Nostalgia and all things logical

"Chhoti Si Baat" - Watching this all-time classic, always induces nostalgia in me, transporting me to a time when life was perhaps simpler and happier.  Prabha Narayan, (played by the underrated Vidya Sinha) is missing Arun (Amol Palekar, as a shy and simple young man - a character, he will practically come to be identified with) to the tune of the melodious Salil Chaudhury composition: 

Na jaane kyon hota hai yeh zindagi ke saath, achanak ye man, 

Kisike Jaane ke baad, kare fir uski yaad, chhoti, chhotisi baat, 

Na jaane kyon.......

Poor Prabha will be saved of all her misery, if only, she had studied psychology and behavioural economics. Because, she would have then realized that it is simply "loss aversion" at play here. She is feeling Arun's absence, only because, we as human beings, are naturally programmed to value something more when we lose it than cherish it when it is still with us. The sadness we feel if Rs. 1000 were to be deducted from our salary is much more than our happiness if an extra Rs. 1000 were to be paid out. 

That's why, through the prism of nostalgia, everything appears, lovelier than it actually was back then. They say "grass is greener on the other side". Well, "grass is also greener in the past." 

Vinod Kambli makes for a more compelling cricketing story than Sachin Tendulkar, for the same reason. There is romanticism associated with "what may have been?” A good percentage of Indian cricket fans believe that Kambli was more talented than Sachin in his childhood. A rational view would suggest that Kambli hardly had the technique to do well outside India. He was predominantly a front foot player and struggled against short pitch bowling.

In some of Amitabh Bacchan’s most iconic films, characters played by him die in the end, Sholay and Deewar being prominent examples. That ensured much more mind space for those films than a happy ending would have. Daily soap makers are known to insert some dramatic storyline in the plot, whenever TRPs start falling. They seem to know that their audience is moved more by conflict, tragedy and complications than happiness. Such scenes tug at the heartstrings of gullible viewers.   

If you catch yourself shedding a few tears while watching films and worse, while watching those useless daily soaps, then it’s time for you to turn to behavioural economics to find the root cause and a cure.