An Unexpected Party.

Mistakes can be glorious. This happened during our district visit to Amaravati in January 2013. We were in Melghat, totally isolated from rest of the world except intermittent but weak mobile network signals. The trip was going really good, both on counts of academics and fun.

 It was a hectic day when we visited Bairagad which is on Maharashtra- Madhya Pradesh border. While returning we came across an indistinct milestone which showed a way to some village Katkumbh 3 km away.

                We were told by some friends to visit Katkumbh to study public health system. But the map showed we were on wrong location. Out of mobile phone coverage and totally disconnected from the world, we had no means to verify. Finally we decided to take the plunge and go ahead to that village.

               As we entered the village, our fears came true. We were in the wrong Katkumbh. A shy tribal woman told us that we were about 100 km away from the other Katkumbh.  We had two options: to return back on track or to explore the mistake. Fortunately, we chose the latter one.

        By now we had realized that we had an unexpected scene to welcome us. Almost the whole village was gathered at a place for some purpose and they were amused to see us. This added to our amusement too. Destiny was playing games with us!

       The gathering of villagers was not a coincidence. It was a party celebrating a tribal marriage that took place two days ago. We got to know about the tradition in Korku tribe where the would-be-bride elopes with the would-be-groom before the marriage, spends some time with him and returns to get married only if she finds him good enough. The groom’s family compensates the bride’s family with money- kind of reverse dowry.

      

          The whole village celebrated the marriage in their own way, completely oblivious to the traditions of the so-called educated world. Men and women of all ages were happy to be under influence of Mahua liquor- an essential ingredient of tribal culture. Women were merrily chirping songs and dancing in round with occasional rounds of liquor. The bride and the groom were in another room with a few people busy in some ritual.

                People outside were served with special meal- mashed boiled corn and lamb meat curry. Starchy corn and delicious but minimally spiced curry made everyone go crazy there. The tribals insisted us to taste the food. We were lucky to taste the simple yet mouth watering meal (and luckier to resist the insistence to taste liquor!).

                Then came the turn of the mandatory photoshoot. Everyone wanted to be captured in our cameras, though they knew they won’t see the photos again. An old lady had a special request to take a snap of her daughter. Till the time we left, all the attention was on us, the uncalled guests. Poor newlywed couple!!

                I am happy we made a mistake that day and went ahead to explore it. We would never have got such a close insight in the lives of the tribals had we returned back immediately. Mistakes teach us a lot. Not every mistake is a crime. Because as I said earlier, mistakes can be glorious….

Equilibrium.

This story comes from ancient folklore. There was a brave, powerful king. He had everything: invincible army, loads of wealth, happy and obedient subject. Time followed its own course and he became old. He anointed his son as his heir and decided to spend time for welfare of his people. He wanted to make each and every citizen a well versed, knowledgeable and wise.

                But soon he realized he himself was not wise enough to expect his people to be so. So he decided to learn all the wisdom. And to his credit he learned all the wisdom possible except Science. Even a curious learner like him started finding Science tough. So he ordered his knights to find a teacher to teach him Science. The knights launched a search campaign and found a teacher for their king.

                The teacher was an old man. He had knowledge, and more importantly, experience too. He taught all the science to the king. The king was deeply impressed. He thanked the teacher with the highest praise and the richest rewards. But he wanted something more from the teacher. He wanted each and every citizen of his kingdom to learn Science from the teacher.

                The teacher appreciated the intention. But he politely accepted his limitation that he might not be able to complete this herculean task. But he agreed to write down the crux all he knew in a book so that the subject could enrich their knowledge by reading it. The king gave his nod, but with a condition. The condition was that the book should be as small as possible, yet it should cover crux of wisdom. The king knew his subject were industrious and did not have much time. The teacher agreed. He was to revise the book and squeeze it until each and every citizen was happy with it.

