A few days back, in one of the lecture classes of my elective this semester - Indian Novels in English, discussion was rife about the plot of one of the novels in our curriculum - Calcutta Chromosome. The lecturer, a scholarly lady, who is vehemently anti-British, was lacerating the role of neo-colonialism in botching the world order in the past 3 centuries. Though I didn't quite agree with most of her views, one point which she sharply brought across was that the "reality", as we perceive it, is only a picture of the way we want to interpret it in. Just as history is written by those that have murdered heroes and razed down nations, the vision of reality is nothing more than what our eyes or rather our mind, wants it to be.
This brings me to the question - What is infact the difference between subjective and objective reality, when all reality is subjective? A pessimist calls the glass half empty, because he sees the void in it. An optimist calls the same glass half full because he is mentally oriented to see the presence of water in it. Thus, both are true in their own interpretations. Their subjective realities are complementary, rather than being contradictory. But what is then, the objective reality?? Is the glass half full, or is it half empty?? The answer you give to this question will reflect your subjective reality. But what is the objective reality, so to say, the "real" reality??
It is precisely for this reason misunderstandings are inherent in any relationship, irrespective of the strength of the bond between two people. The same incident, the same gesture, the same emotion may be perceived in different lights by different people, in concord with their subjectivity. Since human beings are not blessed with the ability to forego their subjectivity at any point of time, it is impossible to figure out what true objective reality is.
It may then be said, reality is as real as you deem it to be. Objective reality is the universal set of which all subjective realities are a subset. And it is perhaps impossible for anyone to see the universal set itself. In mathematical terms, the only way to know the universal set is to unite the subsets. And this is infact the practical panacea too! Only when we combine the reality of ourselves with that of the others, can we have a true understanding what it actually is.
