The Moral of the Number Game

 Fun it was. On one of the  WhatsApp groups, there was this message that 2023 was a unique year indeed because everybody would have a birthday every day this year. Quite exciting the news appeared, right? At least it did appeal to me.

Let me give you a few concrete examples. India was born in 1947, as we became independent in 1947. So the equation was,  add your age to the year of birth, and it  would be 2023. Like India is now 76 +1947 =2023. The Indian Constitution was born in 1950. So its age  is 73. 73+1950= 2023.

Let us look at a few more examples. Your kid is born in 1998. So his/her age is 25. 25+1998 = 2023. Your mom was born in 1940. So her age is 83. 83+ 1940= 2023! Your dad was born in 1937. So his age is 86. 86+ 1737 = 2023!

It appeared hyper exciting at the first glance. Believe me, for everybody! Fast fell the likes and the thumbs-up's. Yes, of course, I, too, was taken up with the idea that apparently was doing the rounds of very many groups.

After some time, on the first group where I first read this message, there was this terse and wry message that a similar post was doing the rounds last year. By that time, at least for me, the excitement and the fun feel mattered no more. Then the University Topper Mathematics student in me woke up. I realised then that it was nothing but a mere number game, a simple addition process wherein the sum total naturally would be the particular year!

Sure I felt a little sheepish, and quite silly. That, however, yet again ascertained my strong belief that one should never forward anything, unless one has checked and counter-checked it at least from some three knowledgeable sources.

It is like using the Wikipedia, a great open source of information. You have to, however, to take all the facts therein with a pinch of salt as this open access portal is open to constant and uninformed editing by most anyone!

Now that we are in the thick, rather than the thin, of the AI era, such total precaution is absolutely necessary as parallel realities can now be actually constructed. It would, moreover, be tough to check the veracity of any bit/byte of data. Now it is so very clear why the Oxford Dictionary chose 'authentic' as the word of the year!

Pratima@ Authenticity, as Janet C. Stephenson states, is (a little) vulnerability (or naivete), (total) transparency, and (complete) integrity, right?                                            N.B.: The bracketed additions are mine!