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Yes – No – Maybe!

A brief string of conversation amidst my 11.5-year-old son, a nerd steeped in computer games, challenged my beliefs and left me in a conundrum: “Yes-No-maybe!”

“Remember one thing, people can steal your name fame and money, diamonds and gold, relationships, everything that you can have excepting your intelligence”
My son looking askance at me, low tone, firm voice and a strong conviction: “You are lying, then why did people steal Einstein’s brain?”

It was a jolt in the blue! Damn, despite me steeped in scientific domain, little did I know of this harsh reality! My son continued in my total bewilderment : Einstein’s brain was used by scientists after his death” Once again I failed in my tryst to play a new age parent and hold a “man to man talk” with this millennial.

  • Mom and Son: debate of two eras & thus perspectives
  • ‘Coz Life, it merely flows!
  • Einstein’s Intelligence or Brain?!
Parenting can be difficult but whatever resonates with our kid’s heart is the right way to go

I fervently perused the internet archives that unravelled “The strange after life of Einstein’s brain”!
Apparently, Dr Thomas Harvey (clinical pathologist) who was conducting autopsy on Einstein broke his cranium and stole the brain with an ulterior motive to publish scientific paper on Einstein’s intelligentsia.
Little did he know then, that the “brain in the jar” clandestinely hid in a cardboard box inside a beer ……
Would turn to be curse ripping him off his job, position/credentials, his wife and a secure life!

Life is a continuum of acts, events with myriads of crossroads of “Yes-No-Maybes”. Well, Einstein wished to die & lie low, oblivious that his brain will be studied, fought and lie as a relic in a museum? Dr Harvey gambled his life for a scientific publication with little in return.

Life’s all about taking a quantum leap of faith, intuition a beacon to overcome our fears of outcome. My son’s dream to be a You-tuber or video editor could be OK, Yes-No-Maybe, he smashed my known societal norm with this new facet altogether; I would rather toss the coin in the air and let it roll, ‘coz life, it merely flows and he shall find his path.

Lockdown saga: the sacrificial goat!

At the heart of a dense forest, one by one, animals joined in to perform a grand ritual to save their mother earth. Scooby-doo where are you??!! Scooby doo meant business, doing what humans trained him do at their airports; sniffing each animal Corona free, “it’s my nose not an expendable item”, he muttered but continued regardless!

Fire ablaze before me, its fiery fumes dancing heaven wards, I was tied to the trunk of a big banyan tree located at the Centre of the earth! Wriggling in pain, creepers sunk into my skin, too tight! I was locked up, not locked down! The human me, was their devil, their sacrificial goat! My ears deafened by their shrieks, head reeling as their chanting, grew louder as the tribes got closer “Go corona go, go corona go, go, go”! My nose & mouth under a mask of tree leaves lest I sneeze or cough! They maintained 6 feet distance from me, there was nothing social about this though!

Sherkhan the tiger, roared to open the ceremony “Yes, I am territorial, Mowgli cannot rule our jungle, it’s against jungle rules but now nor the humans this planet, they wreak havoc! Tigers are on the verge of extinction and now pandemic?! As though poaching for recreation or medicine wasn’t enough! The globe is doomed with untimely deaths of not just humans but our fellow mammals like Dolly – the sheep, Scooby doo, Civets, tigers at an alarming rate. Time to preserve our earth, we must conserve our species.” “Clumsy humans, hash tag #covidiots break rules that compel their own safety! A year now but the curve ain’t flattened, vaccine to achieve herd immunity is farfetched, and now, a new challenge of Covid-19 mutants!”

Sherkhan was ready to pounce and devour me, my bones & muscles melted with fear, my clothes hung loose like a scare crow; a scare crow to the animals, who deemed me a farce. 

Batty the batman, was angry, “I was the virus reservoir but not the culprit for pandemic origins! I mind rules of our sacred nature, that nurtures our very souls. We were captured for research in China Wuhan lab. Past outbreaks too, are proof enough that humans encroached our homes, not us!”

