A couple of months back The Tribune carried out an article about the Congress Office workers in UP hailing Sonia Gandhi as a goddess so much so that they had made some statues of her in the likes of Goddess Durga. ( www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070622/main6.htm ). My mother’s first reaction on reading the article was “Imagine a point in future maybe 2 centuries (or more) later when some archeologist digs up a lost site and comes across the intact statue of hers. And then…she actually would be thought of as a goddess….”
This made me think of the whole thing in reverse. Imagine all the Gods that we pray to as simple guys like us and someone somewhere down the line manipulated them as Gods and Goddesses?
Lets look back…a couple of millenniums ago a race maybe superior from another planet were trying to create Artificial Intelligence (AI). The project team that had got a head start and was way ahead of their competitors was named God. The final objective of God was to develop AI that is able to sustain and multiply itself. They had already created the basic structure which they called “spirit” that was light and intangible. On a more technical note it had an underwritten code that described the spirit’s reaction to different situations. The code was open in the sense that the spirit could edit it for itself depending on the new learnings from the surrounding environment.
However the scientists still had the challenge of finding a way to enable the spirit to sustain it- it needed a solid cover to protect itself and have a more tangible bearing. None of the available materials and elements seemed good enough. Finally the scientists came up with a compound called “body” which was a mixture of soil, water, wood, metal and fire. These elements seemed perfect as on an individual level as they represented the characteristics of the spirit and together gave it a tangible form.
The very first of the samples were developed on the production unit, Mars, and the development documentation for the same was transported to Venus; another of the production units. However due to a typo error in the content of the ingredients the very first samples developed on Venus were different from their counterparts on Mars. The difference was in terms of subtlety. While the prototypes on Mars were aggressive and weak in spirit, the ones on Venus were softer and yet more strong, more durable. After a lot of debate it was decided to mix the prototypes as parts of the same species, so that their strengths and weaknesses could complement each other and the engineers were saved of the trouble of writing further code. Rather than developing on a single kind of prototype leading to a slower system they had two of them, faster and more efficient. To differentiate the prototypes from Mars were called Men and from Venus as Women.
Things were going just too good to be true. The team members felt that they had almost reached the end of the project way ahead of their competitors. True that they had reached this level after months of slogging; and it was time now to relax. They decided to take a vacation trip to the site where the prototypes (now known as humans) were supposed to be put. Beside fun they could also inspect the location (called Earth) in detail and put a couple (one man one woman) for close inspection. Going forward the prototypes would be remotely controlled via signals that would be received by the chip embedded in the spirit.
The vacation was nearing its end. The experiment was a smashing success. The prototypes were behaving themselves as they were supposed to without any errors. The team had even succeeded in developing a sub code whereby the prototypes at the end of a specific period would terminate themselves. The highlights of the new sub code were that the termination date was generated automatically when the sum total of all emotions/elements of which the spirit was composed became equal to zero. As soon as the termination date was reached the body dissipated; decomposing back into the elements it was originally of: fire, soil, water, water and metal and the spirit was guided back to the base. New members of the species were added when the older ones were terminated. This was done via another sub program named “Attraction”. Basically the program made the man and woman to come together and copulate. The copulation process automatically sent a mail to the Central Admin who then guided one of the spirits to earth inside the woman’s body. The spirit then acquired its own body over a period of nine months depending on the characteristics of the couple. It was a fully automatic system and a beauty in itself.
Then tragedy struck all of a sudden. Two of the senior scientists of the project team God, thought of applying the code on their own race. In his hurry to finish up the things (without the knowledge of other team members) they messed up things and applied a code on the entire team that was high on ego and pride. Their consequent actions led to the divisions within team God, which split into 3 large groups namely, Hindus, Muslims and Christians and a number of smaller ones. The Hindus group was headed by Brahma, Muslims by Allah and Christians by Jesus. Each of the groups had the expertise to develop the prototypes and sent them to earth. This led to further conflicts whereby each one of them wanted the one to launch off the spirits and hence gain greater recognition. It almost seemed that the project would be scrapped out because of the warring groups. Finally after innumerable meetings, they reached a consensus. Each one of the groups would launch off spirits but the spirit would communicate only with the head of their group (Brahma/Allah/Jesus) and no one else. Also the variation would be in terms of how on reaching the termination date the spirit would segregate itself from the body. E.g. the bodies of the Hindus would be consigned to flames while that of the Muslims would be buried.
