Meritocracy - The Innate Nature of Nature

15th Dec 2017, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve: The first safari of our expedition ended with a bit of disappointment for us, for we missed the beautiful sighting of tigress Maya, relocating her cubs to safety, only by a few minutes. Nevertheless, the evening camp fire was strong enough to burn our disappointments to ashes, and provide us with fresh hopes of sighting the majestic tigers, in the upcoming couple of days. It was inside these flames and campfire discussions that the idea of meritocracy as an innate part of nature, got into my head. Out of curiosity, I asked our chief organizer Kedar, that how come this sighting which we missed, was a lifetime shot. If the cubs were not strong enough for walking, then the tigress might again relocate them the next day, giving us ample opportunity to witness the motherly love of the huge feline. Being experienced with multiple wildlife expeditions, Kedar replied me that the only reason why the tigress chose to relocate her cubs, was that she sensed clear and present danger haunting the cubs. In fact, even in absence of other intruding male tigers, the cubs face immediate threat and stiff competition from other mean predators like wild dogs, hyenas and even jackals, right from the day they are born. The only thing that ensured the survival of these wild creatures was pure animal instinct - something which we humans have discarded to become civilized beings. As our topic of discussion was going towards instincts, the pet dog inside our resort also joined the campfire. Pointing to the dog, Kedar remarked that this German Shepherd breed, was actually a wolf by bodily features, whose wild instincts were manipulated and altered by humans over ages. Hence, rather than hunting in packs, it is dependent on humans for its survival. The idea of threats and instincts set off a chain of thoughts in my mind about how nature ensures mertiocracy, and where in the quest to become civilized, we drifted away from the ways of nature.

In jungle, all animals are uniquely gifted and equally cursed as well. Though herbivores like deer, antelopes, wild buffaloes, and sometimes monkeys, are hounded & hunted by predators like tigers, lions, hyenas and wild dogs, they have developed excellent communication skills and strong limbs to outrun the predators. A herbivore sensing danger, calls out its own kind with a typical alert message. Monkeys and peacocks, being the circumstantial victims of hungry predators failing in their attempts to get large size preys, decipher the alerts of these herbivores, either hide or get to the highest reaches of trees. The strength of collaboration and an effective danger alert system of these herbivores, is not only their merit, but a huge challenge for a predator to get its prey. In addition, some herbivores like wild buffaloes and antelopes, can even gore a predator to its death by a single super strong blow from their horns. For a tiger, stealth coupled with brute muscle power is its only merit to counter the strong defence of herbivores. However, hunting is not the end of the show for a tiger. It needs to ensure that the prey is consumed by itself and its cubs. Opportunists like wild dogs and hyenas jump into the fray for their pound of flesh. Their strength is in their numbers as a group. There are many instances where a group of hyenas, outnumber a pride of lions, and steal their prey. To eliminate competition for food, these small predators usually kill young tiger and lion cubs, before the latter even get the opportunity to grow as full grown adults, and in turn, be a threat to the former's existence. Scavengers like vultures and eagles do the cleanup job of whatever is left of the prey. Armed with strong beaks and powerful talons, these scavengers are also powerful enough to drive away opportunists like a pack of wild dogs. For a tiger to hunt a deer, it is not only the failure of the deer, but also the skills of the tiger that matter. In a nutshell, in jungle, everyday everyone is a threat to every other one, and the ones with merit are the ones who survive to see the next day. This is precisely where we humans have gone off-track from the meritocracy of nature. Apart from having a powerful brain to analyze stuff, we have lost a vast part of our survival instincts. We created societies, civilizations and nations, with rules and constitutions to govern ourselves. Political ideologies like capitalism, socialism, and communism are creations of our own brain, with an idea of one size fits all kind of a theory, quite contrary to the natural way of meritocracy. Our governments tax the rich for their earning ability, while politicians distribute freebies to the poor, in the garb of affirmative action, thereby altering their survival instincts, the same way we humans have tweaked the instincts of a wolf and made it into a fully dependent pet dog. Our animal instincts have drifted so far from nature that, after a tsunami sweeps of millions of our fellow human beings, we realize that a receding ocean is a tell-tale sign of an approaching tsunami. It is ironical that, we humans are re-learning the art of teamwork and collaboration inside elite business schools and corporate houses, when our friends deep inside jungles are masters of the same.

By this time our campfire started to reduce in its intensity, and perhaps our fruitful discussion was also coming to an end along with my chain of thoughts. As Kedar rightly said - "Within our own intelligence and creativity, lies our own seeds of destruction"; and I believe it to be true, for we have discarded meritocracy, drifted away from the ways of nature and created terrible things like nuclear bombs thereby ensuring our own destruction along with the beautiful planet itself. As, the eminent Canadian journalist, author & speaker Malcolm Gladwell has aptly put - 

"The world is not a meritocracy, as much as we may like to pretend it is. And we have a long way to go before we reward people based on their merit."

Sands of Time

27th Feb 2018: The neighborhood seemed totally different from what it was two decades back, yet there seemed an invisible force, that guided my bicycle to those familiar, yet forgotten routes. Armed with my camera, I was on a solitary mission to travel back in time to almost 24 years.
The time portal that sent me traveling across time, back to my childhood was the Jhirpani Bridge. Without even an iota of fatigue, my legs ceaselessly worked on the pedals, while the bicycle handle automatically turned in the direction that lead to my childhood days, as if some invisible force had hardwired my sub-conscious brain to ride through those nostalgic roads. As I approached the river, I parked my bicycle besides a tree and started to descend into the river.

