Pranaam yatri,
If you’re a fish, it’s a great time to live in Mumbai.
There is water inside you, around you, and more water falling on you from the sky.
But if you’re human, you will enjoy it on the first couple of days and then crib about the gloom and lethargy this weather brings.
Along with many inconveniences, muck, and the desire to own a jetpack (to escape the traffic).
Happily, nothing about today’s story will make you feel bad. Or, is there?
This story takes place seas away from us: in Africa.
There is a deer, peacefully living in the Savanna of Africa. She has never hurt any other living being. She simply eats, runs, and sleeps.
She’s recently given birth to a baby.
But in a couple of weeks, a cheetah strikes her herd.
Since the baby is the slowest of the lot, it can’t outrun the predator. The cheetah kills the fawn.
The cheetah eats the baby. He has no remorse for his actions.
The mother deer is extremely sad. It can’t stop crying.
End of story. Beginning of thinking.
You can easily say: the baby deer had a right to live. Why should a baby die. The cheetah is cruel. God is unjust!
But the cheetah, who had not eaten since a couple of days, is happy. He got food and will thank his gods. Is he really cruel?
Nature doesn’t have the concept of right and wrong. It does not believe in good or bad. There are no heroes and victims. You simply have predators and prey. Survival of the fittest, right?
To combat that, we create culture.
It is a human construct that goes beyond this rule of ‘might is right’ and establishes a line between appropriate and inappropriate, acceptable and unacceptable.
And every question that emerges from man-made culture (institutions) will ignite debates.
Is it right to give reservations to some communities?
Who is fit to be a leader?
What is the optimum punishment for each crime?
Should the woman go to the husband’s house after marriage?
Is it okay to not respect elders?
Everyone shall have their own answers, which they believe are true.
So what is the real truth? The truth of the majority? But sometimes, a majority means that all the fools are on one side! So how can we determine the right answer to any of these questions?
Nature doesn’t have right or wrong. It doesn’t have the concept of justice.
For that matter, it doesn’t even understand the concept of happiness or sadness.
All of these are man-made.
The cheetah doesn’t care about any of this. He is busy eating the baby deer.
But if you do, it’s time to introspect:
What will you believe in?
What opinions are actually valid?
How will you do the ‘right’ thing in any situation?
If you find answers, please help me out, too.
