It was a physics lecture at school, must be class 11th, having introduced concept of Ohm's law in last class, my teacher started his new lecture asking the class definition of Ohm's Law. And as soon as he finished, I started - "Ohm's law states that, in an electrical circuit, the current passing through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference applied across them i.e. V = IR". As I finished and looked for some words of appreciation, my teacher shocked me by saying - that's not right. How could I get that wrong - wasn't it V = IR ? It indeed is. The puzzled look of mine must have shown coz he came right next to me and asked me to tell where have I made a mistake, but I had no clue. And then he gave me correct definition,

"Ohm's law states that, in an electrical circuit, the current passing through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference applied across them, provided all the physical conditions remain constant."

All I had missed, was the assumption but he insisted that for me to get the complete meaning of Ohm's law I should not only know the law but also the assumption on which it stands.

And that's so true just not about a concept in physics but about so much more in life.

So may times, we tell ourselves - If I have behaved in a certain manner with my friends earlier, then that's how I should be with all my new friends. - If i have reacted to a situation in a particular way in past , that's how I should react it to always. - I have made myself believe that to be like how I have been in past , is to be myself.

But what I forget is that all this can be true only " provided there has been no change in underlying condition"

How often we just multiply I and R and say that's what V should be and if someone tells us that's not what V is, we either fault the voltmeter or blame the guy taking the reading, but do we ever step back and check the basic assumption ?

To mistake life to be an excel file where one can just put in a formula in one cell and drag it down the column could be the biggest mistake we can make. Every relationship in life is unique because it has its own context, a context which has taken shape through interactions of two unique individuals. While I may have the same reason to be friend with A and B but A and B can have vastly different reasons for being friend with me. So how can I just let my needs define the whole context of a relationship. How can I be so insensitive so as not being able to perceive that if there is a dissonance in contexts of different relationships then it is because they are not the same. Why I just want to offer just that much of myself to A that I have offered to B and C and D. May be A don't even need that part of me. But I world rather sit and wonder what's wrong with A, coz it's all so hunky dory with B, C and D. Rather than explaining why things should be as I expect them to be, why shouldn't I try and figure out why things are not how I thought they would be. Why can't I just step back and check my assumptions?

Life has no laws but even if we believe for a moment that there are some, what we can't forget is that those laws are incorrect and incomplete unless the assumptions they stand on are true and valid. So while our experiences give us wisdom to act in a certain way in future, we should also be wise enough to view those experiences in their entirety - complete with assumptions, presumptions and contexts - so that we know when is the time to fall back on experiences and when should we just let our instinct show us the way.

-sid