Friday, February 6, 2015

Error!

There was one quote which kept me going during the years of my 'Shunyam' (in telugu means Void or Emptiness). I happened to check it on one of the pillars of a school enroute my morning walk then.

It's been quite some time, perhaps almost a year since I stretched my legs for a morning walk and today out of blue I did that and happened to come across this quote, the sight of which, filled my mind with tons of satisfaction. It doesn't parallel any other feeling for me. It is not even satisfaction, so to say...not pure satisfaction. It is some smug satisfaction with which I can answer myself - "It's OK!". Well here's the quote that's making you wonder what on Earth can make one contented with void, the nothingness:

"To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact"
          -- Darwin.

When I think of this quote, the first thing that comes to my mind are the most-warned-about syntax errors in coding. Say, in a language like C, if you don't put a matching closing brace in if-else{}, while{}, for{} etc, which error usually happens in a multiple-loop scenario, think of the havoc it creates. The first opening brace matches itself (unfortunately) with the first closing brace it encounters irrespective of whether or not it is the intended closing brace. They typically are the Scope Resolution errors, the scope here being mis-interpreted purely because of the syntax error. One error and such a havoc!

A similar instance I came across recently is this - "One Man's Quest to Rid Wikipedia of Exactly One Grammatical Mistake"! Stickling for trivial details or call it whatever you will, but this kind of perfectionism is often underrated!

***********************************

Now, on an entirely different note, let's take a look at this. I will give you one example on how emphasis can change the meaning of a sentence - this is my favourite, by the way!

Let's say a guys says this - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far!"

Now read this - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far" => There is a possibility that he might have chosen a girl for purposes other than marriage. Agree? Sounds just fine in a lighter vein, but otherwise as disgusting as it can get.

Now this one - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far" => Looks like, he has chosen a guy for marriage.

Another one - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far" => His parents might have! Or still better, the girl herself might have chosen him.

Inkokati - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far" => He might not have had to make a choice in the first place. He might have plain flatly fallen for her that she must have unanimously been the bride-to-be or still better he must have been forced to choose...

One more - and I guess this one is usually the intended emphasis, if no explicit emphasis is made - "I haven't chosen any girl for marriage so far!" => In the future, he might. But as of now, he hasn't made any such choice.

Well, I know that you can yourself understand the meaning of those sentences, without me explaining it there. But sorry, I don't want to miss the fun that goes into it..Well, I must give credit to Subhalekha Sudhakar's role in the Telugu movie, Sraavana Meghaalu for this. I watched this movie when I was in my 10th or so and ever since then this has become a good conversation-filler for me with friends! Ah, that movie, is quite a movie...has the typical telugu movie undercurrent nevertheless.


No comments: