Rant 71: The distance between.

What is the physical distance between two immovable bodies A and B? Simple, isn’t it? The shortest distance between them is the shortest straight line that can be drawn between those two points.

What is the shortest distance between two cities if you’re on a car? Is it the straight line distance? No. Infact here it changes to the shortest “on-road” distance between the two cities. You can see the difference, we are now introducing the concept of an approachable road where the vehicle can drive comfortably. This definition contains a sense of practicality, a sense of comfort and ease. Sometimes, travelling from Roorkee to Delhi (187km), for that matter, can take more time than travelling from Delhi to Agra (via the Expressway) (233 km). It all depends upon the mode or the selection of the bestfit method.

These distances between two points becomes still more complex when you include the different mode of transports. Carts to flights. So many parameters come in. It just becomes too complex to easily state – this is closer and this is far.

Think of how easily we term human relationships as far or close or together. IS it really that simple? With physical distance between two cities, a few factors make it so complicated, what complications do human feelings bring in?

Humans can have prejudice for each other. We can have discriminations – in form of social, political, economical, religious, caste based (welcome to India). Plus add to it, our own ego, as if all of this was still less. When you combine everything and plate it in front of two or more humans living across at different points ranging from x = 0 to x = y, where x is the distance between two or more people, it becomes a math that is beyond calculation.

Its like in today’s time, you really do not know who might lose interest in you at what instance. You go have a beer together with your best friend from school and that might be the last time you met! The shit news is we haven’t evolved science as much so as to project or forecast human expressions or reactions. We have kind of started but not there yet. People who live right next to you might actually be at a greater distance than your parents living thousands of miles away.

We have seen relationships flourishing and continuing several continents apart and we see people struggling to smile at the end of the day when the meet at the dining. So, it is clearly and certainly very difficult to conclude someone actually lives closeby.

This all started when a guy next to me, in the train, told me how his family has been pursuing him to come home for the Durga Pooja and how his friends were planning for a trip. How he was furious because he had to ditch people who are “with him” for 7 years for his parents who live like 42 hours “away”. I was a little taken back by his response. But its ok! Maybe I will never understand what is the relation between the two groups. So I ended the conversation with a “hmm”. I try not to judge people and their relationships so easily. I do so only when there is someone close who is involved and is at stake.

Anyways, I had a pretty journey with that guy from Dehradun. He was ofcourse happy he was back home but a little sad that he had to leave the trip with his friends. I hope his home trip makes up for atleast some part of that trip.

Do let me know in the comments below if you have also experienced the complexity in the distance between human relationships, or have felt that people apart seem to be closer than the people living next to you.
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Always Ranting, Rantzaada.