Jay Rege’s Blog

60% of Mumbaikars feel that school buses should be made compulsory for school going kids. This according to them would help ease the city’s traffic woes. 82% of Mumbaikars feel that smoking should be banned in public places. Now I have nothing against kids going to school in dad’s car nor do I hate smokers. The only thing that bothers me when I read such statistics in newspapers is ‘How come they never asked me for my views on these issues when every other Mumbaikar’s opinion was counted?’

I often wonder, how do media and other market research agencies come up with these statistics? Interestingly, they come up with all sorts of claims - that 74% of Mumbaikars are not interested in politics; 80% of Indian adults admit that they have given or accepted bribe at least once in their life; and 65% of Indian internet users feel that it is OK to download and listen to pirated music. My question is how come I never got surveyed when these agencies were putting up these interesting numbers? How did they all miss me out? Or is it like my statistics professor had once remarked “In this world there are lies, damn lies, and these are statistics”. So are these numbers all made up? Nah…. I don’t think so. I would like to believe that these news guys are honest people. They don’t lie. I feel that it’s just that somehow they missed me out. They forgot to ask me my views, not once, but every single time a survey was conducted. Why did they not ask my opinion?

Recently I read a claim by a research group which said that 80% of married Indians feel that it’s OK to occasionally lie to their spouses. Obviously, this time too, my opinion was not counted. I even asked my wife if she was consulted when they conducted this survey and she said she wasn’t (leaving me wondering if this was precisely one of those ‘lying to spouse’ moments that the survey was referring to).

I have a humble request to all those surveyors – The next time you do a survey on the views of Mumbaikars or Indians, please ask my opinion too. I will try to be honest while answering your questions. I am an Indian and very much a Mumbaikar. Just because I don’t blog in Marathi (errrrr…!!), please don’t brand me as a non-Mumbaikar and leave me out. My opinion matters, please count it.

“Well, I think, we should go in for a second opinion” was what my uncle said when the doctor recommended a minor surgical procedure as remedy to his ailment. No this is not what he told the doctor; this is what he told us. But on second thoughts, knowing my uncle, it wouldn’t have surprised me, had he told this to the doctor too. Yup, bluntness (or rather lack of tactfulness) runs in the family. Anyways, coming back to the discussion on ‘second opinions’, well I have nothing against second opinions. But what amuses me is how somehow for many, the ‘second opinion’ seems to be more believable than the first.

When it comes to opinions, the second almost always beats the first one hands down. The second doctor somehow is always right-:) I just at times wonder, if that’s the case, why do people not consult the second one first? Why is he second? And this rule applies to almost every professional advice, not just doctors. In fact at times the ‘second opinion’ is so powerful, that it is valued even if it does not come from a qualified professional. Being ‘second’ is all that matters. I have seen people chuck away a doctor’s prescription just because a stranger they met in the bus suggested an alternate remedy. That’s the power of the ‘second opinion’!

But I should admit, whomever it comes from, it’s rare for opinions to coincide. The second has to invariably differ from the first. And in this world of varying opinions, where everybody is entitled to one, I try to stick to mine, secretly hoping that mine happens to be the ‘second’ one.

PS: I am NOT ‘opinionated’. Its just that I am always right -:)