Aesok's Fables

I heard many a fables during my childhood but there was this fable that has stuck for almost 18 years now.

A commanding and majestic King once ruled a famous city. He had beautiful wives and a large, strong army. He had one servant whose only task was to prepare the King's bed every day and night, for the King always slept on a bed of red roses.

One fine day, curiosity got the better of the servant. In a whisker, he felt the soft, fragrant petals comforting his sore body. The feeling of relaxation was instantaneous and having never experienced such a soft, warm bed, he instantly fell asleep.

It was time for the King to take a nap. He arrived to find a servant lying on His bed of roses. How disgusting of a servant to sleep on a bed belonging to the King. He immediately ordered the 10,000 lashes for the servant.

As was the norm, the servant got one last chance to speak to the King before the lashes left their mark on his body. And speak he did. "If lying on that bed of roses for a few minutes has bought me 10,000 lashes, count the number of minutes you've laid on that bed".

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'?

Amo, ergo sum

Cogito, ergo sum. Sure, our thinking proves our existence. But there is more to humans than mere existence! It's our love that proves that we are indeed humans and not any other species. I therefore propose an alternative version of this quote for humans, "Amo, ergo sum" or "I love, therefore I am" 

Unforgiven Too

It was a bright sunny day, the one which gives you hope. The one where you wake up and feel a bubble of energy inside you, a bubble large enough to last the entire day. He was looking forward to spending his day on the beach. It had been a long, cold, dark, and ruthless winter, hundreds had died. The shivering had finally given way to the warmer climes, the darkness to the bright sunshine.

He neatly packed all his jackets and put them deep inside his wardrobe. The tshirts and shorts were in for a front row appearance now. He made a short trip to the pharmacy to buy a sunscreen and then drove to the beach.

The animals in the forests were loving this climate too. They had finally started getting back their bodies to normal routines. A small pond of water had formed on the other side of the freeway. The animals routinely hopped across oblivious to the sounds of the moving cars.

He was a fan of rock music, Metallica being his all-time favorite band. "Lay beside me, tell me what they've done. Speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run" blared from the car stereo. He was head-banging and at the corner of his eye he saw a deer approaching the freeway. His brain applied Newton's laws and the imminent crash dawned on him.

His mind panicked and in a knee-jerk reaction, he turned the steering of his car to the right to avoid a collision. He was an animal lover after all and couldn't imagine killing an innocent deer. His car bumped against the median strip and swerved back. He caught a glimpse of a hummer in his rear-view mirror. He closed his eyes and heard the music blare from his stereo "the door cracks open, but there's no sun shining through"