Cartoon: Denumerization

Is God real? - A rational approach.

Various faiths describe God in various ways while some claim God is undefinable. A stretch of the imagination can fill the world with a myriad Gods. However, to determine the presence or existence of a higher power, we need to have certain clear markers. One such marker is intelligence. Unarguably, God must most definitely be more intelligent than us. Another is that God’s proverbial ‘hand’ must direct our lives in ways beyond our influence. It is my humble opinion that such a God exists and I shall explain why. 

Let me break it down as follows:

Intelligence does not need a brain. 

All you need to consider to understand this is the incredible ingenuity of evolution. Just think of the various ways different plants and trees spread their seeds. For example, some plants give brilliant attachments to their seeds before they drop them off from their branches so that the wind may carry them afar. Why not just drop the seeds straight to the ground beneath? How could they possibly come up with such a mechanism? As far as science tells us, they don’t have physical brains, do they? And we haven’t established if they can even register the presence of wind, for God’s sakes! (pardon the pun) Clearly, there is a greater intelligence at work here and I believe it is evolution. Though it’s still a mystery why we are the only branch of species that has gained so much intelligence through evolution while other branches are still so far down the ladder, I believe there is a purpose for this intelligence of which I will discuss later in this post. However, the sole aim of evolution seems to be finding new ways to spread life, in the context of both land area and diversification.

Humans have evolved.

In the broader context, evolution is just one characteristic of life itself. There will come a time when science will answer the true reason the living world is so starkly different from the non-living, but till then we can only marvel at the phenomenon of life. If, in the context of this passage, we consider all of life as nature, then the direction it is headed becomes clearer. We know that nature never stops evolving, but where have we seen any of it over recorded history? Maybe it’s just too short of a time in the scale at which such changes take place, but I am convinced enough to contend that there has been a visible evolution in us humans, at least. We have slowly but steadily grouped ourselves into giant collectives. We have our workers, soldiers, chiefs, etc. and we all work within the parameters of one and the same system thanks to governments and economies. A clear hierarchy of power and allotment of duties makes our modern societies analogous to ant colonies. Too reductionist, you might think, but all I look to achieve by it is to demonstrate that a regulated way of functioning as a group is not a new invention by man but a result of evolution. Ants are able to achieve such an effective model because of years of evolution; and so are we. Furthermore, in some ways the stock market and economy seem strangely like living, breathing organisms in their own right.

We are only as intelligent as nature wants us to be.

Let me exemplify. Though we have discovered and invented so much, the things that really ‘matter’ to an individual is his/her family. The happiest moments of a person are still those spent with his/her significant other or his/her kids. However wonderfully personal and unique different forms of love seem, it is clearly evolution’s way of ensuring that we fulfil our primary purpose, i.e., procreation and child-raising. Our brains and ‘hearts’ are wired in a way that guarantees that we take life forward while blissfully immersed in the illusion of free will. By extrapolation, I would even claim that human evolution has taken us to a level where we have collectively built incredibly complex systems that will one day spread earth-life to other planets. This, to me, is analogous to the plant that sends its seeds afar. And though an average human being, much like the plant, may not posses the intellect to understand why and how to send humans to other habitable planets and constantly lives with the guilt of choosing technological development over the conservation of nature, it is actually nature or evolution’s hand at work behind the scenes. We are mere pawns in the game of life and its spread beyond what it has already conquered. 

Nature/Evolution/Life is an unapologetic God.

At this stage you might argue that I just took a direct leap from some simple evolutionary phenomenon in plants to interplanetary travel, but a careful perusal of what’s happening around the world can justify this. You can see nature’s laws and methodologies everywhere from among multi-national corporations to small communities. It is paramount to understand that ethics and morals are artificial concepts and are seldom seen in the larger scheme of things. What we see for the most part are nature’s laws like ‘natural selection’, ‘survival of the fittest’, etc.; for example capitalism is a clear case of ‘survival of the fittest’ while misfortunes and unequal privileges are outcomes of nature’s preference to effectiveness over efficiency. Much like how a large percentage of seeds end up getting wasted, a large population of people end up living not-so-fulfilling lives. Not all of us will get to become world leaders, celebrated CEOs or popular movie stars and this is the brutal truth. However, much like the worker ants in an ant colony, the majority of human kind is hard at work to enable successful functioning of a system that will finally put a man on Mars, which, in my opinion, is what life wants. So, whether there is a higher power than it or not, all I can say for now is that nature meets most of the definitions of a God.

I apologise if this turned out to be supremely anticlimactic, but hope you enjoyed reading it!

The horrible, horrible water!

It was midnight and the date was Dec.1st, not many days ago. It was my turn to stay awake and keep an eye on the level the water rose to. And rising it was! ‘Water’ is too good a word to describe the most germ laden liquid ever. It was the most sickening shade of brownish-green and the stench was like that of the puke of a cat that had a half-decomposed lizard and dried fish for dinner. It had risen steadily throughout the day and had swallowed everything -  cars, bikes, the little shop down the street, etc., not to mention entire houses and everything (I mean every single thing those people had) inside them. By divine grace, we happen to live one floor above ground and the water hadn’t yet reached us. But this night, it was raining hard again and the water was just two feet from entering our house. I was shitting my pants. We were four of us in the house; my dad, mom and the misfortunate neighbour from downstairs. I remembered the previous night and how things had caught us unawares. 

It had been raining the entire month of November but the rain the night before was unusual. It had been non-stop the entire day with intermittent variations in intensity. Towards the evening, electricity was shut off and the late hours saw much stronger wind and a much harsher downpour. I had been woken up at around 1am by an unusual number of exhaust notes from the apartment building beside us. People from the neighbourhood were cramming their vehicles into the parking space above which the building stood on stilts. They were doing this to avoid getting their smoke-pipes filled with water since the houses on this side of the locality were on slightly higher ground. How pointless it all seems now! This, however, had cautioned my senses which prompted me to take a peek at the front gate of our house to check if there was any reason to be concerned. Reassuringly, I could see no water other than, of course, the rain beating down hard. Though a bit unnerved, I had thought to myself, ”How long can this crazy rain possibly hold up?!” and had gone back to bed without the slightest clue about what was to happen.

Around 3:30am, I had woken up again to the sound of the raging showers and shuffled up to the window that faced the front gate, egged by lingering curiosity. Though the small canal down the alley opposite our house had over-flowed a couple of times (notable a few days before), there had never been a case, up until now, when the water ever came up to our gates and so I was expecting to see exactly what I had seen sometime back - solid ground. To my horror, the ground had disappeared and in its place was a grey mass of water that had already drowned about three feet of the gate. I had rushed downstairs to see it up close and to warn the person downstairs who, I presumed, might be sleeping without the slightest knowledge of what was happening. On my way to his door was our car and I could see through its windows that the water had entered into the cabin upto seat level. Even as we waded back to the stairwell, we never imagined it was going to get this worse. I had awoken my parents and the four of us had been awake the rest of the night. 

In the elapsed 24 hours, the water had risen from 0 feet to around 12 feet, and on this night I was convinced that the deluge was not going to stop till it devoured everything. And if that happened, our plan was to use the crude raft we had made out of some wood on the terrace that used to hold up a shade. We were going to try and reach the multi-storey hospital next door somehow and climb to the top floor and stay there till someone came to our rescue. I was thinking about what would happen if one of us were to fall off the namesake raft. None of us knew how to swim and the water would be too deep to get out of. As I checked the water level periodically, it kept rising half a step at a time up the stairway to our floor. Eventually, it reached the landing about five steps below the front door. I imagined a dirty and creepy man, made completely out of the flood water, walking up the flight of stairs in super slow-motion, all the while giving me an evil stare wearing the nastiest of smirks. 