Two kids were playing flying discus with their parents on the sands of the river bank. The girl who was elder than the boy, was playfully teaching her brother how to dig sand tunnels and make a temple out of the excavated earth. The brother, on the other hand, was clawing out small lumps of sand with his tiny hands and was giving it to his sister to make the temple. The parents were sitting on a small blanket on the sands and were enjoying the sight of their kids playing with the river sand. Sometimes, the father and son would play by throwing small stones and pebbles into the river at oblique angles, while the mother and sister would count how many times the pebble bounced on the water surface before going down the river bed.

As I shifted my focus to the flowing river momentarily and looked again, the family had disappeared into oblivion. I searched for pebbles, with a vague hope, that throwing it into the river would bring back the playful father and son before my eyes, but the pebbles were nowhere to be found. Knowing where they would have gone after disappearing from the river bank, I returned to my cycle and started pedaling again.

I was standing in front of  Mar Thoma Church. There was a small house in front of the church. A Yamaha RX100 bike was parked and an Alsatian dog ferociously guarded the gates. As I opened the gates and went inside, I found the family once again. This time, the father and kids were playing crossword in a dimly lit house plagued with severe under-voltage, while the mother was cooking dinner for the entire family. The dog was doing rounds of the kitchen and backyard, eagerly awaiting its dinner as the mother was preparing rotis. In the afternoon, the kids often ran to the terrace and spent the entire noon plucking mulberries from the adjacent tree, till their hands and mouth tinged red with the mulberry juice.

Unable to bear the nostalgia, I resumed pedaling, only to find the kid holding his mother's hand and the mother-son duo having their usual morning walk near the radio station. As I continued further, I saw the father, patiently teaching the kid, the art of riding a bicycle. For a moment, I looked back, hoping the father has placed his hands on my bicycle and running alongside me, for he knew, his son was afraid of falling down.

When I returned to my house, I saw the family again. But times have changed. The father was sitting on his study table, while the mother was watching TV. The small kids were all grown up now. The elder sister got married a few years ago. The Alsatian dog was not the first, but perhaps the last dog the family ever had, for its death was a huge emotional setback. The younger brother has now returned from his trip down the memory lane, and has just completed the narration of his amazing childhood.

Ferroequinologist Diaries - The Autobiography of an Electric Locomotive

Hello Friends,

I am an electric locomotive, and today, after much introspection, I am here to share some of my innermost thoughts about myself, and my creators - The Human Beings.

I have started my journey from a railway terminal, and currently I am sprinting at full throttle towards my final destination - another railway terminal, thousands of miles away. Throughout the length of my journey, my job and mission is to haul a long train of bogies from one station to another. I am supposed to be powered by the overhead electric cables. It is only when I make conscious efforts and raise my pantographs, I become truly empowered. In the course of my amazing journey, so far, I have crossed numerous beautiful stations, awesomely strong bridges, extremely dark tunnels, lush green fields and much more. I have witnessed the almighty sun traveling its own journey, radiating energy from one horizon of the sky to the diametrically opposite horizon. I have enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine as well as the coolness of the raindrops as they drench the earth below.

  

Each time as I crossed junction after junction, I did make choices to take the lesser known tracks that led to many unknown, yet beautiful destinations. At some major junctions, I was detached from the train I was hauling, and was reassigned to haul some other train. Even though it felt painful to let go of the train and it's passengers, whom I hauled so far and became an integral part responsible for their journey, still then I am not supposed to get emotionally attached. My idea professionalism lies in my job of hauling trains to the best of my capabilities; be it the coaches of an express train or a superfast train or even heavy wagons of a freight train.

So much about me, but a lot needs to be said about my God gifted creators; the humans. Sometimes I wonder, despite having striking similarities in our daily lives, how come the humans get affected by negative emotions like unhappiness, jealousy, disappointments and frustrations. It makes me sad when I see human beings fight with each other in the name of God, without realizing the true nature of the almighty. The electricity which powers me and gives me life to do my job is also a form of God. The way I make conscious efforts to raise my pantographs and connect with my God, humans also have the same capability to connect with their God via their brains. It is only, the conscious effort to connect with the almighty that is required. Similar to my life, humans have also started their journey on this planet from their birth to the ultimate death. In between these two terminals, they also witness various day to day events, similar to the way I cross fields, rivers, roads, canals, tunnels and stations. Like me, my creators also haul tons of responsibilities from one stage of their life to another. Where my life is simple, because my sense of professionalism does not allow me to get emotionally attached with anything - neither the path of my journey, nor my responsibilities; my creators get trapped in the bonds of emotional attachments and face disappointments when those attachments snap. While I make choices to tread upon lesser known tracks, and consequently enjoy the adventure of discovering unknown & unchartered, yet beautiful destinations; the humans beings tend to follow a set path in the name of traditions. They lose out many opportunities to do things differently in their day to day lives, and ultimately gain nothing, except tons of regret for all those things they did not do in their life. In contrast to my journey, where I have to haul heavy trains to the best of my abilities, humans encounter unnecessary frustration and jealousy by focusing on other's capabilities & responsibilities.

Sometimes, I wish my creators, could understand my unspoken words, and live a peaceful life like me.

As I speak, we have reached my final destination. I must bid farewell to you all, disconnect myself from the overhead wires and shut down; till next time, another lifetime journey with another set of coaches and a new destination to conquer.

Adieu.