INFINITE RECURSION !
By Dr. Sudhir Bhushan ~ Doctor of Humour
Santa asked Banta: “What is infinite recursion?”
Banta: “Ok, what’s the largest number you know?”
Santa: “A Zillion!”
Banta: “Ok, add another very large number to it. What will you add?”
Santa: “A Trillion”
Banta: “Ok, what do you get?”
Santa: “I don’t know what this new number is called”
Banta: “Ok, so let’s give it a new name.Let’s call it TriZillion! Now add another very large number to it. Tell me what number do you get. Give it a new name if you don’t know it.”
Santa: “Ok, I add another Billion. And I call the new number a BiTriZillion.”
Banta makes Santa do this over & over again.The day passes. Then a week. And a month, two & three…..
Santa periodically revives his query: “But what is infinite recursion?”
Banta tells him we are not there yet.
Its end of the year.
Santa protests to Banta: “We have been in this ‘Infinite Recursion’ business for too long. I have been dying to get away from it for a while. And I want us to attend the New Year’s Eve party thrown by my therapist Dr. Sudhir Bhushan (literally ‘Jewel of Virtuous Patience’) who is always there to patiently humour me. Now when will our business together end?”
Santa: “Infinity, I am told, is a never ending business. We are hung up on it already and I am trying to figure out the ‘recursion’ angle. You haven’t yet come up with a number large enough to inspire me for a recursion because I can see there are more ‘BiT’s to pick up. You need to think outside the box but you are so inside it still. So don’t ask for a cop-out now that you’re in the business. You could have refrained from starting this whole thing in the beginning itself if you were going to be so tired in less than a year”
Banta (with a tinge of exasperation mixed with diffidence): “Actually my vocabulary for numbers hasn’t gone very far beyond just a ‘BiTriBiTriBiTriBiTri………………………………………………..Zillion’ this year. And remember we started this business only on the First of April which gave us just nine months. Anyway, let’s take a break now to be refreshed at Doctor of Humour’s New Year Party.”
Santa & Banta looked somewhat glum at the party because of their unfinished business that seemed ever-unfinishable.
However, they were cheered up by Doctor of Humour saying that if they decided to start all over again next morning with an initial ZILLION, not only will they have full 12 (their characteristic number) months during the year to make better progress, the very act of indefatigably starting all over will be an example of “Infinite Recursion” and an answer to their initial query even as they began!
PS: And that, interestingly, is pretty much the story of our lives until we decide to get out of the loop!
CHEERS!!!
PPS: Since Santa & Banta started their ‘Infinite Recursion’ business on First April, while remaining stuck on ‘infinite’ & being unable to get to a ‘recursion’ till year end, the joke is on them!
PPPS: Since I, too, started Humour Medicine on First April this year, the joke is on me as well but only as in ‘the treat is on me’! Glad to be of service in getting you out of the loop, if I did that!