In a few minutes, a miracle of miracles happened and the water started receding. The difference was lesser than an inch but the ugly mark left by its maximum level it had reached was now above its present. More time passed; it went down by a step. Then two, and then a few more. The hideous man was descending the stairs. But, by day break, it stopped lowering and stood there at a steady height. However, we knew the worst had passed.The rains had abated and slowly came to a stop. All we had to do now was survive with the potable water, food and candles we had left. The rest of the day, we saw boats rowed by men of the armed forces and the corporation taking women and children to safety and helicopters dropping food packets for all of us who were marooned in our own homes. We harvested rain water from showers that came down the following nights and improvised ways to pass the time (or just stared into the distance lost in thought). Honourable mention - the incredible endurance of the Nokia button-phone battery we used to listen to the radio while shrouded in darkness. The people on the radio were repeating helpline numbers with the sincerest intents, but we had no cellular network to contact anyone. Deep into the night, we heard shouting and wailing from the hospital next to us. We couldn’t make out what is was about at the time.

Within two days, the flood waters receded completely. We were back on the ground assessing the damage and seeking information. By this time, many families had moved to relief camps. The whole place seemed deserted but for a few of us. It took a few more days for electricity to return. Taps greeted running water when drowned water pumps were finally repaired. When the cell towers started functioning, we received calls from almost everyone we knew from afar. They had read about the floods and the deaths in the hospital right next door. The wailing had been about that. So many lives had departed from so close to us. We later learnt that the ICU unit had been flooded and the generators too. Some of them had passed away on the way to another hospital.

The whole place looks disaster-struck and depressing. People whose belongings were destroyed, are throwing everything out onto the streets which are eventually being collected by corporation folks who come with a bulldozer and a truck. Cars are being towed out and mechanics can be seen working on motorcycles and scooters that had gotten submerged. Many have returned from camps but some have left the area altogether. I hear stories about people who got stuck neck deep in the flood water and were rescued just in time by navy men. I see reports all over the news about several deaths and the state of people who are still surrounded by water. The usual blame-game TV shows and political fault-finding have begun their rampage like scavengers after a battle. At ground level, a mild version of the stench still lingers and though everyone is hard at work getting things back into functioning order, I know that each one, within our hearts, has a ton of pure gratitude for the return of the sun.

 Chennai - hot, hotter, hottest? .. I’m afraid, not any more!

A salute filled with utmost gratitude to each and every kind soul who reached out to help.

Recurring Romance

It's early in the morning. I sit at the edge of the bed.. knowing it's time to leave. My head feels heavy. I hate the thought of what must be done; it weighs me down. The unfairness of it all crushes me.. I hesitate to get up. My conscience begins to curse me. A strange sense of destiny engulfs the mind. I decide to pay heed to my inner voice. But then, all of a sudden, I hear her voice; that sultry, beckoning voice which could seduce even the most hard-headed of all.  Ernest and yet without the slightest sign of haste, she says.. "So you just abandon me here when I clearly want you to stay? Is that how this is gonna go?! Nobody is waiting for you out there, you know. No one wants you more than I do. You owe nothing to anyone except me. Where is your love? Is this how you repay me? You're taking me for granted, aren't you?! You ungrateful coward! You think I'll be right here tomorrow, don't you? Or are you afraid of what the world will think of you? You know you can never satisfy them. Come back to me, my love. Come back into my arms.  Forget everything else. Nothing is real except our love. Stop being afraid. Embrace me. Let me cradle your head and take you to a safe place. Come back into my arms. Let's be together in love for a little longer. Just a little bit more, I promise". I can't fight it anymore. I'm too deep in love. My resolve crumbles and I rush back to her - my sweet and undeniable, foggy-morning nap: that cozy state of pure earthly bliss!

....

I open my eyes after what seems to be seconds...

Shit!!! It's 10:30!

Citing source: Importance of Women Empowerment

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/oct/10/indias-women-mixed-truth/