by B. R. GOWANI
PHOTO/ExCommunicado
A group of birds, in order to make their migratory travel easy and to use their energy more efficiently, prefer to travel in a V shape formation. This also helps them to get better acquanted with each other and to communicate. One such group, while on a journey for greener pastures, was worried about the rapidly changing conditions on the planet earth. The discussion was a mix of worries, skepticism, criticism, and suggestions.
A: “The world is changing faster than light’s speed.”
B: “Light’s or neutrinos‘?”
F: “There are times you’ve to be serious.”
C: “Change is integral part of life; unchanged things cease to exist.”
D: “You mean cease to survive?
E: “Change is necessary and good for survival but changes can be dangerous too.”
C: “What do you mean?”
E: “Take technology, for example. Nuclear weapons has the capability to incinerate the entire globe of ours.”
F: “You people are turning philosophical. First try to find out why Ms. A felt the world is changing so fast.”
C: “Sweetheart A! Why is the change bothering you so much?”
A: “Stop flirting and patronizing. We all have seen many changes, but what bothers me is the disappearance of wires. The world is becoming more and more wireless.”
C: “You sound like a spoilt homo sapien who complains when forced to go without a chair and has to sit on the floor.”
A: “You always have difficulty understanding people, especially females.
B: “C, you’re always nasty. Why do you have pass a judgment on her. It’s not just her, we all miss the wires. Don’t we?”
E: “A, please go ahead and tell the whole thing.”
A: “It’s not just that you see less wires nowadays, but also when you find a wire and you sit on top of it, you notice the difference.”
C: “Such as ….”
A: “Mr. C. Such as … nowadays, in some places you don’t see very many homo sapeims outside. Even the number of amorous couples have been on the decline. On top of it, very few of their children prefer to play out. It’s so depressing.”
F: “I have that empty feelings inside me for sometime now, but up until now was unable to figure out the real reason. A, you’re my Sigmund Freud.”
G: “But do you know who’s the main culprit?”
H: “Are there less things to worry about then trying to detect the culprit? Have you noticed the worsening economic situation has forced homo sapiens to waste less food and thus in turn creating food shortages for us.”
G: “You masses only think about food. Your brain misses the leadership chemicals.”
H: “Your leadership chemicals have utterly failed to provide the required food to all of us–but I guess, you don’t mind leading the half hungry or starving birds?”
E: “We’ve strayed too far from the main topic.”
D: “I’ll tell you who the main culprit is. The machine.”
C: “Machines have been around for centuries. So why now?”
E: “D is talking about computers. And C, you know it pretty well.”
A: “I have learned that more and more homo sapiens are spending time in front of their machines. Many of them fulfill most of their needs through those machines: From intellectual to intimate.”
F: “So what should we do to get those homo sapiens away from those computers?”
B: “We can’t do anything. They’ll divorce those machines only when they get fed up with them or they turn psychos.”
E: “Whether that will happen in our lifetime or not, we don’t know. But we need to find some solution to our depression problem.”
A: “How about if we develop some interest in computers and learn a little bit just to browse around.”
C: “It’s a silly idea. We should never forget that we’re birds.”
B: “This is your problem. You underestimate yourself too much.”
A: “We need to evolve to survive. Do you think the homo sapiens were always like this as they’re today?”
E: “Millions of years ago, they were going around on all four, with an exposed derriere. And now see where they are.”
C: “Good luck. After millions of years our great, great, … great children will be using computers or whatever new machines, may be invisible machines, will be around then.”
A: “Always a pessimist. I’m sure, in the present times, it wouldn’t take that long.”
B: “I agree with you.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com