The Hindu Business Line : `Cracking 10,000'

WELL, the bulls made it, at last. The Sensex zoomed past the 10,000-mark on Monday. Time for celebration, undoubtedly, because the cynosure of the financial world moves from the four-digit terrain to that of five, as if coming of age.

Unless you want to spoil the party, refrain from asking analysts `why', because reason is the last thing to look for in times of frenzy. Be not dismayed, therefore, if fundamentalists swear that the abrupt spurt bulldozes all logical explanation.

"Cry, Trojans, cry! Lend me ten thousand eyes, and I will fill them with prophetic tears," says Cassandra, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. That, the bears on Dalal Street may find empathetic enough.

To help them, there's also this quote of Edmund Burke: "I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards." And he continues, "The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophists, economists and calculators has succeeded." To amuse, in Macbeth, the Servant says, "There is ten thousand," and the hero snaps, "Geese, villain!" Servant replies, "Soldiers, sir."

At the Jeejeebhoy Towers, you might have overheard, "You have pray'd well today: this morning for ten thousand," but that's a snatch from Coriolanus. Elsewhere in the same play, the Bard says, "Cracking ten thousand." And, helpfully, Portia speaks of `ten thousand times more rich,' in The Merchant of Venice.

Please know from Wikipedia that 10,000 "is the natural number following 9999 and preceding 10,001." There are many sides to the index story, but what do you call a polygon with 10K sides? Myriagon. A related word is myriad, classical Greek for thousand, and represented by the letter M, as http://en.wikipedia.org says. Myriad is from myrios, meaning `innumerable, countless,' explains Online Etymology Dictionary.

Bible has more than 50 references to ten thousand! "In physical fitness, 10,000 Steps Program is a walking exercise and health program," informs the Free Encyclopedia. "In finance, on March 29, 1999 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,006.78."

Meanwhile, wisdom from Napoleon Bonaparte is that ten people who speak make more noise than 10,000 who are silent. Since the opposite is happening right now, with 10,000 speaking loud and clear, the contrarian 10 are wisely silent, wisely awaiting the right signals.

For, as E.E. Cummings said, they'd "rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in

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