Since things had gone ugly by then, no one wanted to take the responsibility of writing further code for these enhancements. The management was in a fix for a while. But then things had to be worked out else things would become confusing for the prototypes. So they hired some fresh graduates to enclose this new knowledge in the form of documents. These documents were woven in the form of stories so as to make them more interesting. Thus were born the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible. Once written; they were left out on the Earth for mankind to find and interpret it. The scriptures were updated from time to time by the deeds of the achievements of God. The instructor from team God explained to the selected human (known as “Disciple”) over the knowledge sharing session known as “Dream” as to what needed to be written. The Disciple then used to put it down on paper for the awareness of the masses and in the process became a known figure himself.
Over a period of the time the team God added fancy add ons like showing a just terminated spirit his actions done on earth in the form of a video film and then rewarding him with a reward or punishment, based on the decision of the Supreme Court. The reward/ punishments were both in the form of trips to locations called Heaven and Hell, respectively. After the trip the spirit was back to “bench” (non working period) till the time it got a new assignment. But then there were problems also. Due to wrong signal transmission the spirits terminated from earth couldn’t reach the base. They started moving around in the universe and over a period of time became intelligent enough to prevent their capture. They also developed techniques to (mis)guide other spirits to their own group. They came to be known as the “Ghosts”
That was how mankind came into being. And that is how the cycle of life and death works. Simple isn’t it? But then if it’s so simple and religion is just a means of reaching the base, then why do we all fight??
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Memories of a Night in Solitude...
She finished the book on a Friday night when it was raining torrents. There were no obligations to get up early in the morning hence she could think in peace. For her there was no greater distraction known in life then the need and compulsion to sleep. It was as if in sleep the person chooses to die out for a while leaving behind all the beauty that life has to offer. What a waste of time!!!
She was stretched out on the bed; the book just finished lying on her stomach –the two of them like tired and delighted lovers who have just finished the act of finding pleasure in each other’s bodies. Likewise her mind was reviewing the book, certain passages that she would refer from time to time, like a lover teasing fingers on the spine of her sweetheart- small actions that differentiate love from lust; post coitus . The radio played the song “aaja guffaon mein aa; aaja gunaah kar le…” in the background. For no specific reason she likes the feel of the song combined with the constant beat of the rain on the window and the violent thunder.
Suddenly she had this intense desire to feel water on her skin….Its the weekend- a time just for self hence she obliges. As she gets off the bed like the secret lover going away, the clock chimes out the bell for 2:00AM- as if reprimanding. The radio station is now playing “Kabhi Alvida na Kehna”. She almost thinks that that the book, her lover for that night; has conspired with the clock and the DJ at the radio station (and maybe her mother who would have gone wild had she got to know of her daughter getting wet in the rains). But then she is decided. Books were her love definitely. She could pick one for each weekend, even more, drink them in, sleep with them and no one could blame her of being a bitch. Besides they are much easier to handle than the guys. Grabbing a couple of chocolates and the half finished bottle of vodka she hums “Dil khudgarz hai fisla hai fir haath se; Kal uska raha, aab hai tera is raat se….” as if arguing with the radio she proceeds to the roof top. No doubt, things do tend to become human like especially for imaginative people who are staying alone. At the door her dog, Pepsi yawns and stares at her. He is accustomed to her Friday night musings and is not bothered about the whole thing.
As if to welcome her the cloud above her burst over with a flash of lightning. As the first few drops of water found a path down her spine she feels drunk. “Who needs this damned vodka in this weather?”; she smiles thinking of her team lead who had gifted her the bottle almost 15 days back on the successful completion of the project well before the due delivery date. The fact was however different. The project completion was just an excuse. The bottle was there because her Team Lead Avantika, a head strong divorcee felt that a woman if she works equal to a man should enjoy the same pleasures. The bottle was among the first few trials that she was taking as a part of the pleasure trip.
