s supposed to earn you a living. Forget money, people also do it for time pass and sit looking at their phones all day at how many likes or views they got. And what are all of these? Yep, you guessed it! NUMBERS!!! So that’s another number game in our lives. The people with the most subscribers get all the glory, whereas what about the ones who aren’t even on WhatsApp? They get ignored, of course (what do you expect?). So, that’s another thing to look after. Another thing to bother you. Oh, and yet another NUMBER.
When you think of business, what comes to your mind? Money? Expensive cars? Ambani? Be it whatever you like, but when the word ‘business’ pops up, the first thing that comes to my mind is NUMBERS. You see, a business is another number game (Surprise, surprise!). A good-going business has to produce its products and send it to different outlets to sell. Then, they have to sit back and wait for the money to roll in… Just kidding! They have to keep track of how much income they gain and how many products they have sold… all in NUMBERS. The people in the share market sector have to sit I front of a graph all day and look at the Frequency Polygons going up and down, up and down and up and down. All in NUMBERS.
Speaking of businesses, what about money? ‘How much does your watch cost?’ ‘Oh 10,000? Pfffttt, mine is 15,000.’ ‘Oh, your pen is a 100 rupees? Pffftt, mine is a 1000.’ All these are daily quarrel-like conversations we have with our friends. And what is money, I wonder? Let me guess… Oh, righty, NUMBERS! The greater the figure, the more is the value of your respect. It’s kind of sad, being dependent on numbers like that.
Money, likes, time, Sensex, subscribers, comments, Facebook friends, Instagram followers, weight, height, stocks, minutes, seconds, life…….all numbers!
Anyway, I hope this blog does not give you the creeps. I hope you are not seeing numbers everywhere you look, and I hope you liked this blog!
Note: Blog illustration is drawn by yours truly. :)