How I got rid of my I.O.D.©*

How I got rid of my I.O.D.©*

There is a trait that seems to be ingrained in me right from my childhood--asking questions and seeking information incessantly.

Growing up in a railway colony, my questions used to be naturally centered around railways in my childhood.I used to pester my parents with "Which train is the fastest? Does a broad gauge train run faster that a meter gauge train? If a set of broad gauge and meter gauge trains were flagged off from a point, which of them will pick up speed faster and which one will reach the destination earlier and by how much?"
Into my adulthood, this mania continued, only the type of questions changed. I started asking all and sundry, questions like "What is the running cost of an auto rickshaw vis-a-vis a taxi? What relation does this cost have with the tariff charged? What part of it is goes towards the fuel and what part towards the repair/maintenance etc.? When fuel selling price went up by 10% why should the fare go up by the same percentage whereas it should have been lower? Why did the fare not go down when the fuel rates dipped?"

In due course, I graduated to asking "What is the mileage of brand X car vs brand Y? What will be the mileage with or without the air conditioning on? What about the mileage of an airplane? What is its speed on takeoff, on cruising and while touching down?"

Of late, I have post graduated to analyzing the energy and water consumption of my house and the broadband speed (for download and upload). Comparing mobile phone tariffs and the roaming charges of one company vs the other. When thousands of crores are lost by the Indian public in various scams, I get deeply concerned about the per capita loss to the public. What is the amount of black money stashed by the Indians abroad in various tax havens and how much will each of us gain if all of it is brought in? Out of the crores spent on the schemes like Jawahar Rozgar Yojna, what percentage went into the pocket of the beneficiaries? How much of the food grains bought by the government for public distribution system, actually ends up in the fair price shops?

Then here is a latest problem. If all communities including the forward ones start demanding and getting reservations, will the total percentage exceed 150%? Then where will these excess 50% go?

I keep posing these questions to everyone, from my colleagues at work, my friends and acquaintances. I did not spare even the co-passengers in the train, bus and the plane.

At last, now, it has dawned on me that I am suffering from I.O.D*( I did not find any name for such affliction so I have named it such and copyrighted it.).

Then on a blessed day I remembered an old couplet in Hindi heard in my childhood which says:-

‘kis kis ko yaad keejiye,kis kis ko royiye
aaram badi cheez hai,moo dhak ke soyiye.’

The essence of it is roughly ‘What/whom all to remember and what all to cry about;
Why not just take it easy, just cover your face and go to sleep over it.’

That is just what I have decided to do it for now. So good riddance I.O.D.

Good for my peace as well as for yours.

Amen.
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*I.O.D.( Information Obsession Disorder) © by Nagraj Rao