The Maddening Crowd

Hanuman ji forwarded Shri Ram’s message to Ravan. Infuriated, Ravan set Hanuman’s tail on fire and Hanuman ji set whole of Lanka on fire in reply. Subsequently, this proved to be the t(r)ailblazer for the modern-day social media exchanges. 

Going ahead, God's messages to people were forwarded by the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ. However, any negative response or questioning to those messages is construed as blasphemy and the responders are silenced promptly by use of violence. 

The postal service started in 18th century. Who would know the value of those yellow postcards and green envelops more than a sailor of early 80s? Thousands of miles away from home in the middle of lifeless seas, those letters acted as lifeline and connected us with our loved ones ashore. The feeling has been aptly described in Pankaj Udhas’s number, ‘Chitthi aai hai, aai hai, chitthi aai hai.’  Listen to the song after few pegs of whiskey for the best effects.

Moving forward, in the first electronic message from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., in the 19th century, Samuel Morse clearly understood the historic ramifications of the technology when he dit-dahed, “What hath God wrought?”. He warned the humanity and blamed God for the ill consequences of his invention. The technology gave wings to human basic instinct to communicate. In a short time, social media evolved from direct electronic information exchange, to virtual real-time gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century business and marketing tool. 

The instant success of social media can be attributed to real time thumbs-up responses injecting a dose of dopamine into user’s nervous system. Believe me or not, it’s better than Nescafe or cocaine when it comes to instant kick. On a more serious note, it has reconnected old friends, helped people find lost loved ones, and given people a platform to market themselves and their products. The life is unthinkable without being a cog in this giant wheel of social media.

But it’s not without the downside of it like any other technology. In a virtual world one is vulnerable to frauds and deceit. There’s a false sense of intimacy and connection. Besides, these gigantic platforms are owned by big tech companies and the big brothers are watching your every move you make and recording every pic you take or every word you say. A 1983 number, ‘Every Breath You Take’ by the band ‘The Police’ is ringing in my ears as I am writing this.

We have no curtains in this colossal toilet without privacy, just the strings. And how could one be free while one is tethered to mobile data? Naked and chained in a public place, that’s how it is to be out there.

The human brain which was once a fertile ground for thoughts and creativity has now reduced to an impulsive panel sending out impulses of fear, hatred, prejudices, and misinformation. 

Thought over-load!! Short Circuit!!!

Provoked by the foregoing thoughts a 1984 song by Queen, ‘I want to break free’,  is blaring in my ears now.  But it has been quite a while since this piece of shit I am writing has kept me away from my beloved mobile and my dopamine level has really gone low, and no longer can I control the craving to get back to the ignoble strife of the maddening crowd.

The Material World Is An Imagination Of A Conscious Mind

 The Material World Is An Imagination Of A Conscious Mind.

The Endless Forms Most Beautiful RIP!

Cloud gathered in the sky and it started to rain. With descent of water, the earth came alive. A giant canvas made up of innumerous pixels in form of single cells was laid.  The screen blipped in a disorderly manner. It was meant to be the order and for a very long time it remained. Then one day suddenly, of all the probabilities, the most unlikely clicked. The symbiosis occurred and the Endless Forms Most Beautiful rolled over. Lo and behold! The landscape started changing. Slowly at the beginning then it gathered momentum. It was like a child painting on drawing sheet with crayons. The most unlikely probabilities in mutations and reproduction became a common occurrence. Flora and fauna flourished under the sun. And all this was delicately balanced in a food chain. 

When it could have been a happy ending like, “they lived happily thereafter!” humans arrived on the scene as a result of a weird mutation in monkeys (one of those one in zillion probabilities). This was the start of monkey business on earth. This walking on twos marvel was a master piece of the chanced (or accidental) creation. Endowed with heavier brain than apes, it still carried over the traits of Apes. But soon the humans, highly driven by self-interest and greed for power, realized the advantage of bigger groups, probably by observing ants. Ants could muster such large groups because of queen bee’s ability to fool the rest through pheromones. Humans were not born with a gland to secrete similar substance to subjugate others. So, they created God and religion to bind a large number of them in a society built on fear and devotion of the invisible. They defined virtues and vices for the masses and the rewards and punishments associated with them.  The formula worked. The congregation inflated multifold.

However, the wise ones knew the reality and fakery of the G-seal they had just created to bind and build the society. They created an order, aka hierarchy in the society keeping themselves at the top of it. Since their intentions were mala fide, their actions remained contrary to what they preached to the common men in order to grab or retain power. To befool others, they fielded a pawn called the king. They conducted their reign of terror through him. They justified the immoral and ghastly acts of the king by assigning them a cause in the name of God and sanctioned his violent acts against the innocent “sinners.”  

God, religion, and morality have been used as the choicest BDMS tools by those in power. Genital hooks, nipple clamps, bondage cuffs, whips etc. remain choices reserved for the lesser humans. Their wicked ways have been wreaking havoc on weak, poor, women, children, and animals with impunity. The violence is unprecedented. Clouds of war are hanging low and are darker than ever before. The beautiful landscape on earth is changing for worse. Species after species of life are vanishing. The diversity is under attack. The Endless Forms Most Beautiful will soon RIP!!