                The scripting of the book started. First draft came up. It had 1000 pages. The citizens said it was too big to read. The draft was rejected. Second draft of 500 pages was then brought up. Again some citizens found it big and rejected it.

                Subsequently, more versions were prepared by the teacher having 300, 200 and 100 pages. Disappointingly for the teacher, all these were rejected. The teacher thought over the issue.  He spent days and nights to compress the basics of Science. Months of hard work paid off and he came up with a ten page version. He submitted it to the king with confidence that the people will accept it. The king was also equally confident about it. And it seemed the people too happily accepted it.

                But after a month, a poor farmer came in the king’s court. He said even the ten page summary was too much for people of his age. The king was surprised. He immediately summoned the teacher. The teacher came and understood the situation. The court was holding its breath to see what the teacher would do next. All were expecting an expression of disappointment from him. But to everybody’s surprise, the teacher smiled. With the same enigmatic smile on his face, he started talking.

                “Oh great citizens of a great kingdom, I was initially amused by your demand of having the principles of science compressed in a very small text. I thought how it will be possible to retell the wisdom acquired by mankind over centuries in such a short version. For Science is not the easiest of the disciplines. I was relieved when you people accepted my ten page crux. But even after that, my conscience was searching for the even shorter crux of Science. I had expected someone to come up and demand even more compressed version. I was myself in search of a shorter crux. So I kept on working. And now I have come up with the shortest version possible. I have summed all the wisdom of Science in two words.”

                There was pin drop silence in the court. Only two words? Was it really possible? People thought the teacher was irked with their demands and was replying them sarcastically. But the mysterious smile on the teacher’s face gave them a feeling of assurance. They held their breath. The teacher sensed the anxiety and eagerness of the subject. He smiled and uttered those two words: “NATURE EQUILIBRIATES”.

 Everybody was amused. It was so simple, yet so difficult. Smiles on the faces of the king, the knights, the soldiers and the common people reflected that they had truly learned the crux of science. Balance is the natural instinct of this universe. Everything in this universe happens to achieve the state of equilibrium.

While the public was busy admiring the wisdom of the teacher, the teacher was thinking of that innocuous moment when he himself realized the crux of Science. He was roaming in the lush green jungles thinking of the crux. Suddenly he stumbled across a person sitting on banks of a lake. That person was a tribal, sitting and trying to catch fishes from the lake. But the lake was not having much water as it was a dry year. So there were not many fishes in the lake.  Yet he was smiling, whistling, singing the songs of the woods. The teacher was amused to see that person’s happiness. Unable to hide his surprise, the teacher asked why was he so happy. The man said, “Because I don’t have a reason to be unhappy!” followed by a whistle.

                The teacher was impressed, he replied, “But you don’t have enough fishes to catch. Isn't that a reason to be unhappy?” The tribal was unmoved. He said, “Not at all! There might be less fishes because of less water in lake. But due to the same reason, it becomes easy for me to hunt the wild animals when they come for water here. Nature takes our care.” The teacher further inquired, “And what if it rains heavily and it becomes difficult to catch fish?” The reply was unfazed, “In that case, I can get many type of animals as catch like crabs, birds, different fishes. If Nature gives a problem, it whispers the solution in man's ears. Nature balances everything, you know Sir.” And the stunned teacher realized, this was his Eureka moment. He learnt the crux of science: Nature equilibriates.

All the laws of science basically focus on equilibrium. In Physics, Newton’s Third law of Motion states the same thing. The Le Chatelier’s principle in Chemistry or Homeostasis in Biology talk about a system trying to attain a state of equilibrium. Even the basics of Humanities talk about equilibrium. For instance, the turmoil in a society caused by arrival of new values leads to stabilization of the society with acceptance of a new value system. Here all the societal forces of diversification and unification lead to balance in society.

To conclude, the universe moves on to attain equilibrium. Then some event disturbs this equilibrium and again the system tries to move towards stability. So how can human being, who is also a part of this universe, stay aloof from this phenomenon?