Dolly the sheep bleated, “My species was cloned, but cloning humans is unethical! We lived in harmony when Jesus was our shepherd. How do we shun humans to when they sheep-rear & protect ourselves? 

Scooby-doo agreed vehemently, “Sister, my breed will be cloned as sniffers covid-19 positives and more! Greedy deceitful humans: their debate on vaccine no vaccine, humans turning into crocodiles?! Some also debate that it’s time for apocalypse, the advent of the Zombies and effeminate and what not! Is it a joke? utter chaos! At least, we are closely knit to safeguard our folks”. 

Fear gripped me, I started to pray but I had defied safety rules, my mask was rolled like a garland round my neck, I flouted 6 feet norms, but I vow, I will never get close to 10 feet of this saga ever! Left at the mercy of these animals and jungle rules now, my fate in their hands! Fight or flight? I opted flight, did I have a choice? 

The chants grew wilder “Go Corona go, go human go, go corona go; the chant echoed across the planets. My voice was lost, my wits out of my brain, am I dying, if I do, what do I lose the most?! 

Suddenly, the big giant boughs of the tree spiraled to pick me upwards facing the sky, in reverence, offering prayers to mother earth and nature, the giant Banyan tree made concentric circles as she tossed me, in tandem with the earth’s rotation; with an age-old wisdom she her voice trembled but with firm conviction “the human must die, accept the sacrificial goat to redeem the earth from the evil that’s harbored by humans.” 

The Earth quaked to swallow me in its red-hot crust, thunders joined with lightening, tornadoes signaled the floods as I fell in the hells of molten lava, screaming, my essence burning. 

I could see, Earth, fire, water, Air and I the 5th element rolled into a big mass of fury to explode; big bang – boom! 

I woke up! Glad to be alive, I promised a 2nd chance to make the world a better place!

The dilemma of Lockdown X.0

A brouhaha originated amidst the depths of a dense Mexican forest inside a cave; Batty shrieked in anger, deafening ears of Scooby-Dooby-Doo-where are you; Scooby-Doo: the dog, Dolly the sheep, SherKhan the tiger and several other mammals that had convened an ad hoc meeting to discuss about Lockdown X.0. that may impact their daily living. The meeting was to assess the global pandemic issue impacting some of their own communities and their lives.

Exasperated, Batty said “I am the Batman! Mind your language and allegations against me. I always have done my own thing, flying and glued to my caves; how can I be blamed for a pangolin gorging on my poop, later caught by humans, the homo-sapiens and landed up in Wuhan trade market for exotic animal food?! I never knew my poop can turn out to be so expensive slaying humans like a pack of cards! I minded biodiversity rules and the natural course of my habitat!”

The secret circle had pointed fingers at Batty to have continued to be the source of infection constant outbreaks since 2002 SARs, the 2005 MERs, the latest Nipah and now the Covid-19 pandemic! The globe was doomed as the earth had to soak in the burden of untimely deaths of humans, their mammalian comrades that included fraternity of Dolly – the sheep, Scooby doo the dogs, Civets and SherKhan the tiger!

Scooby doo shook off the furor; “folks I carried the burden of sniffing all of you before you entered the cave to declare you Corona free, imagine smelling all your stinks! God save me! Incorrigible humans deployed my mates to sniff Covid-19 positives at international airports – Dubai, Finland and now Singapore. Imagine smelling hundreds of breaths of humans every 5 mins, its my nose not an expendable item! Just that I also continue to be loyal to my master humans, hence will try to save humanity!”

Sherkhan pounced in anger and retaliation, “no more humanity to be shown to these humans! I always was anti-Mowgli to join us in the jungle, as per pour jungle rules, a human cannot reside in a jungle! And these Chinese poached on my fellas, abused & used our bones and body parts in their Chinese medicines! No wonder we are at the brink of extinction, and now this?! What more is in store now?”, lamented Sherkhan! “Your ancestors too, Batty, were responsible for the blood guzzling ogre known as Dracula – don’t forget that!”