Tale Of The Two Tails

Man was at loss of tail in the evolution process and human intelligence may be attributed to this loss. The tail was introduced in living toys as rudder like balancing, stabilizing and navigating organ. A lot of grey matter was required to be allotted for the functioning of this down to ass organ. With the burden of tail on head (read brain), the bearers were at loss of thinking. 

God wanted a god fearing (read intelligent) toy so he said to hell with the tail. He called a head. O boy, the apes fell from the trees on the ground like ripe fruits leaving their withered tail stuck to the branches. Yes, we are apes in a tailless avatar.

Most of the grey matter which was once controlling the tail was freed and human hard disk had more space available to store information and process it. All the animals have enough brain bytes to perceive the sensory world around them and process and store the information for their survival. In humans this extra 2AB led to foster imaginary fears. And pursuit to deal with these fears constructed the entire human society. These fears are like imaginary tail in us. The direction of our lives and society is set by how we negotiate and navigate through using them.

The going was good until recently before the IT revolution hit us. Our five senses still held weight and ground. But now with technology deceiving and manipulating our sensory data we are like jumping jacks to digital information toying with and fooling us, which has resulted in our artificial (once imaginary) tail to grow out of proportions.  We are hopping on artificial coconut trees and one day a tailless bot will fall from the coconut tree leaving the artificial human tail to shrivel upstairs. 

Life - A Sad Ending

Sitting on the edge of sidewall of the lake, I was watching the placid surface of water. There was absolute serenity.

The silence was ringing like a deafening noise in my wicked mind. I picked up a stone and hurled it in the air. It dropped on the uninterrupted sheet of water and broke it with a splash.

Thousands of droplets revolted and escaped the strict discipline of the divine unanimity and serenity in a big bang. Competing with each other, each droplet trying to run faster n farther away from the lifeless monotony, went up in the air in ecstasy. 

The gravity of the matter was seriously violated. Deeply disturbed, it sprung to action and started capturing each of the fugitives back. It was only a matter of time, the top shot surrendered to its lackluster destiny. 

But before failing, the mutiny sent the ripples of fear through the serenity, which I saw fading away with time. And a moment later, I was staring blankly at nothingness. 

Serenity reigned again refilling me with uneasy restlessness.

Zero Tolerance Policy

Endowed with not so great five senses, man did well to arrive at jet age. And with enhanced connectivity of minds across the borders, the technology also got wings. Development of various electronic devices supplemented our sluggish senses and helped us to see, hear, smell, taste or feel much beyond our capabilities, and above all gave us the ability to process this enormous data, thus gathered, thru electronic logic gates with the speed of electrons. We were at the door steps of the information age!

Armed with this electric computing power, we transmitted the huge chunks of data through optical network at the blink of an eye. Lo behold! the 5G!! Within no time we become habitual to fast, accurate and prompt responses. The information, which was so hard to access, is now available at the click of mouse.  

To err was human and patience was considered to be a great quality in a good human being. But the technology asks us to be very demanding. Its there to pamper our tantrums and reward us for being mean and intolerant.  

The tech has turned every one of us into an Aladdin. The cell phone, being in Jinni avatar, is our slave, which has enslaved its master. Thy click is my command gadget has turned Aladdin of today into an uncompromising and intolerant brat. We have developed behavioral disorders like ADHD, impatience and intolerance which is very much evident in our actions on social media or otherwise.

The trend is here to stay and the rot is there to grow. No rocket science needed to guess the future of humanity. God bless the Bots! :-) 

Fact of the Matter

1000 fall from a 50m high cliff. All perish but one.

The logical fact derived out of the above observation is, anyone will die upon falling from the cliff. The sole exception to the fact constitutes the faith in God.

Faith, which blesses one in million, is treated as param satya (the ultimate truth). Rest all is rubbished as maya (illusion). 🙏

In our irrational world, there is no absolute or perfect entity. The mathematics is closest to it but yet too far. The calculus of infinitesimals, limited by infinity, gives you very accurate approximations, which is good enough for scientific working of various machines and human generated systems with in the tolerance range required. e.g. nobody cooks a recipe to exact measurements, yet most of the time we leave dining tables licking fingers.

 It’s the little bias, or the impurity of a semiconductor, which sets the ball rolling in this universe. But why do we need to pray and revere God for this little foul play? There are zillions or infinite number of other creatures who have been carrying on without offering or sparing a single penny or thought for the invisible guy. During my last sixty years, I have seen no use of him except for the political one.

Our faiths are toxic and we need to learn to enjoy the randomness and uncertainty in life. We get one life to live in present. Past is past, future is bonus. 😊

Knotty at Sixty

At 60, the nature's eraser is working on me faster than ever before. Fading and disintegrating body contours, dimming and dulling senses and a slowing processor; the changes are for real before the complete metamorphosis of the body into ashes n dust.

With near future so ashy and khaki, no wonder we scramble to hold on to past. We cling on to the faiths of distant past.

 We think strapping up to distant past would catapult us far in future. And by stroke of luck, we may even overshoot Time and become immortal (achieve Nirvana). 

The tenacity to defy the nature's laws and the ultimate truth, the death, can stretch us to any length backwards. But the irony is, as we stretch backwards, we become rigid and more rigid. Thereby not only losing any chance of gracefully bracing what future holds for us in store, we become a stumbling block of the past. 😀😀 

So guys, have no strings on you and be worthy of a graceful exit. 🙏