Imagine 10,000 years in the future. Two archaeologists are digging a site, and they find the remains of human bones. They take those remains to the lab, perform tests on them, and try to reconstruct the habits and lifestyle of that human. Say those bones belong to me. They are trying to find out my story, how I lived, what I ate, where I traveled, etc. Once they find all the info they need, they toss it into a museum where they store all other such ancient human remains they find. I was essentially one data point to them in trying to understand how humanity evolved over time. Or I can also call myself a “datum”, the singular form of data, literally one piece of information to solve a bigger puzzle. Honestly, I don’t need 10,000 years to become a datum. I am already a part of several datasets people use these days to study many things. So for that objective learner, I am already a datum. Now let me get to how I got the dumb part of it. I have had an interesting and eventful life so far...
I have always been fascinated by light. It started with all the Hindu Mythological media I used to consume as a kid. God always had a bright halo of light behind him, and that enabled this idea in my head that light is a sacred thing. And later on, since I was a curious kid, I used to stare intensely at bright street lights while clutching on to my father’s shirt, sitting on the back of his motor cycle. In my head it was a stare down contest with God, but it probably was just the precursor needed to trigger my hidden superpower of double vision (or Astigmatism, as it is called in the scientific terms, which resigned me to wearing eye glasses with high power for rest of my life). Now as a fully grown adult, I am grateful that my contests with God are limited to relevance of religion and purpose of human life, both of which don’t require staring into the street light from my balcony. But roughly six months ago, a friend asked me if I know the reason why sunsets are red. I told him I ...