Monday, April 25, 2005

Thoughts - Man’s World

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Disclaimer-

I have directly put down whatever came to my mind however stupid it is. I do not intend to hurt anybody’s feelings and I am no where responsible for any risks involved. I would like you, a self indulgent reader to use your utmost discretion in continuing any further after this disclaimer note.
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Nature for me looks like a complicated assortment of living and non living things. The living world visible to naked eyes itself consists of many different varieties of plants and animals (including man). With a notoriously minimum risk taking attitude I would want to refrain from evolutionary or religious discussions involving questions like “Who created it?”, “How was it created?” etc.

What amuses me a lot is that each species has its own way of survival and continuation of its genera, which can be radically distinguishable from one another. The important characteristic like intelligence too varies between species with man taking the upper hand in this department. I have read a lot about species put to extinction for reasons which are still not conclusively known. For those few whose extinction is known the reason many times is attributed as man. I guess nature is responsible for extinction of the rest of the chunk.

One question which always bothers me is why at all nature made man, the most intelligent of all the species. It could have given just enough intelligence required for survival, as to it has done for other living beings. This way it could have had full fledged control over the “Button of Extinction”!! I say this because I somehow feel man too controls the Button of Extinction though very small maybe a negligible part of it.

If we find a cockroach escaping under a table or running around a corner we immediately spray one of those 100’s of cockroach killing sprays at all the corners of the house to find 10 or 15 of them lying on their back next morning. If not for the spray I think we will not even get a chance to know existence of the remaining hidden cockroaches. It is not only for cockroaches, that we do this. Think of all those animals we term as “Pests”. We show a similar attitude for them. I have seen and heard 100’s of ad’s of such species specific killer products. But I have never heard or seen such acts being labeled as “Man’s Fury”.

As I have put earlier I feel nature however controls the biggest part of the “Button of Extinction”. Earthquakes, volcanoes and the new addition for me Tsunami are some of the killer “sprays” which nature seems to use. These are not species specific but man seems to be its primary victim. So I feel man seems to come under natures “Pests List”!! This info that man is its primary victim again is my view formed from the info collected from media. We get exact number of humans killed or injured in any such events from the media. But strangely enough I have never seen cockroaches or elephants or any other animal casualty figures displayed in such an event, till now. I feel may be this is because we are in “Man’s World” and every other animal is insignificant. However I find such events being labeled “Nature’s Fury”!!

These labeling somehow seems to be a bit odd to me. When man kills, the pests are blamed and when nature kills, nature is blamed!!!! I attribute this to our existence in this “Man’s World”!!!!!!

I came across a hoarding which advertised for a Non-Vegetarian eatery. The ad had a well built and smiling chicken inviting for delicacies prepared from chicken (???!!!???) I don’t know whether to call this sarcasm or an irony. To put it bluntly; a happy chicken offering itself to water some taste buds. I think such ad’s seems to continue unabated for they are displayed in this “Man’s World”. But on the other hand even the slightest act of demeaning humans would be termed as “In Human” and will have “Human Rights Activists” trailing. All this, I feel is because this is after all “Man’s World”. Maybe in “Chicken’s world” it might be termed as “In Chicken” and “Chicken Rights Activists” might prowl, I don’t know!!!
Maybe, as man fights for man, a chicken should fight for chicken and a dog for another dog; who knows!!!!!!!

On the same lines I think if somebody wants to know the count of cockroaches or elephants killed in the Tsunami or an earthquake, they have to go to “Cockroach’s World” or “Elephant’s World” somewhere outside the “Man’s World” where we live!!

So I content myself with the thought that in “Man’s World”, man cannot blame man and in “Chicken’s World” a chicken cannot blame a chicken etc. But in all worlds “Pests” (To be used with utmost discretion depending on the world under consideration) and “Nature” are to be blamed for every negative!! Now suddenly “Nature’s Fury” seems to make more sense for me!! Thumbs up for this “Man’s World”!!!!


~Narendra V Joshi



Mail me at - nvjfyi@rediffmail.com

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