The temporal connect

I stood there, inside the temple, with hands folded, and eyes closed, praying to God. The years rolled back. The temple has remained the same, ditto with the surroundings. Even the trees have stood there for 30 years, just the same, still growing the same leaves, the same flowers/fruits.

I have just grown up from being a toddler to standing tall at 5'10", from asking God to help me with my exams to asking Him to help me with life. When your eyes are closed and hands folded in front of an idol, the thoughts that echo in your mind say a lot about you as a person and the stage of life you are experiencing. How these thoughts evolve over time, say a lot about your evolution as a human being. Does God really need you to say your wishes out explicitly? Or do you need God to help you understand your own wishes explicitly?

The most genuine of thoughts and wishes buried deep inside, come to the fore making you hear your own inner voices. No wonder that the word temple has two meanings, one being associated with the head. I just hope and pray right now that apps don't replace temples, both meanings of the word!

Test cricket - the dream job

Test cricket is the most ideal government job that exists in this world. Just imagine routine of test cricketers:

1. 9-5 routine: The day starts at 9 am and you leave the field at 5 pm irrespective of whether the allotted quota of 90 overs is complete or not
   
   
   
2. Chai time: You get a lunch break for 45 mins and then an effing tea break. Which sport in this world can even conjure up the idea of a TEA break!
   
   
   
3. Peon (I mean 12^th man): There is a 12^th man in every team whose only job is to carry drinks for the playing team and substitute them when they are tired
   
   
   
4. 5 day week, err test: A test match lasts for 5 days, yes 5 full days. And a lot of times the cricketers cannot even finish off a match in 5 days. Rings a bell?
   PS: There even existed a rest day bang in the middle of a test match up until 2001.
   
5. Get paid for sitting on a chair: When your team is batting but you aren’t, all you do is sit on a chair and watch others play and still get paid for it!
   
   

It is the most glamorous government job one could imagine. If only getting in was easier!

Parallel lines never intersect

Is this a play of Words or play of Math? It probably is a combination of both. Parallel lines, in Euclidean geometry, never intersect.

Parallel things in real life keep intersecting, don't they? When we work on two tasks in parallel, the tasks keep intersecting with each other, from a time perspective. People whose lives are parallel, keep bumping into each other. Euclidean geometry says that people whose lives are parallel ought to have never met! And I thought a marriage makes lives of the spouses parallel!

Moral: Life follows more of Projective geometry than Euclidean geometry. Also, life would be much more complicated if it followed Euclidean geometry.

PS: Does Math intersect Philosophy or are they parallel?

Survival of the Unfittest

Herbert Spencer used the term "Survival of the Fittest" to describe Darwin's theory or Darwinism or Darwin's Theory, a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others. It states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

Read the last few words again, "compete, survive, and reproduce". A logical interpretation is that it refers to the individuals ability to compete and survive against all species of organisms existing on this planet.  The question I have been pondering on is how do we define fittest. In my mind, this definition has had three broad phases and has undergone 2 major transformations.

1. Physical Strength: In their most primitive form, humans relied primarily on physical strength for survival in the wild. Fighting with wild animals, hunting for food, surviving in the open all called for high levels of physical strength. Simply put, if someone did not have the physical strength for tasks such as those mentioned above, they would NOT survive!

2. Mental Strength: As humans evolved and found smarter ways to survive, the focus shifted to mental strength although physical strength was still a prerequisite for survival. The smarter men started becoming the 'fittest' within the human race as humans started isolating themselves from all other species of organisms in the wild.

3. Monetary Strength: We have now reached a day and age, where all a human needs for survival is money! Ironically, physical strength is the least defining trait of survival in the modern world.

If we look closer at how our interaction with the surrounding species has evolved, we notice that in the good ol' days humans had to fight against all other forms of being for survival. As we started isolating ourselves from the wild, the scope of our survival changed to within our species. We created a boundary within which we survive, and the fight for survival within this boundary is against fellow human beings. By introducing laws against use of physical and mental strength (not completely!), the only differentiating factor among humans is monetary strength. Will we completely negate mental strength as well in the future and make monetary strength the supreme definition of survival?

Imagine a scenario where we have completely negated physical and mental strength as prerequisites for survival. Also imagine that the boundaries that we have created for ourselves to protect us from the wild, break. Are we humans fit to survive in an environment free of these boundaries? Do we have the necessary physical strength?

Humans are getting fitter to survive in an environment comprising of humans. But outside of this environment.....

So then, are we making the human race weaker by encouraging 'Survival of the Unfittest'?