Confirmation bias

 It was darkest before dawn when I started my morning walk. The line of pine trees ahead of me looked tall, dark and handsome, waiting as Knights-in-Shining-Armor for dreaming girls to lift them in their strong, loving, caring arms to the promised land. The mild early morning breeze made the tree branches sway happily, loved getting caressed by the mild early morning gentle breeze. They all looked like lummox giants waving their King Kong sized arms at me. 

All of a sudden I saw a familiar face striding towards me. He is some one I know - a person of Indian origin, a guy who has been living in our community for quite long time. He is a shy, quite man and bit of a loner, extremely reclusive by nature. There are many known faces I stumble upon during my walk. But this man was uniquely different, branded as a unsocial person by the Indian Community - a typical victim of psychological confirmation bias. 

It was slowly starting to get brighter, as the crimson sky painted the eastern horizon with its hue. The mild morning Sun was trying to force its way through the thick, fleecy cloud on the Eastern sky, same as a spectator tries to break through the crowd to take a peek at a celebrity. The near full moon on the grey Western sky seemed to be smiling mockingly at Sun's struggle. The poor, dimming street lights were looking at the sky, enjoying the spectacle of the celestial rivalry between sun and moon. 

Chirping little birds crisscrossed the sky. Far above them two commercial jet lines crossed each other painting the sky with a thick white strip, forming a gargantuan X sign on the early morning sky, as our lonely friend walked towards me and our paths crossed. I casually requested him - "May I join you for a walk if you don't mind". "Not at all", he agreed. I glanced into his eyes to gauge his sincerity and it looked genuine to me. 

We continued our tete-a-tete while taking our steps in unison, occasionally grasping for breath while climbing a steep slope. Couple of early morning commuters were trying to look through the dense, white, misty air with their bright headlights on, like a shy girl in an Indian arranged marriage looking through the curtains at her perspective beau. The blinking traffic red light near our Community entrance appeared like a large, bloodthirsty Vampire's eyes winking at us. The distance chimney of the house on the hillock resembled a castle in some faraway misty mountain. 

During the course of our conversation my friend slowly opened up and broached up the topic of the stigma of a solo lone ranger bestowed upon him no other than our own Desi community (as Indian Community in America is addressed as, often in a derogatory way). He chuckled - "I am pretty much aware of my well earned title. It is a reputation precedes me. Many call me selfish and even worse". I said - "You are free to lead your life and nothing wrong in being selfish as long as you don't hurt others. We have a proverb in Odia "KAALI GAI RA BHINNE GOTHA", which means, the black cow stays separate from the herd. I don't like herd mentality. It's up to you and perfectly fine if you stay solo". 

My walk-mate went on, "I have a Greek immigrant friend who told me exactly the same you just said". I said - "Greeks are known as the pioneers of logic since the era of Aristotle and Plato. They were way ahead of their time. Yet man is the most illogical being. Otherwise, the concept of God won't exist". "You are so witty and knowledgeable. I see it a lot of it in your writing", he said. Flattered and surprised, I blurted out - "My writing ? I never knew that you read my blogs". He replied - "I never miss your blogs and always look forward to the next one. But neither I click the "Like" button, nor put any comment on your post, as you know I am a very private individual". "That's perfectly OK", I said. "You have every right to your privacy. Our Desi siblings are bad at respecting others privacy and rarely respect boundaries. They often take us for granted and consider intrusion into others privacy as their birthright because we speak the same language. If you don't acquiesce to their whims and fancies, they will whine and do your character assassination behind you. I can very well relate to it". 

Continuing further I said - "We Desis are champions of branding people. In due course we add more spice and flavor to the image of a person to solidify the branding. Our folks extrapolate way too much. Lot of things we assume aren't true. You can dissect the word ASSUME as ASS + U + ME. It implies that when you assume, you are making an Ass of You and Me. Don't forget that a high degree of intellectual tends to make a person unsolicial." 

His face glowed in appreciation. The lamp post ahead of us was standing tall, lonely, still flooding the ground with neon light. The dawn was aggressively getting invaded by bright sunshine with the sun rays kissing the ground with its warm breath. I sang a stanza from a Kishore Kumar song "SITAREN BAHUT HAI AKASH PAR, BUS EK HI SITARA NAHI", which means "There are many stars in the sky but there is one which isn't a star". The moon is lonely, but stands out from the myriads of stars. I thought I made my point to my walk-mate as he smiled back at me. 

Some of the things we take for granted never happens. We extrapolate too much, jumping into conclusion too fast, too soon. The sound of an array of Pelicans cawing "Paon Paon", swinging across the morning sky didn't sound coarse to me anymore. The fading Stars were smiling as the moon was slowly drifting away. I bid good bye to the stars, the moon and my friend, ready for my workday.