Assumptions and Conclusions..!! ~ From a Nomad's diary

X: Hey, do you know why the new girl N has not come to office?

Y: Well, I am not sure, but I think she has been having some problems back home.

X: Is it? What kind of problems? 

Y: Well, the other day I heard N conversing with her fiancee on phone and she looked really upset! Looked like she was fighting.

X: Is it? but then, I am not kind of surprised. She appears to be arrogant. She does not even mingle with us, likes to be very private!

Y: Eccentric character, I know....The other day when I asked her what she thought of the new team leader, she snapped back saying, 'why would you want to know?'

X: Maybe, her fiancee is not able to handle her volatile temperament.

The real story: 

M: hey sweetie....what happened? 

N: I am upset! The taps in my bathroom are leaking and the plumber has not turned up for the fourth day in a row! Am going mad.....I don't know what to do.

M: Hey, chill....try finding another plumber.....

N: Have tried..some of them are on leave due to the festival season...It is crazy living in a home with weeping walls and seeping bathrooms!

(The above is a fictional reference to assert the post below)

We live in an age of sensational news and sensitive discussions, spicy gossips and misinterpreted facts, more chaos and less coherence, less reasoning and more play of emotions and finally, incorrect assumptions and flawed conclusions! We voice our opinions recklessly as if it were an act of ‘coolness’ (the word cool has a different connotation these days). And when we do, we care little about the fact that even opinions could differ and worse, may not be absolutely right or wrong. And, when they do, cliques are formed, following which we feel inclined to agree with people on a convenience basis or perhaps, with the intention to ‘fit in the crowd’. And somewhere, in the process, we tend to lose that individuality that may not be necessarily compatible with a mob mindset. We get highly judgmental about people around, the situations we face, and our very own problems. We deal with them with little reasoning and more emotion, not realizing for a fact that closed minds have no scope for growth. In discussion forums, we conveniently pick up only what suits us or perhaps, antagonizes us. In short, what catches the ears many a time, fail to catch the eye, due to which, we fail to perceive the elusive truth that tries wriggling free from the shackles of undying assumptions!

Assumptions! They can be far too many. Sometimes, they help and most of the times, they don’t. They somehow convince you even before you are tempted to confirm them. Our physical mind can be incredibly over-powering that it takes no time in drawing a wrong picture of what could possibly be right. One false assumption leads to another, leaving one confused and gaping wide at a heap of preconceived notions and bitter opinions. So, here are a few questions one must ask oneself every time the conflict between the physical mind and the sub conscience arises: 

How gullible are you to rumors and hearsay?

How many times do you count others’ experiences as your own and sing about them to the others 'as your own'?

How many times do you analyze what is being said to you, forgetting for a moment that the person talking to you may be your soul mate, best friend, a senior or even a close relative?

And that is where, reasoning comes into picture. We all fall prey to assumptions sans reasoning and conclusions that are drawn from those assumptions, at some time or the other. And talk about a problem in hand, even before understanding it, we assume it to be the size of a Megalodon shark. We  imagine it first in the head, fret over it, analyze it assuming the problem to be multi-dimensional and then, instead of grabbing the problem by neck, we speculate on how the problem can go from bad to worse thereby, missing on how it all started. Therefore, we get stuck in the ‘chakravyuh’ of our unruly thoughts gone wild. Precisely, the problem appears ten times bigger in the head, than it actually may be. Assumptions that are based on fewer facts and more tittle-tattle never lead to the right solution in real life unless one is solving some differential equations in Math where constant coefficients are assumed. It is here, I would like to quote some impressionable lines that caught my eye on a social networking site,

Assume less. Gather facts. Reason with your mind. Draw your conclusions. Think about it.