I have never been more impressed with any other theory taught to me in high school than this one. Even though Maths happened to be my favorite subject, the favorite theory of my life happened to be 1 from Physics.

Our very own Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

As far as I remember I studied the Theory of Relativity when I was in my 12th standard. And to say the least I was fascinated, bowled over. In short I was in love.

Till then, the words more, less, difficult, easy were all mere words. It was only after I studied this theory that I came to fully understand their meaning. That everything we measure is by taking a reference and we are the taking the relative value with respect to that reference. Confused??

Let me put it more simply. For eg. if I say that I have very few toys, who am I comparing myself with?? Fewer toys compared with whom?? If the arrogant high headed girl in my class said that she had a lot of money, I was so tempted to ask- compared to whom??

The most important lesson that I happened to learn from this theory (apart from the good marks that I scored in the subject) was that everything that we experience in life is Relative. It just depends on ones perspective. If u think u have too less, just look at the poverty stricken, down trodden people for whom earning a square meal a day is a challenge. And believe you will more than thank your stars and your God for what you have. If you think you are very successful, look at the the Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas and the Mittals of the world. Maybe you will get that much needed fire to exploit your potential more, to exceed your own expectations.

Also I came to understand other peoples way of thinking and their mindsets much more clearly.
It used to be intriguing sometimes to see people throwing away everything they have to join NGOs and help others. And at the same time see a set of people who have more than enough (again very relative!!!!!!!!!!) and still burn the newly wed brides in pursuit for more wealth in the form of dowry. Analyzing events and people became much easier, when you could actually understand the way their minds work and from what perspective they would think about a certain issue.

From what I understand and feel from this is that when you can see your sorrow and joys from the reference, and not relatively, you will not experience the crests and troughs in life (though that could be another debatable topic for a certain set of people). People would argue that it is because of the troughs that we appreciate the crests. But seeing from a broader perspective keeps you much more calm and happy (much more.relative?????????? :-D)

Once I read this famous saying Life is hard. And I was tempted to ask compared to what????????