The Great Dictator

Charlie or Adolf? 

Neither.

Then why the title, you ask? It is a symbol. 

I do not expect anybody to understand the relevance of the title to the contents of the post, but one person and one person alone. And no, it's not my girlfriend. First of all, I need to have a girlfriend to write about her and even then, I don't think she would approve of me calling her a 'dictator'. 

By now I am sure you are ready to stop reading; but I implore you to bear with me as I explain to you why I write this today. It is not the motivation of a sudden realization or a stark observation, nor is it the occurrence of a life-changing event. It is the need to share; and the need to ask all of you if you have what I have. And if you do not, you are definitely missing something. (I am being a bit romantic here, I realize that)

Friends are quite important in your life. I used to think that they are extremely important but I have gone from 'extremely' to 'quite' and with good reason. That's not to say that friendship is a trivial pursuit. 

Everybody classifies their friends into different categories and so do I. You have your school friends, college friends, work friends, good friends, best friends, acquaintances, etc. Do you have intellectual friends? I don't know if that has ever even been a classification. I may have just coined a term (and bless the internet, it's going to be published). Well, irrespective of whether anybody classifies their friends as intellectual or not, I do.

Perhaps, this idea might be completely lost on many or it might even be too abstract or some might even call me a crack-pot. For me, an intellectual friend is someone with whom I can share my feelings and say things and the person actually understands what I am saying. Now, these are not simple comments but these are things where the other person is on the same level as you as far as understanding of the world, literature, music and entertainment goes; someone who has the analytical eye similar to yours. It need not be that I share the same views but I do share the ability to communicate objectively on a subject that can be abstract but there is a higher sense of understanding and exchange of knowledge.

It is the same reason that we have 'Kavi Sammelans' in India or there are debates or there are 'Literary Meets'. People of like mind are able to enjoy each other's company more than they can with anybody else. Now, these events are very specific but imagine being able to share different aspects of your life with a friend who views life like you do. 

I just recently watched an episode of a sitcom called 'How I met your mother?'. The character of Ted, very effectively played by Josh Radnor is always put down by his group of 'best friends' whenever he tries to share some insight that is very nerdy or geeky or snobby according to them. However, in that same episode he is able to enjoy on a completely different level when he visits a party of really snobby Upper East Side WASPy people. (This is a very New York term - Upper East Side is a very rich part of NYC and of old money. WASP stands for White Anglo Saxon Protestant). 

Similarly, my brother who is an extremely brilliant and intelligent person; many times cracks jokes which are either too subtle or would not be considered as jokes at all. A few months ago, when I was having a discussion with him, he asks me, "Mihir, do you realize that your Sound to Noise ratio is really low?" Now, my friends, that was something that completely put me off balance. It did not make any sense whatsoever to me. And I was not drunk, so I DID have all my faculties with me. 

The explanation after I ask - Sound is decipherable and Noise is not. I don't even remember if I won or lost the argument. But I am sure that it was a disappointment to my brother that his smart comment was wasted. Any intelligent comment that you have to explain is completely wasted. 

It is important for me that when I talk to someone about things out of the ordinary that the person is able to appreciate those and preferably comment on it. It is 'brain-food'. 

Fortunately, I have an intellectual friend and I thank the Lord Almighty for bestowing this kindness upon me. This post is nothing but a word of gratitude to my friend for being there. 

I just hope, this gesture is not lost, otherwise this entire thing will prove to be pointless. Actually, it could give me another topic – ‘The Great Irony’…..hahahahahaha