Skip to main content

Death and new life


Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the soil, it cannot grow into a new plant.  Jesus said that, but it is a very obvious truth. 

The mailbox in the picture is one which was in function until a few years back.  Now it stands like a relic in Fatehpur Beri, South Delhi.  It will gather rust and fall down one day.  Civilisation has killed it already before time will kill it once and for all.  No one will mourn its death any more than anyone will mourn the death of the cassette player or the typewriter.  The new takes the place of the old.  And the old dies.  Naturally. 

Civilisation keeps moving ahead with new technology and better ways of doing things.  Life becomes easier and better.

But
has life really become easier and better?
Is the new life better than the old?

Such questions are silly because their answers are as obvious truths as what Jesus said about the grain of wheat.  Everything has merits and demerits. 

Life goes on.  Changes are as inevitable as death and new birth. 

But
I’m just wondering why we, who keep creating marvels in technology, architecture, medicine...
why we can’t create the marvel of tolerance in place of strife,
cooperation in place of terrorism...

Well
maybe a genetic mutation is awaiting mankind.

Maybe the ape who walks on two legs will die to give birth to a new species.

That's a better hope than awaiting heaven in the hereafter :)

Labels:

Comments

  1. Datta GhoshSeptember 5, 2014 at 4:05 PM

    we are slowly evolving technically speaking..The Homo Sapiens has become Homo Sapien Sapien. Wonderful post Sir

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 5, 2014 at 8:35 PM

      There's another evolution that we need, Datta: at the consciousness level. A lot of people had imagined it, Bernard Shaw, Nietzsche, Teilhard de Chardin... Evolution is a slow process, I guess.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2014 at 9:35 PM

    Something profound in this

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 6, 2014 at 8:58 AM

      I kept it short in order to prevent scaring readers with too much "profundity" :) Thanks.

      Delete
  3. PurbaSeptember 6, 2014 at 6:27 AM

    We have reached a stage when we are realizing that progress came with a cost. Some us will learn and change and the rest of us will adapt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 6, 2014 at 8:59 AM

      True, the change has already started with quite many people questioning the prevailing dominant world view.

      Delete
  4. Nima DasSeptember 7, 2014 at 5:01 PM

    The old gives way to the new but always at a cost! Good read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 8, 2014 at 9:31 AM

      Many civilisations perished when they lost touch with the roots (traditional ways), according to a scholar on the topic, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

Sanjay and other loyalists

AI-generated illustration Some people, especially those in politics, behave as if they are too great to have any contact with the ordinary folk. And they can get on with whoever comes to power on top irrespective of their ideologies and principles. Sanjay was one such person. He occupied some high places in Sawan school [see previous posts, especially P and Q ] merely because he knew how to play his cards more dexterously than ordinary politicians. Whoever came as principal, Sanjay would be there in the elite circle. He seemed to hold most people in contempt. His respect was reserved for the gentry. I belonged to the margins of Sawan society, in Sanjay’s assessment. So we hardly talked to each other. Looking back, I find it quite ludicrous to realise that Sanjay and I lived on the same campus 24x7 for a decade and a half without ever talking to each other except for official purposes.      Towards the end of our coexistence, Sawan had become a veritable hell. Power supply to the
12 comments
Read more

Thomas the Saint

AI-generated image His full name was Thomas Augustine. He was a Catholic priest. I knew him for a rather short period of my life. When I lived one whole year in the same institution with him, I was just 15 years old. I was a trainee for priesthood and he was many years my senior. We both lived in Don Bosco school and seminary at a place called Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. He was in charge of a group of boys like me. Thomas had little to do with me directly as I was under the care of another in-charge. But his self-effacing ways and angelic smile drew me to him. He was a living saint all the years I knew him later. When he became a priest and was in charge of a section of a Don Bosco institution in Kochi, I met him again and his ways hadn’t changed an iota. You’d think he was a reincarnation of Jesus if you met him personally. You won’t be able to meet him anymore. He passed away a few years ago. One of the persons whom I won’t ever forget, can’t forget as long as the neurons continu
16 comments
Read more

William and the autumn of life

William and I were together only for one year, but our friendship has grown stronger year after year. The duration of that friendship is going to hit half a century. In the meanwhile both he and I changed many places. William was in Kerala when I was in Shillong. He was in Ireland when I was in Delhi. Now I am in Kerala where William is planning to migrate back. We were both novices of a religious congregation for one year at Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu. He was older than me by a few years and far more mature too. But we shared a cordial rapport which kept us in touch though we went in unexpected directions later. William’s conversations had the same pattern back then and now too. I’d call it Socratic. He questions a lot of things that you say with the intention of getting to the depth of the matter. The last conversation I had with him was when I decided to stop teaching. I mention this as an example of my conversations with William. “You are a good teacher. Why do you want to stop
12 comments
Read more

Uriel the gargoyle-maker

Uriel was a multifaceted personality. He could stab with words, sting like Mike Tyson, and distort reality charmingly with the precision of a gifted cartoonist. He was sedate now and passionate the next moment. He could don the mantle of a carpenter, a plumber, or a mechanic, as situation demanded. He ran a school in Shillong in those days when I was there. That’s how I landed in the magic circle of his friendship. He made me a gargoyle. Gradually. When the refined side of human civilisation shaped magnificent castles and cathedrals, the darker side of the same homo sapiens gave birth to gargoyles. These grotesque shapes were erected on those beautiful works of architecture as if to prove that there is no human genius without a dash of perversion. In many parts of India, some such repulsive shape is placed in a prominent place of great edifices with the intention of warding off evil or, more commonly, the evil eye. I was Uriel’s gargoyle for warding off the evil eye from his sc
11 comments
Read more