There is a mango tree in the small plot of my neighbour’s flat, not cemented to keep the environment ‘clean’. Clean for us city dwellers means not only devoid of dust but also not to leave the soil in its natural form for vegetation to grow. But my neighbour has left the soil to nature and a mango seedling has grown into a tree that bears plenty of fruits. The neighbour is not interested in mangoes and when ripe they fall down naturally.
My grand grandfather, grand many times on the path of evolution, who we call mockingly monkey, comes by instinct to eat the fruits. He is accompanied by his wife to whose breast a baby clings conveniently to suck milk.
The unpaid guards of the colony, street dogs, gather below and bark continuously to protest but the monkeys care little, have their fill and walk away calmly along the insulated electric wire on the high poles.
How similar we are to the simian I wonder, and how dissimilar!
On the path of evolution, we made the greatest of our discovery, our ignorance. That has made us different from animals, to think and get civilised while the animal has stuck to his basic needs for survival, gather food and procreation.
Man has enslaved nature, cultivated for his food, built houses to live. He made cities, demarcated the land into countries, made boundaries to defend with weapons, even nuclear ones that can destroy the world several times over, only to defend his country!
Seeing the monkeys visit the mango tree, have their fill and go away peacefully, I ponder over the great progress man has made on the path of evolution, and also what he has lost on the way.
Man has lost monkey’s nimbleness to walk on the insulated wire high up on the electric poles. His baby clings to the mother’s breast to feed for a few weeks and later weaned to fend for himself. The human baby has to be fed and nursed for a few years. Man began covering his body to save himself from cold which has extended to hide nakedness, and that has progressed into fashion industry.
Man thinks the earth is his and all other living beings – vegetation, animals, fishes – all are to live for him, at his mercy. He made God, the supreme power, and made Him say through holy books that he was the crown of creation and others were to serve him.
How foolish is man despite having come so far on the road of evolution! He doesn’t realise that he can’t live without nature that provides him the air fit to breath. And that this earth is a property entrusted to him to keep fit to live for his future generations as well as of other living beings.
