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Clark and I were coming back from O’Hare one day, and suddenly, out of nowhere, Clark asks me “What is the purpose of life?”… and for a second, I frantically scan his face to make sure that there were no maniacal or suicidal tendencies mirrored in there, because he was the one doing the driving !!!! (Hehe.. just kidding clark
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But then, we actually went on to talk quite a bit about the purpose of life in general, as in, with respect to the entire human race.. not just him, or me, or a couple of other people. It is talk like that, and lying down on a bed of grass on a cool, moonless and absolutely clear night and watching the countless number of stars, that really makes me feel insignificant in the whole quagmire of things, that defines life. The 1st thing that comes to my mind in situations like those is a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip where in Calvin looks up at the starry sky and goes “I’m SIGNIFICANT!!!!”.. then the next panel shows him looking upwards silently, and the last panel shows him looking at us and saying “Screamed the dust speck”. Hilarious though the comic strip may appear, it does have a point y’kno…
We’re only but part of 1 planet, and in this planet alone, we have animals, insects, plants, fauna on land, fauna on water, flora on land, flora on water.. and get this…. according to some noted paeleontologists, 99% of all plant and animal species that have existed have already become extinct with most leaving no fossils. It is also humbling to realize that humans and other large animals are freakishly rare life forms, since 99% of all known animal species are smaller than bumble bees.
From all of the mind-numbing variety and diversity present in our planet, it was the human being (more technically, his ape-like ancestor) who was given the upper hand to evolve as the alpha organism, the top of the food chain.. so to speak. The fact that Man is so self delusional and gloatful about his technical prowess and advancements is another matter altogether, but lets not go there. Let us, instead, ponder the fact that, this is but one miniscule planet in the whole friggin cosmos, which may never even had any life on it to begin with, had its orbit been a few million kilometers here or there. It is a really precious gift, the life that this planet has.. and the sad part is, all the other species on this planet seem to realise and respect it, revere it even, except for us.
But, you also cannot help but wonder…. Is the life on planet earth really so precious that it exists only here and nowhere else in the entire universe??? I mean.. considering the fact that the universe is.. umm.. well, limitless, surely there has to be life somewhere else right?? If we talk science, then we can go on and on and on about the various factors to consider and what kind of life may evolve where, depending on the conditions present in any given part at any given time, in the universe. Even if there may not be any life now, there must have been life before somewhere, with some random planet going through the same evolutionary stages as earth did, only a 1000 million light years away and 500 million years before.
Again, one would notice that man makes the general mistake of assuming that “Intelligent” life, if found elsewhere, would be of a size similar to our own, because in some warped way, the common man thinks that our size is indicative of our intelligence, because micro organisms or fishes or insects aren’t as intelligent as we are. How are we to tell whether the nano-sized creatures on uranus (ASSUMING there were any
), which resemble a cross between a fish and a lion , are any less intelligent than we are? Or the 50 foot tall dragonflies found on a planet (named.. umm.. i dunno.. kashyapchandros?? ) thrice the size of jupiter, in the andromeda galaxy, are, on an intelligence level, similar to a dodo, a blonde or even me?? 
.. . For all we know, the denizens of uranus have already perfected Hyperdrive.. and we’ve hardly gotten ourselves to the moon!!Life.. i dunno.. its too profound and too reverent a concept to be tinkering around with. I just wish everybody on this planet (species no bar
) realises that. Nature keeps reminding us all the time.. we just have to listen. And yeah you.. you.. Uranoids!!! Inspite of our shortcomings, we humans are intelligent!! we only have to attach a sense of responsibility to it.. And you will see that the day isn’t far where your monopoly over hyperdrive comes to an end!!! .. .. and as for you Kashyapchandroids, its ok.. you have plenty of time, and evolution, to catch up to our current position. Just don’t blow it all off once you get to this point ok?? .P.S: I wrote this blog entry in a completely sound and stable state of mind!! I did not get high on Crystal Meth, nor did I have a few too many Screwdrivers
. Its just that, when i start to feel insignificant amidst the grand scheme of things in the Universe, i really start to wonder about a lot of stuff . Ohh by the way, feeling insignificant when you see all the people who leave their mark on the world in their own small way, is a totally different mother :p.. .
