Volume 5 · The Great Indian Bazaar · Essay 72
Eroom’s Law
They call it a law, though no parliament passed it. Eroom’s Law is a law of behaviour, and it enforces itself.
What makes this law useful is that it is predictive. If you know it, you can see tomorrow morning's mistake tonight. That is as close to prophecy as ordinary life allows.
Watch how a rumour travels in a hostel: it gains one detail per room and loses one truth per floor. By the fourth floor it is unrecognisable, and by dinner it is fact.
Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. If this page made you think of one specific person, do not send it to them. Apply it to yourself first; that is how these things work.