North and East

I don't understand why exactly people follow the Standard Geographic Coordinate System. I mean it definitely caters to the huge English ego, keeping the 0˚0', not at London because it would have been quite obvious and pompous, but at Greenwich. Just because they set up an observatory there and suffixed it's name with Royal, doesn't give them the right to set the Y axis of the system passing through it. And don't even get me started on the location of the equator. Fucking imperialistic colonizing bastards exploited Africa for years and as makeup made the equator pass right through the middle of it telling them, "See its dandy, you are right in the middle of all of it". Its like raping a girl and then taking her to hospital two months later to check if she is pregnant, saying, "No no no, I fucked you, so I should pay for the ultrasound".

As a science student, I understand it all makes sense; earth is flat at the poles and is therefore not spherically symmetrical and thus not every point can be taken to be the origin. But it is again the idea of conforming to the stable accepted laws that irks me. I will try to explain how. Stay with me.

The idea of places being referred to with their geographical coordinates is something that I find belittling to that place. I mean you sit in the airplane and the pilot tells you over the intercom that you are currently flying over Paris and the coordinates are 48°52′0″N 2°19′59″E. I would rather have him say "Ladies and Gentlemen we are flying over Paris, the romantic capital of the world. The place where the age of Renaissance effectively began and proud home of one of the marvels of the world, the Eiffel Tower". Screw the coordinates you scientific bitches! Referring to a place with a mere number interspersed with degrees and minutes and seconds is mighty mechanical. If I ever went to Paris I would like to remember it as the place of croissants, champagne, lovely weather, patisseries, artistic intelligent people and the good weed and times I would have with them and of course, if I am fortunate enough, for the time spent with my beloved and definitely not as 48°52′0″N 2°19′59″E.

With that we are at a point where the whole purpose of this post would become a little more crystal. Places are not kept in your memory as names as numbers but as the experiences you had there. I mean I could be dot in the middle of the Gaza strip but if I'm having a good time, it would be nothing less than the best Israeli beach. By that rationale, for a person, two places could be horribly similar even though geographically they might be poles apart. This line of thought actually kills tourism. One won't feel the need to travel to exotic places to have a good time if eventually he/she is going to have the sad realization that effectively whatever fun he/she had could have been had at home. The only reason that would push people to travel would then be the desire to see geographic varieties in the terrain and climate along with a desire to learn and experience a new culture.

So for a nihilist like me, the idea of going to a place to have fun is non appealing. Give me my friends, some legal/illegal intoxicants, loads of good music from my collection, dal chawal butter mix, coffee, cigarettes and with the recent (s)exploits of a couple (and for that matter so many other couples) right next to where all of us spend most of our time, I think my 15°29'51"N 73°49'27"E is right here. Go splash in the shower cubicle if you need water so badly.