The craziest and unanswered WHY…

We all want happiness, and we always keep talking and complaining about it. This is not all, we keep bribing the GOD for this “happiness” word to stay in our life forever. We do many things in our lives, let it be charity, business, service, free service, love, care, worship god and what not for the sake of happiness. But have your ever mingled your mind and asked why are we doing this? Have you ever asked this question to yourself?

Well I have. And I keep asking this question to myself again and again and keep probing my mind to find an answer to this silly question. Let me tell you, this question is not that silly. It is not that useless to ask yourself as you think it at the first sight. Just give it a deeper thought.  Ask yourself once again, why are you doing this? What is the purpose of all this? Is it so important to earn money, love someone, worship god and a ton of statements in the queue….

I am neither going to be spiritual, nor philosophical. I am an engineer and I am going to be an engineer in this article too.

I think I have a partial answer to this question. We do it for one and only one thing, happiness.

A businessman wants to be successful and earn a lot of money, why?

So that he can be happy.

A simple man/child becomes a decoit, a murderer, a thief or a gangster, why?

Because his situations made him do so? Because he made a choice? Because it was the only way he could make a living?

Well the answer is well expected. A big NO. Yes a big NO.

The real question is… “WHY are we in present“?

So let’s look at it from an engineer’s eye.

A hot ball, yelling out heat like anything and some tiny balls revolving around it, in some elliptical orbits. One of the revolving balls. The object of our interest is the third closest object to the hot fireball.

Mother earth is not a mother yet. The first child is yet to take birth. The chemical accident has not yet happened which would give out a magical byproduct called life. Mother earth is waiting since long for this to happen. After some million years, the outer layer of the earth becomes solid, and the earth thinks that I have sacrificed my original form from hot red fireball to a cool blue solid surfaced ball, so that my child can live and nurture over me. Alas, no accident yet. Some more million years have passed. Now the earth has water, volcanoes, rocks, sand, temperature and all sorts of things it takes to sustain a life. And one fine day, the right temperature, humidity, chemicals mix and the second magic happens, first one was big bang. This magic in today’s life is called life/intelligence. I know you are thinking that how come an intelligent creature come out of nothing. Well let me define intelligence. Its actual meaning can be interpreted as an ability to take self action/decision to adjust in the surrounding. Even an amoeba is intelligent, because it can decide, when to have food, when to excrete and can also decide its movement. Not only this, it also knows how to and when to reproduce.

The magical body, now called as a cell started reproducing and doing some more tasks mandatory for its survival and henceforth the life of that creature and its children continued for some more millenniums keeping those cells as the monopolists of life on mother earth.

Now was the time of actual change. It was time to have something more than just survival, more than just reproduction, more than just being a parasite on the mother earth; it was time for an upgrade of the hardware and firmware. And another magic began, EVOLUTION. The parasite started increasing its size and started to acquire more space and more robustness in its life cycle. The basic blocks started developing in some different ways too. They started developing some more features and after some billions of years, a highly developed creature was formed. Today we call it an insect. This creature was capable of moving/flying/swimming. It could gather food, reproduce and what not. By this time Intelligence had grown from “nothing” to a creature which can do such magical things like moving, gathering food, reproduction and all. With some diversity, more modifications in the forthcoming generations came and went. Mutations happened and reverted as suggested by Darvin’s theory of “The survival of the fittest”. But time never stopped. Everything was smooth and progressive.

Taking another long jump from the flashback, we come into the time where a creature, which can judge, think, imagine, move, eat and remember is finally ready. Well still it’s an ape. Now the changes have started occurring faster and are more complex. The ape has started lifting its fore limbs and has started walking on its hind limbs. It has families now, but is still a nomad. Or rather we can say he is an early man. He hunts, eats, shares and reproduces. He loves cares and helps others. He is no more fully selfish. Whatever he does, he does it with and for support. He shares his food with his family, takes care of his children and life partner/partners.

Now the BIG question arises, wasn’t it enough? He had food, he had family, he had shelter, wasn’t he still happy? Why did the single family converted to civilizations? Why those civilizations converted to villages, then cities, then countries and continents? Why did he start fighting for what he is supposed to preserve? Why the man started the earning? Why everybody couldn’t get equal and be happy? Is the greed of happiness so strong?

Let’s come back to the answer….

