A child was seen ranking his loved ones… starting from zero, and then one, two, three, etc. The child rated his drawing teacher, whom he loves the most, with a zero! When his mother informed him that zero means nothing, he replied: “No. Zero is the biggest number!” Hence, his drawing ma’am got zero, followed by the rest! Of course, the five-year-old boy knows neither about the philosophical concept of zero, nor about the source of zero (in mathematical terminology).

Perhaps, the boy values zero the most as he often draws circles with quite a lot of space inside. He seemingly thinks that he can fill that space with many things! However, there is no such space in one, two, three, four, five and any other digit. For the little boy, there is no difference between a circle and a zero. In fact, the freedom to draw a circle should be the starting point as a number of possibilities are hidden in zero (or an empty invisible space). In our daily lives, it is often heard that s/he started from zero (or scratch) while describing one’s success story!

Henry Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994), the German-American poet, novelist and short story writer, once wrote: “There is a place in the heart that/will never be filled/a space/and even during the/best moments/and/the greatest times/we will know it/we will know it/more than/ever/there is a place in the heart that/will never be filled/and/we will wait/and wait/in that space.” (No Help For That) Here, the poet talks about an empty space (in our heart) that is full of expectation or patience (or waiting for a person or love).

Again, the feeling of sorrow (or sadness) is also a different form of emptiness or nothingness that one feels not only mentally, but also physically! Sadness accumulates gradually into grief, pain or while eagerly waiting for someone to arrive.

It may be, thus, surmised that the child was correct… zero is the most valuable figure! Indeed, zero is synonymous with love or love is synonymous with emptiness. The destiny of love is not always a union! Often, love exists in estrangement! Sadness, pain or wounds often help a person to become stronger. In the absence of expectations, one can develop her/himself in her/his own way through memories and imaginations.

In tennis, love represents a score of zero! As per the Merriam Webster Dictionary, “This use has existed since the late 1800s, and it is not certain how it came to be. The most likely theory is that those with zero points were still playing for the ‘love of the game’ despite their losing score.” It explains: “A word on the history of love as a word for a strong feeling of affection: complicated. So please excuse our shying away from matters of the heart to engage in a different love affair – a courtly one.” The Merriam Webster Dictionary further mentions: “Win or lose, written records of playing a game ‘for love’ date to the 1700s and early use is in card games.“

Perhaps, human beings might have understood a long time ago that love is love, even if it is nothing! Hence, zero should not be considered as nothing or an empty space. An empty space may be filled with love and other nice feelings.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das