The Art of Destroying...

A rather startling statement was made the other day by an associate of mine with whom I happened to travel: “I wish all the tigers would die!”

This was in reaction to a discussion that centered around the fact that there were only 1500 tigers left in India out of the 40 thousand that existed at the turn of the century. The main cause: poaching.

I turned around and asked her why. To which she answered: “Because I don’t like them. They are man-eaters. They kill other animals.”

This, from a 27 year old came as a surprise to me. But then I surmised…she was not very different from the common person who thought the best way to deal with anything that posed a threat, even in the remotest area of one's mind, was to kill it.

Firstly, her reasoning is faulty. Tigers are predators, meant to kill. Going by this logic, should we exterminate all carnivores in the animal kingdom? Well, then, we must kill ourselves, too. We are the worst threat to earth and everything on it, after all! Secondly, the statement, ‘because I don’t like them…” reeks of extreme self-indulgence. Very human, what!

Must we really think we are the centre of the universe? This thought alone is responsible for our sorry state…even in everyday life.

The end of the road trip left me wondering…what are we? My liking or disliking a thing doesn’t make it right or wrong. Or does it?

Is mankind really that great, having destroyed and survived off that single thought…because I….

The art of destroying is unique to human beings.

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Reflections of an Eye...

Ah! That was one long hiatus!

WHERE was I? For someone who has a rare clue of whether she is coming or going, I know exactly where I was: in a limbo. Yeah, that very indeterminate state writers have taken pains to explain and gagged in the process.

Well, for one, I had an accident. Eye. Before you start imagining a jealous woman having a go at me with bared claws for – ahem!- certain reasons, pause. It was my doing. Those were my claws and that was my cornea I wounded. No, I was not my own scapegoat for a Nazi-esque experiment. I merely put my rather untamed nail bang into the centre of my cornea and busted it. Nearly. My doc cluck-clucked a great deal and  examined me twice a day for nearly a month.

Somewhere between the first and second day of this trouble, I decided to have a jolly good time and make the most of the situation, as they say. I could not see. Of course. Which meant I broke a lot of things about the house. (once or twice on purpose just to check if my mother kept her silence out of concern for me or merely did not notice that there was stuff missing!:D )

On a serious note, I touched base with myself after a long time. Sigh. After the initial embarrassment, we got along pretty well, my self and I. I made a few resolutions, one of them being I’d be gracious and brave even in the most trying times such as these when I could only listen to the TV. Tragic. But I scraped through.

I tuned my radio(now, this, is an exaggeration. No one TUNES radios these days, you only tune in!) and listened to the general riff-raff doling out meaningless stuff most of the time. Well, here are my wise observations of those trying times:

1. Get to know your house. You only think you know your way around the house. You don’t. Try walking around with your eyes shut tight. Don’t cheat.
2. You can actually enjoy listening to the TV. You’ll realize you don’t really like all the programmes you watch. Not like the yesteryears where the programmes made sense even without any visuals.
3. Conversations that take place without the TV set in front of you help you bond.
4. It IS possible to have a good time sitting at home, doing nothing. When there is nothing to distract your attention away, you are forced to be your own company and get to enjoy it.
5. Feeling your food and clothes makes you super aware of the fact that you are capable of a hell lot more independence than you give yourself credit for.
6. You tend to take everything for a lot less granted. Especially your family.

I have at least 10 more observations. But, the windows of my soul need a break.

So, I am going to sign off for now, but not without a potential threat of “There's more to come!”

Cheers!

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