It was never enough, because every mother wants its child to be the best. It gives all possible facilities and nourishment to its child to make him better. So, was done by the mother earth. The man started learning and started to live in communities. But, he didn’t do it for anybody else. He did it so that he could leave more happily. He never tried to pay back anything to the mother, rather deteriorated its condition in past few years. The only reason that brought these communities into being and their growth into cities, countries and so on was not the greed of happiness, but the “feeling of INSECURITY”. He joined groups, because it made him feel more secure.

A very interesting thing comes out of these facts. If he did it for his own security, then who told him about God? Who taught him to worship? Who told him what is right and what is wrong.

We can find a very logical reason from this very phrase “feeling of insecurity”.

Let’s take an example. Why man worships fire or lightening? A very logical answer can be that he was afraid of fire, as it had the power to destroy him. Similarly, because he needed water for survival, he started worshiping water. And to pass on this knowledge to further generations, the best way to make them remember the necessities is to create a fear in their mind about the powers, and they will never forget it. But the future generations started worshipping all the things they were afraid of. We can again see the feeling of insecurity being fit in this case.

In modern time, we earn, we create shelter, we produce our own food, etc. In short we are self sufficient power on this planet. But we can still see that feeling in us. This feeling has become very powerful over time. It has affected so much that, the man has started cheating his own surroundings and himself too. He cannot face himself at times. In early stages of life he saves for his children, but later on, when his children are mature and they have so called “sense”, they cheat their own parents for their property/savings/money and can go to any extent to get it. Corruption is also an outcome of a similar kind of feeling.

So where are we leading ourselves to? According to Darvin, we must be the fittest to be the survivors, but as the days are passing and as we can see the growth of corruption in past few years, then we can easily make out that we are not heading to betterment, but towards extinction.

Is the prophecy of Nostradamus true? If it is true, then can this small phrase be a reason of the extinction of mankind from this earth rather than a natural calamity or an asteroid hitting the earth?

 

6 mistakes in a day

After a long and tiring day I was all set to go to Kolkata the next day to visit my cousin. And I committed my first mistake. To catch a train of 8:15, I had set an alarm of 7:15, which should have been 6:45 to reach the Railway Station in time. So to compensate, I had to miss my breakfast and rush while taking bath.

I left the hostel at 7:50 and reached the IIT’s main gate at 7:55. I parked my cycle in SBI Building and went on the Taxi/Auto/Rickshaw stop to wait for a conveyance. I was looking for a Sharing auto which is fast and quite economic for students. After waiting for 10 minutes I realized that its high time to hire a Rickshaw and reach Station. But everybody knows the Rickshaw walas. They are like “Kuch bhi Karne ka tha Sanyam, bas Rickshaw wale ki ego ko hurt nahi karne ka tha”. And I had badly hurt every rickshaw wala’s ego who were standing over there, by waiting for an auto when they were staring at me in a hope that I will come to them begging for conveyance before their ego is badly hurt. This was my mistake 2.

But someone has rightly said “where there is a hope, there is a way”. And the ray of hope began to brighten when a Rickshaw wala came out of IIT and stopped near me. I asked my awaited question in only 2 words – “Railway Station?”. He was a bigger one, he replied in one – “Forty”. I quietly sat into the Rick and left for the railway station.

Everything went fine on my way to Station, he dropped me at Railway station at 8:15. Luckily my train was 5 minutes late from the scheduled time. I ran to the ticket window and asked for an express train ticket to Howrah(A railway station in Kolkata). Next to me was a student too. he may be 2-3 years younger to me. He also took a ticket to Howrah. I approached him and asked “Howrah?”. His eyes sparkled and mine were bright too to see that I am not alone in that boring journey, where I am going to be with people who will mix MURI and ALU CHOP in the dirtiest possible cloth called GAMCHA, and munch it in the whole journey.

After all these paranormal emotions, we rushed for the Steel express which was expected to leave at 8:20 and it was 8:19 by Railway watch. We decided to take the only way to platform 6, the step over bridge. – Mistake 3.

The bridge was full of people belonging to over decent category like I have explained earlier. It looked like I am in a gully of an ant farm, where the soldier ants guard the way for labor ants. Well I mentioned over decent crowd, they have one more distinctiveness, They won’t let you go if you are in a hurry (quite like it will hurt their ego). And the clocked ticked 8:20, and with a siren of the engine, the train started moving while we were busy pushing the over decent people to make our way to the bridge. By the time we managed to get on platform, the train was far enough to be caught.

