The Magic of Company

The human being is someone I am yet to understand - yes, the same thing applies to every other creature in nature, but I am choosing this particular being because, apparently I am one. I sometimes catch myself being surprised to look down and see a body - or to see a weirdly shaped being staring back at me from something called a mirror, which apparently reflects this body in which I am wrapped - the same way as "others" see it. Luckily, this state dissolves as swiftly as it comes, and the mind slides back to "normalcy" - if such a thing indeed exists.

And now, I'll move on to the topic.

I'd find this article incomplete without Saint Thyagaraja's line in his famous Telugu composition, "Entha nerchina", describing man as" కాంత దాసులే" (Kanta Dasu). While the statement labels man as a slave of women in particular, I will interpret it, albeit in a slightly erroneous manner, here as one who is desperate for company.

So, well, company. Um, right. Well, what's there to say? What is the .meaning of company? Why would a man crave another's presence? Social animal, obvio. Duh. But hang on, is it that obvious? Don't we also crave solitude? Don't we pick that silent corner in that restaurant, or a vacant seat on a bus or train? But then again, we also want people. When we want them. When we want people, we crave for them.

Craving for food, sex even solitude can be understood but what exactly does one gain in the presence of another? I am not talking along the lines of entertainment, dismissal of boredom or something. I am looking at a much deeper aspect of it.

What happens to a person in the presence of another person? There are cases of meeting a person changing one's life permanently. A meet between two people is beautifully described in English as 'sharing time' - a phrase that, when dived into, can be interpreted as the intertwining of moments from two lives, which stimulates a set of effects - positive ones being the generation of better ideas, an unconscious impact on on or both souls, a temporary (possibly overwhelming) flow of emotion, a change of perspective - or possibly none of these. Even in the absence of any lasting effect, there is a marked change in the two people who interact. They become something different from what they are when alone - it isn't merely pretence - a real change occurs, perhaps akin to the appearance of interference drag in aerodynamics. Scientifically safe statements would be to say that gravitational, electrical and magnetic flux lines between the people rearrange themselves, but that seems pointless to me now. At the very least, I'd say that the metaphysical is far more intriguing than the physical here. The biological is cliché, so that is out of the discussion here. The metaphysical is mysterious, and deserves to be admitted as being so.

I, for one, feel that emotions cannot be dismissed as merely electrical signals of brains or secretion of fluids. The living being sees it all, the insentient is the playground of science (as we know it) no doubt but it is limited and needs to be transcended. Generation of specific hormones is merely a convenient effect (thank you nature) for science to measure something, and I find it a dishonest when it is stated as the only event. Right, sorry about that.

So, yeah, meetings. If meetings are so useful why are work related meetings seldom useful? My answer would be this: a meeting has less to do with the brain, more with heart, and employees expected to be trained, heartless 'resources' when at work, hence defeating the very concept of sharing time - soultime, rather.

With all that said, I'm off to spend some time with people..