Usually scared to death by insects and cockroaches not to mention the phobia she had of ghosts and spirits (plus the add-ins you get in Delhi like the “mooh nochva”, the monkey man, the hammer man….and their lesser versions like thieves, burglars and prying neighbors) she couldn’t have been more daring. It actually seemed as if an ancient spirit had taken residence in her, making a usually calm placid, practical-in-control widely respected, young and successful executive into a wild creature (I purposely refrain from using the word girl or human being. There was nothing sensible about the whole thing)
Then for some unknown reason she started crying. Maybe the joy was too much- the joy of being able to act like a child without any restrain or was it the pain of always having to act the part of a serious and responsible grown up. Whatever it was it gave her a sense of being freed from a dungeon. As the weather calmed down a bit maybe in an hour’s time it seemed to have a similar effect on her as well. Her mind started wandering on the beach of life gone by. The strange part was most of them were totally irrelevant experiences- not the ones that had changed the course of life or earth shattering remember able ones. A few hours earlier she hadn’t even remembered those moments; and here she was crying for the third standard child who didn’t get the first prize in the poetry recitation competition, smiling at the girl who felt the pleasure of wind in the hair the very first time on the cycle, with Chaaya and laughed at the awkward teen who had found her face painted early morning on getting up from bed by hostel mates. A lone girl sitting on the roof alone at 3:00 AM on a rainy night...laughing and crying.
Undoubtedly it was one of the most beautiful night’s she had ever spent. It was as if the current she was time traveling with a younger her stopping and exploring those little moments that have been lost amongst the more important ones or simply amongst the rush of life.
A while later she was thinking, “Am I getting mad?” People have beyond their jokes had always thought of her as a lil’ bit strange- especially for the reason that despite being the head of a successful organization (besides being beautiful and the kind of girl that anyone would like to take home) she loved staying alone for no obvious reasons. No boyfriends, no close friends - nothing. She even stayed away from her own family. She had vehemently opposed them saying she wasn’t the only one. Loads of people stayed that way. Besides work was a good enough excuse to escape from all relationships. Plus she argued that there is a distinction between solitude and loneliness. But then what she did alone, besides reading no one knew. No one had been inside her house, not her parents, not her friends. There were no servants as she insisted on maintaining things on her own.
Solitude; as widely understood is the act of being with yourself, indulging yourself to refresh the mind of backlogs and crowding that happens when some one is constantly drilling their thoughts in your head. Loneliness is the exact opposite, a kind of exile over a failure by self or given over by society to an individual. She was neither in constant solitude, nor lonely. It had been like this since childhood. When her brothers and sisters would play, she would sit and talk to anything that was willing to listen, grass, sky, spoons, books, walls, papers, toys….anything. With age, she found it difficult to confide in a person and over time she retreated back into the world of her own after the working hours. A world as real as any other, full of trees, teddies, books, music, Pepsi and memories. A world where everything talked and smiled, had time for others and no one was angry.
The vodka had by then burnt her throat, thus making the memories clearer. She remembered the first time she had met Chaaya-The only person who had been able to enter her “closed’ world. Her best and only friend from school days. Chaaya who was taken away in a road accident when they were in the final years of college. For her Chaaya had never died; because she hadn’t ever realized her existence. Like everything in her world Chaaya continued to live, smile and suggest thoughts…..
But today, suddenly she felt the need to see Chaaya- the real one, to feel her and hold her. But where was she? In the truest sense of her name(shadow) she was there all the time, but so far off that she could only be felt and not touched.
She was stretched out on the bed; the book just finished lying on her stomach –the two of them like tired and delighted lovers who have just finished the act of finding pleasure in each other’s bodies. Likewise her mind was reviewing the book, certain passages that she would refer from time to time, like a lover teasing fingers on the spine of her sweetheart- small actions that differentiate love from lust; post coitus . The radio played the song “aaja guffaon mein aa; aaja gunaah kar le…” in the background. For no specific reason she likes the feel of the song combined with the constant beat of the rain on the window and the violent thunder.
Suddenly she had this intense desire to feel water on her skin….Its the weekend- a time just for self hence she obliges. As she gets off the bed like the secret lover going away, the clock chimes out the bell for 2:00AM- as if reprimanding. The radio station is now playing “Kabhi Alvida na Kehna”. She almost thinks that that the book, her lover for that night; has conspired with the clock and the DJ at the radio station (and maybe her mother who would have gone wild had she got to know of her daughter getting wet in the rains). But then she is decided. Books were her love definitely. She could pick one for each weekend, even more, drink them in, sleep with them and no one could blame her of being a bitch. Besides they are much easier to handle than the guys. Grabbing a couple of chocolates and the half finished bottle of vodka she hums “Dil khudgarz hai fisla hai fir haath se; Kal uska raha, aab hai tera is raat se….” as if arguing with the radio she proceeds to the roof top. No doubt, things do tend to become human like especially for imaginative people who are staying alone. At the door her dog, Pepsi yawns and stares at her. He is accustomed to her Friday night musings and is not bothered about the whole thing.