Well this mistake didn’t prove to be dreadful, as another train was waiting for us on the adjoining platform for our destination. As we had express tickets, we boarded the general compartment of the train and stood there to get some place to sit. But the general compartment looked like a hot dog with an over decent people suassage. He managed half a seat and asked me to sit. I was obliged. Journey was good as far as company is concerned. I spent most of the time listening songs in my i-pod. In the last half an hour of our 2 hours journey, I was asked my name, and my new acquainted guy introduced himself with Heinslee, At first I felt he was the grand son of Bruce Lee. But one more look over him proved me wrong.

On deplaning, he guided me to the bus stand and also told me how to catch my bus for Pudupukur, Lansdown. After waiting for 15-20 minutes and questioning around 30 people with red teeth, I finally boarded the bus to my destination.

Finally I reached my cousin’s place where I was welcomed very nicely with home cooked dishes and a soft and soothing drink. I was having my breakfast at 12 noon…

After a normal day, I was all set to get back to my campus in Kharagpur. At 9:30 we went to the nearby bus stop, to go back to Howrah station. This time I was going for Puri Express whose departure time from Howrah was 10:35. – Mistake 4.

Wondering why is it a mistake?

Well, i was in Kolkata and I have only 1 hour to reach my destination which is 10 km away. And I am still waiting for a bus.

Well after waiting for 20 mins, at 9:50 I thought of taking a taxi from there and bid a goodbye to my cousin and her husband. I was clever enough, by not knowing the actual way and not letting the taxi driver to take the longer way by the reason of traffic jam at 10:00 PM in the city which has no life after 9:00 PM.

I reached the Railway station at 10:25. The troubles were not yet over. I had only 10 minutes to locate the platform, reach the ticket window and take an express ticket, and rush for the platform (one out of 23). To be precise, i was at platform 1 and my train had to leave from platform 22. That was not all. The biggest problem was that the train was on time and I was not worried about that. I somehow found an open window near platform 1 and asked for the ticket. He said that there is no express at this time. Well he was right at his point, as I was standing on old Howrah and asking him for a ticket to the train which is leaving from new Howrah. I rushed to new Howrah which ranges from platform number 17 to 23. Well I wasted my one minute at the inquiry for a formality of asking about the train I had already known. Mistake 5.

Still wondering why a mistake?

Well I had only 4 minutes left to take the ticket and board the train and I was busy with the man in his middle 40’s sitting at the inquiry window.

Anyways, I reached the ticket counter and I was happy to see that I was the third person in the queue. I took the ticket and started walking for the train. Mistake 6 – I was walking.

By the time I reached platform 17, it was 10:35. For a change which left me astonished, the train started moving at the right time, i.e. 10:35:00.

I thought I have missed this train too. and with no hope I walked up to platform 21, after which there is a roadway, where the cars can be parked.

Suddenly…. The soldier in me woke up and said.. “NOT AGAIN, I am not leaving the train”. And I started running towards the train, which was atleast 50 meters away from me at that time. I started running with a shopper’s stop poly bag in my hand, as fast as i could. Obviously, I had to run faster than the train. I was amazed to see the people who were waiting for the next train started cheering for me, as I was going to catch a moving train which is 50 meters away and accelerating. It filled more energy in me and I started running faster. When I was around only 5-7 meters from train, I was exhausted and my limbs were urging for oxygen. But my soldier woke up again and said “AB KIS MUH SE WAPAS JAYEGA ULLU?”. I started running even faster and finally I could manage to get into the last compartment in the train, which was reserved for Disabled people. Well, if I had been questioned at that time. I was highly disabled 😛 . I could not move even a bit because of 2 reasons. Firstly, I was totally out of energy. Secondly, there was no place to stand, forget about reaching the seating area and having a seat. I just had place to stand one any one of my paining feet and spend my whole journey, as the train was going to stop after 2 hours at Kharagpur.

Well the train reached Kgp before time, that too 15 minutes early. I was astonished for the second time to see the train reaching a station before scheduled time and that too in the state WB aka PaschimBanga… I don’t know what made the govt, change the name of the state and rather keeping something sensible, they just translated it into Bangla and removed an ‘l’ from it.

Finally I reached IIT in 10 bucks less than the normal fare (that too by some clever bargaining). Took back my bicycle and happily headed towards my hostel.

 

Things I learnt and would like to share…

1. Train is like a chance. If you loose one another will come, but you may or may not have to wait for it.

2. If you miss a train by a few seconds. Or a chance by a small gap of time and you feel its impossible to catch/recover it. It may still be possible to cover up and be in a better position by some hard work.

3. Always take some margin in time if you are going to board a train. Always be ready for the opportunities you expect.