Zero, the most loaded nothing!

Raju Korti
It all began with a void -- an empty placeholder in ancient Indian mathematics that would go on to change the world. The concept of "Shunya," nurtured by scholars like Brahmagupta, was more than just a numerical necessity; it was a philosophical marvel. Zero gave us calculus, computers, and cryptography. And yet, for all its brilliance, zero remains the ultimate paradox: it means nothing and everything at once. Perhaps this is why it aligns so well with Einstein’s assertion that nothing is absolute -- not time, not space, not even truth. Zero, much like reality itself, is relative.

Politically, zero is both the aspiration and the indictment. Governments promise "zero corruption," "zero tolerance," and "zero poverty," only for voters to end up with zero accountability, zero governance, and, sometimes, zero hope. Campaign speeches are riddled with inflated numbers, but when the dust settles, zero rises like the proverbial phoenix as the most accurate statistic. In Maharashtra, seat-sharing negotiations across party lines have so many zeros -- both in vote margins and in credibility -- that even a seasoned mathematician would struggle to keep count. And let's not forget electoral bonds, where "zero transparency" was the only bipartisan agreement. But in keeping with Einstein’s theory, even political zeroes are relative: a leader who is a zero today may be a hero tomorrow, depending on the frame of reference (or the news cycle).

Socially, zero is the yardstick of influence and irrelevance alike. Being "cancelled" online today means you are reduced to social media zeroes -- zero followers, zero engagement, and zero career prospects. (That's pretty much me). But paradoxically, a person with zero qualifications can still climb to positions of enormous power, simply by mastering the art of outrage. Einstein once said that time is relative, and in the world of social media, virality obeys a similar law: today’s forgotten zero can be tomorrow’s sensation, and vice versa. Success and oblivion are but two sides of the same equation, separated only by an algorithm’s whim.

Culturally, zero is both emptiness and excess. The best cinema, literature, and music often emerge from a deep embrace of the void -- existential nothingness, creative struggle, and financial destitution. But Bollywood, much like modern art, sometimes seems to produce films where the script, plot, and acting all converge towards a perfect, gleaming zero. Meanwhile, the latest zero-calorie fad diets and zero-waste movements promise moral and physical purification, but often leave people with nothing but hunger and guilt. And yet, Einstein’s principle lurks in the background -- what is a zero-calorie diet but a subjective measure? After all, energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is merely redistributed… often to the nearest junk food binge.

Ultimately, zero is the great equalizer. It takes down the mighty, amplifies the insignificant, and refuses to be ignored. It is, at once, the absence of everything and the foundation of infinity. In an era of inflationary rhetoric and depleting values, it is perhaps fitting that the one number ruling our world is the one that means absolutely nothing. Or, depending on how you look at it -- relatively speaking -- everything.