As if to welcome her the cloud above her burst over with a flash of lightning. As the first few drops of water found a path down her spine she feels drunk. “Who needs this damned vodka in this weather?”; she smiles thinking of her team lead who had gifted her the bottle almost 15 days back on the successful completion of the project well before the due delivery date. The fact was however different. The project completion was just an excuse. The bottle was there because her Team Lead Avantika, a head strong divorcee felt that a woman if she works equal to a man should enjoy the same pleasures. The bottle was among the first few trials that she was taking as a part of the pleasure trip.
Usually scared to death by insects and cockroaches not to mention the phobia she had of ghosts and spirits (plus the add-ins you get in Delhi like the “mooh nochva”, the monkey man, the hammer man….and their lesser versions like thieves, burglars and prying neighbors) she couldn’t have been more daring. It actually seemed as if an ancient spirit had taken residence in her, making a usually calm placid, practical-in-control widely respected, young and successful executive into a wild creature (I purposely refrain from using the word girl or human being. There was nothing sensible about the whole thing)
Then for some unknown reason she started crying. Maybe the joy was too much- the joy of being able to act like a child without any restrain or was it the pain of always having to act the part of a serious and responsible grown up. Whatever it was it gave her a sense of being freed from a dungeon. As the weather calmed down a bit maybe in an hour’s time it seemed to have a similar effect on her as well. Her mind started wandering on the beach of life gone by. The strange part was most of them were totally irrelevant experiences- not the ones that had changed the course of life or earth shattering remember able ones. A few hours earlier she hadn’t even remembered those moments; and here she was crying for the third standard child who didn’t get the first prize in the poetry recitation competition, smiling at the girl who felt the pleasure of wind in the hair the very first time on the cycle, with Chaaya and laughed at the awkward teen who had found her face painted early morning on getting up from bed by hostel mates. A lone girl sitting on the roof alone at 3:00 AM on a rainy night...laughing and crying.
Undoubtedly it was one of the most beautiful night’s she had ever spent. It was as if the current she was time traveling with a younger her stopping and exploring those little moments that have been lost amongst the more important ones or simply amongst the rush of life.
A while later she was thinking, “Am I getting mad?” People have beyond their jokes had always thought of her as a lil’ bit strange- especially for the reason that despite being the head of a successful organization (besides being beautiful and the kind of girl that anyone would like to take home) she loved staying alone for no obvious reasons. No boyfriends, no close friends - nothing. She even stayed away from her own family. She had vehemently opposed them saying she wasn’t the only one. Loads of people stayed that way. Besides work was a good enough excuse to escape from all relationships. Plus she argued that there is a distinction between solitude and loneliness. But then what she did alone, besides reading no one knew. No one had been inside her house, not her parents, not her friends. There were no servants as she insisted on maintaining things on her own.
Solitude; as widely understood is the act of being with yourself, indulging yourself to refresh the mind of backlogs and crowding that happens when some one is constantly drilling their thoughts in your head. Loneliness is the exact opposite, a kind of exile over a failure by self or given over by society to an individual. She was neither in constant solitude, nor lonely. It had been like this since childhood. When her brothers and sisters would play, she would sit and talk to anything that was willing to listen, grass, sky, spoons, books, walls, papers, toys….anything. With age, she found it difficult to confide in a person and over time she retreated back into the world of her own after the working hours. A world as real as any other, full of trees, teddies, books, music, Pepsi and memories. A world where everything talked and smiled, had time for others and no one was angry.
The vodka had by then burnt her throat, thus making the memories clearer. She remembered the first time she had met Chaaya-The only person who had been able to enter her “closed’ world. Her best and only friend from school days. Chaaya who was taken away in a road accident when they were in the final years of college. For her Chaaya had never died; because she hadn’t ever realized her existence. Like everything in her world Chaaya continued to live, smile and suggest thoughts…..
But today, suddenly she felt the need to see Chaaya- the real one, to feel her and hold her. But where was she? In the truest sense of her name(shadow) she was there all the time, but so far off that she could only be felt and not touched.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)