Give & Take

Give and Take...when you start socializing in the very initial years of your life, this concept is beyond you! But as you grow, it gets so ingrained into your psyche that going beyond it becomes impossible for you.

Imagine a Give-Give relationship (Budha in love with Budha!!!) or may be a Take-Take relationship (Narcissus must have attended some couple therapies regarding the troubles he had in a relationship with himself!!!) Therefore I believe it is safe to concede that in all fairness, the equilibrium of any relationship (between two humans or man-beast) is reached and sustained by this very simple concept of Give-&-Take! Now while I prefer considering personal relations over and above social instances, this here is not just some individualistic observation but something that I see thriving in the whole social setup around me.

You go to market (Oh call it a mall if you like!), you buy some stuff, you pay for it (Give-&-Take; DUH!!)

You become the loyal customer of some company, the company provides special services to you (Give-&-Take)

You join a new college and you make new friends, and those who are not friends...what do you call them?! Acquaintance, a.k.a Give-&-Take!!!

You work in a group... I guess there is no Give and Take dynamics here, only a painful experience for most...(may be not the free riders...)

And finally there is the personal front. It is said a mother is the only person who always gives to her child and doesn't expect anything in return. Well, I beg to differ...I mean, we all are aware of the dialog "Dudh ka karz"!!!

When it comes to fathers, they are big givers too, but they take a lot too... sometimes your self esteem, sometimes your power to choose a life partner, sometimes your independence, sometimes all your fears, sometimes all your debts (:P)...sometimes simply your affection...(they are emotional but hate showing it so they take the first two instead of simply asking for the last one!)

With brothers and sisters its pretty much clear usually (they want what you want so its kinda Take-what-she-is-taking-and-give-what-she-is-giving!)

Friends usually don' bother with defining the type of relationship...even though they know its give and take, they also know that "sab pyaar de bhukhe ne"!

And finally that special someone. Now all of us know about "unconditional love" but even laughing it off will mean entertaining the idea at all. So my take on it is of utter neglect! LOVE is there, alright, but its conditional ( and in most cases its Conditioning also!). After all, Chacha Choudhry ka dimaag chahe computer se bhi tez chlta hai and he can outsmart the most calculative of criminals, but even he knows the right time to be home for dinner and Mini!!

In the end, it is out of complete reverence for the whole Give-&-Take concept that I would like to say -it wouldn't have been easy for humans to have proliferated their specie so much if it hadn't been for the simple barter of things(and ideas) and cooperation amongst communities. Why still the idea is maligned with shades of materialism and lack of emotionality, I fail to understand!