No is an answer

No is an answer!!!

We ask for most things in life in order to get it. We are so used to the answer yes that we take it for granted.

No is perhaps the most powerful answer. However it is not a good thing to use this answer very often. When someone says could you mail me that picture please on Facebook, try replying with a 'No' and you will know what i mean.

We learn to try different activities as and when we get an answer ‘Yes’. The path of the ‘No’ is not travelled by many. Though i seem to be taking a philosophical road, more things will be revealed as we go through this page.

In SwatKats we can see that Lieutenant Felina keeps telling that she “does not take No for an answer”. Einstein says that ,it was because people said no, that he tried it himself.

Why is it that we tend to accept most answers when they are in our favour. The reason behind this goes well into our childhood where our parents tell us no to things that they find inappropriate, and we also conclude it by proving them right, i here refer to those of us who have had a mischevious childhood (^_^).

No is thought of as something negative, and hence i have called it a path of the less travelled. However, in many cases man tells know because he finds it beyond his power to explain something and people after him tend to stop at the ‘No’.

One illustration is the 100 year unchallenged success of Newtonian theory that layed the foundation of physics of objects and the shaking of the foundation by the emergence of Einstein’s theories of relativity. It was believed that Newton’s theories were flawless and people after him did not dare question his genius (After all Newton has innumerable contributions to Physics & Mathematics which include Newton's Colour disc, Newton’s Prism Experiment, Newton’s Laws of motion, Newton-Raphson Iteration, Calculus, Principia Mathematica, etc. ). Newton (“he was one man too much”) added so much to the beauty of physics at once that people failed to see that there were flaws; apart from this there wasn’t sufficient technology to look beyond his theories.

It is even funnier that we can actually lead an entire life believing what we know as true and those things that we are ignorant of as fiction. This happens in more cases than not.

However lets get serious, consider a situation where you have worked really really hard on an assignment spending your precious time on an assignment, and then your friends start asking you for the assignment. While telling No looks like a legitimate thing to do. We are often taken aback because we are not used to saying No. There is fear of unknown, in this sense, it is as if you have defied friendship if you give No as the answer. And lieing is definitely a bad alternative, instead leave some part to finish later so that your assignment remains incomplete till the last moment (^_^).

No is a very good thing answer when it comes to handling addictions. For example there are several people who say ‘No’ to smoking, ‘No’ to alcohol, ‘No’ to ajinomoto. In such scenarios, ethics looks like a very good back up for the answer so we just go ahead and give ‘No’ as an answer. The world would be a much better place if people co-operatively said no to carcinogens, pollution, plastic, adulterated food and other consumer products (Inspired from ‘Captain Planet’). However, ‘No’ is not a natural answer, it is not something everyone willingly says till there is some kind of a catch, or some kind of crisis. 

In movies we see that a hero simply can’t say no to the wishes of a heroine. In real life, we fear to say ‘No’ to our elders, teachers, boss, colleagues, friends, relatives, cultural beliefs, superstitions and pay the price for not accepting ‘No’ as an answer. Though we are helpless in certain scenarios, we can bring about a drastic change in many cases.

‘No’ has been the cause of revolutions in many cases in history and entertainment:

1) It was Mahatma Gandhiji’s ‘No’ to the British that freed India.

2) It was Adolf Hitler’s ‘No’ to the Jews that made him the dictator.

3) It was Steve Jobs’ ‘No’ that brought Apple to the height it has attained today.

4) It was Dark Vader’s ‘No’ to the good side of the force that made him achieve a much higher level from the dark side of the force (^_~).

5) It is Samurai Jack’s ‘No’ to Aakhoo that keeps him going until he accomplishes his goal.

In elementary English grammar, No is simply the opposite the Yes, however in real life no is so much more.

People in India organize strikes to say ‘No’ to an organizations actions. (I hate the idea of strikes, because it affects the productivity of the nation and causes several setbacks). Though strikes are a way of demanding our interests, there are several other ways which need to be tried out in the form of negotiation in this particular issue.

A pen-down strike is a way of conveying our disinterest to education from a particular teacher.

When your day starts bad, say ‘No’ and do your best to live in the present and make it go good. If its exam time say ‘No’ to World Cup and Facebook. Even the word Know has a ‘No’ in it.

The Lok-Pal bill is an attempt to say 'No' to corruption, please support the movement.