Batty by now, lost his patience and was flustered, “this is preposterous, I cannot be held responsible for pre-historic Draconian mis-deeds. Let’s focus on our current situation and tackle this issue at hand than fighting amidst ourselves. The demarcation between forest and animal habitat has catastrophically declined, how are we to live within the rules of our habitats? They encroached our houses not we, bear that in mind.”

“The Chinese experimented on my fellow mates in P45 lab Wuhan and had an artificially inseminated Covid-19 “ its not even natural! All looked bewildered at Batty, “uh, oh, ok, I got carried away, I meant ‘genetically modified’, no hanky-panky between me and the humans please! Batty continued, “At time, I have a notion, that these humans call themselves as super humans are worse than we the animals. At least, we are in touch with our nature, we are inter-linked, seek intelligentsia from our communication and safeguard ourselves while the humans have experimented, exploited and extolled so much from our nature, our home.

Dolly the sheep bleated, “My species was cloned. Now we too are at a risk to get infected, my folks are dying. The 1st clone even died within 6 six years where humans declared that she died due to lack of exposure to a normal life outside of the experimental lab. And now the Covid-19! We are herded and reared by the humans; how do we even shun them to protect ourselves now?!

Scooby Doo, “oh yes, I agree. But they rejected the idea of cloning the humans, a bad idea they said, but may clone my species as sniffers for their ulterior motives.”

Dolly continued, “their decisions keep changing every other minute, they think they are the best but check mate – W.H.O.  the global health directorate initially said masks are not required maintain 2-meter distance, later masks were mandated with hygiene and social distancing. By now as vaccine is in the making, they continue to debate whether vaccine is even needed? While W.H.O. again returned that merely vaccines and masks are not enough, social distancing and hygiene practices to continue!”

Sherkhan chuckling added, “And the humans, these idiots, they put the masks their necks, far-far away from their nose and mouth! We should ostracize them off this globe for sure!”

Scooby Doo concurred and whined, “the naked emperor has become a laughingstock and he cannot even accept his loss, this may wreck the havoc in the most powerful country, if not contained immediately’. Above all, China pushed the blame to Italy, then to Europe and now to India, as a hot hub and a source of Covid-19 outbreak!! Really?! Asian borders foreboding war-no-war for political advantages. Above all, And none are interested in combating the situation as one big team, each running a race against each other.”

Continue reading “The dilemma of Lockdown X.0”

Life, Where you heading to?!

Life, O life, where’s it that you heading to?
Is time moving too fast or is it I who is struggling to keep up with with your pace?

Or, is it that I made a poor bargain?
Accepting societal impositions,

That took me farther away from my ambitions and unrealised dreams?

or drifted me into eternal saga of deepest voids,

Away from solitude and feelings of being alive?!

Life smiled back, with utmost sadness,

Curled up next to me, gently,

full of compassion and oodles of wisdom;
Smilingly she said,
“My dear innocent you! You forgot to live, as you work hard to stay on top of your ‘the game’,
a ruthless and a headless game of money, power and fame!
The game that man loves tell taling as “The Making of My life!”

Untill when dear Man, would you keep humming through the din and the dury in creating your life? What’s it’s end and what’s it’s beginning?!
What is Life, as perceived by you?
Don’t you see it, your life, on the contrary, began right from the day you were born!”

“By the time your castles are built, your accomplishments are done, your spirit and your time, would have reached closer to their ends!

Decide, where You heading towards?!

And as Life, The Me, shall continue to move in it’s owns race, and at my owns pace….

At times I may wait for you to catch up on your breath or hear your sigh of relief.
You, O Man, my constant shadow, and Me your shade,
You forgot to live this gift called as “Life” and have forsaken living it while chasing the sham & the pomp of the mundanes of the living.”

It’s not I, that’s going anywhere, O Man, You hear?!
It’s You, who’s moving away…..”