Sometimes

Sometimes....

I wonder if we are but a drop

In a free fall

Glistening, spherical and round

Creating a rainbowy hue

Along with our fellow mates

Sharing a similar fate....

Does the drop know

Its fate

Or the colour it glistens in

As everybody awes and oohs

Does anybody care about the drop’s fate?

It is but a single drop of a multitude

Falling down

It is but creating the rainbowy hue

Who cares when the sight is so great?

That the drop fell

Splattered, in a wetty mess

As the fall pushes many to their fates

Moves on

Creating beauty without and within

Does it really matter

The fate the drop met?

It is, after all, but a drop

In a multitude that met their fates

Then, Should the drop pity itself

Or be pleased

As it, even briefly so,

Was but a beautiful part of this Creative mess...

On Darwinism

As I understand- 

1. Evolution is not a directed phenomenon. It is a very random process. Fitness is determined not by the character in itself but by its usefulness in a given environment. Thus a character which gives maximum benefit today may become useless if there is change in environmental conditions. Changes in environment are very random and sometimes very drastic. Such sudden changes may lead to fixing of a given trait or removal of it from a population. Historically there have been many such drastic changes in environmental conditions- ice age for example. Earth's magnetic field direction also flips periodically. Creation of new geographical topologies has occurred time and again. Such changes lead to geographical isolation of populations which experience different micro and macro climates leading to speciation. 

2. Humans are not descendants of modern day monkeys. It is a simplified way of expressing a complex phenomenon. What it means is that modern day monkeys and humans had a common ancestor just like modern day amphibians and pisces had common ancestors. While drawing lineages in an evolutionary tree if the common ancestor is unknown it is represented as the 'last unknown common ancestor' and when known then they are called, Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). 

If you study all the fishes in the world today (and the found fossils) then you will definitely see a gradation in use of gills, skin and lungs for breathing. Therefore it is possible that fishes that use lung like structures and animals that use lungs for breathing had a common ancestor. This ancestor population underwent different degrees of isolation and exposure to environmental conditions such that over a period of time its fragmented and segregated population started looking like different species. The populations could no longer interbreed even when put together. Some characters got fixed some eliminated. Remember the word Fixed. Characters are not becoming better. Fixing of characters may happen to different degrees. For instance, if the environmental constraints are severe and selective for fast running then only the fastest runners in a population will be able to survive. If the selective environmental forces are not severe then sub populations with varying running speeds will survive. If the selection pressure continues then the character gets hyper-selected for.

[If none of the sub populations have the running trait, then the species goes extinct. It does not matter at that point of time if they were excellent climbers. Thus it is the environment that selects!]

The surviving population is then considered to have adapted. Not because it suddenly started running fast, but because in its population there existed a variant in character that enabled it to survive the change in external conditions and therefore the continuation of the species. Therefore the term survival cannot be applied to an individual animal. It is the species that adapts and survives.

Lamarckism is different in the sense that it tries to say that characters are acquired in a lifetime. Experiments have failed in proving it to be the case.

3. How the variants exist in a population can be explained to a certain extent through breeding mechanisms employed (for instance sexual vs asexual) , genetic mutations, gene swapping , allele cross-overs during meiosis (egg and sperm formation) and so on.

4. An example of evolution happening in real time is the development of drug-resistance in microbes and pests such as mosquitoes. 

5. Some animals like cockroaches and horse shoe crabs are called living fossils. They have been able to survive all the environmental changes for millions of years without loss or fixing of any traits. Therefore not much change is seen between fossils and present day living creatures.

6. Evolution is often used as a positive word, as in to mean that traits become better. But I feel Darwin would have objected. Because he took on a world which believed in determinism- God created Man in his own image kind of thoughts. Or in other words he faced a lot of opposition not for saying that man and monkeys evolved. But because he questioned the very thought that Man was the best creature. I feel it is ironical and sad that his theories are now twisted to create a human-centric world view. He never said species evolve for the better. He just said species bred, adapted, survived and evolved. Darwinism can also be used to explain the existence of ethically accepted bad characters such as bullying, cowardice, cheating etc. 

The Poem

I dreamt a little poem

In my sleep yesterday night

But cannot seem to remember

What it was exactly like!

It was beautiful I know

A bit of melancholy in it

Halfway through though

It had changed its tone

Suddenly it was all peace

And felt, rightly so!

Even in the dream

I could not dream its end

Wish I had been awake

To write its end

The change in its tone

Midway through

Everlasting peace

May it signify so!

The end never to be written

I guess so!

But then why is it

I am desperate to know

The poem

The beginning , the end and more?!

Will you dance with me?

Distracted momentarily, I look at the beautiful world,

In one sweep of flight, I see life court death!

It’s like walking a tight rope you see, every step a potential death,

but with every step we live not knowing which our last might be

Death we fear, but in life we choose to forget

We live as if we shall know not death,

ever! But death has the last laugh!

Mock us if you will ‘oh! Death’, but carry on we must!

As if you do not exist!

For in accepting you lies our end

For, if life accepted your supremacy would it not end?

For who would fight a lost cause?

But we do,

with every breath we defy you!

Until our last breathe is drawn, Is it not very beautiful?

This dance between life and death? Is this not very beautiful ,

how in hope we find our rest?  Is it not very beautiful,

this hope that we possess?!

But then I look around,

in forgetting you we made a mess!

In forgetting you we fail to see the futility of accumulated wealth

Vainness of fame, and success!

For, in you dissolve the meaning of everything we hold

We forget you and hence plot and scheme,

to be at the top in every game!

In present we lose interest,

focused we are on future interests!

We hurt others and ourselves, we do,

because we have forgotten you!

Are you not beautiful then,

when with a graceful sweep

you show us mortal folks the frivolity

of our self preserving antics old!

Oh! how morbidly beautiful of you!

Oh! mock us if you will!  But

look what remembering you always does,

in immortality lies our quest!

We heap havoc left and right,

thinking we shall win the conquest!

But like a chameleon you hide yourself,

and attack when we least expect!

Is it not beautiful,

when you attack with a vengeful scorn?!

Amidst the stench created around,

this dark melancholic dance between you and life!

Why does it keep me spell bound?

Oh! your mocking laughter grows louder beyond!

You mock me from near and far beyond!

Oh! tell me ‘oh! Death’, is there hope around?

Should you be remembered or forgotten?

Does release from fear lie in accepting fate?

Will you stop mocking and guide me along?

Oh! tell me ‘oh! Death’, will you dance with me?

Take one step back when hope needs be and

come to the fore when greed leads me?

Oh! tell me ‘oh! Death’ will you dance with me?