.

Blank.

That is wht my mind had come to after I finished reading 'Rama revealed' by Arthur C Clarke. The Rama series (***Spoiler warning***) is a series consisting of 4 books which tracks the interactions of the human race with an alien spacecraft and ends with the life story of the first few humans to board tht spacecraft: 'Rama".

The questions of Life, the Universe, Creation and God are often convenienty relegated to the back of our heads. This action is woven into the fabric of our society so that our day-to-day activities are carried out in an un-inhibited fashion. These questions have been substituted by some of the rites and rituals that any of us care to follow or simply by an annual visit to the temple (or any other place of worship).

We hindus just bow (more like nod) our head when we pass temples and then say a few slokas/hymns that was seared into us at our childhood. Other religions are also more or less the same. We mostly end up praising the glory of god or thank him/her/it for all the good things in our life or we ask him for more happiness/successes in our life. And all this is well-rehearsed.

We just tell God: "Hey thanks a lot sir-jee! Amazing world you have made here. Ya, my life sucks... but so what? I am sure it must be in the 'Grand plan of things'. And oh ya... I have this, like, very important exam coming up. I know I didn't study a bit for it, but... you knw... can u just dust off a bit of ur sheeer benevolance onto me for those 3hours??"

Just stop.

And even for a fraction of a second try to truly comprehend what is there around us.

Each one of us is 1 in a six billion of an intelligent (yeah right!) species on this planet. There are mebbe over a trillion of living organisms in general (discounting the germs and viruses). We are a DAMN LUCKY planet amongst 9 in our sun's neighbourhood. Our Sun is Just 5 billion years old in a galaxy which is twice as old...... this can simply continue forever until we reach the infinite...

As I write this i can hear the shouts and screams and hollering associated with a volleyball match in out hostel (its the first night of Intra-hall volley). The participants are giving their all-out, the crowd around them supports them jeers a few and its pitch rises and falls with every exctiting play in the game. A little farther removed, in our instititute gymkhana, students are zealously getting the whole setup ready for our college festival. Even further removed, there is another rally which more or less brings a part of Calcutta to a standstill. On the national front, terrorism and even Amitabh Bachan are chucked out of the window of dis-interest with the Indo-pak series (with spl focus on Ganguly) revving up. China is still confounding the rest of the world with their abysmal finance system. Whereas the whole world awaits with bated breath as to what will happen in Israel-Palestine (the hotbed of international terrorism) after Sharon's heart attack.

This is a sample of hapennings in varying scales of time and distance around me. How am I supposed to be affected by the squiggly lines of the Boombay Sensex when I know (rather have been reminded) that we are not even a blink in the history of time?

This sort of a thought process should take me towards a nihilistic delusion. But thankfully, I don't succumb to the enchanting yet elusive questions that time poses to me. I know how those squiggly lines will affect me. I know that only when those lines stay on the top of the chart and continue to do so, will I get a job very easily in this "Great Indian boom". And that job is what is going to keep me fed and clothed and sheltered for a few more years atleast.

But anytime from today when due to a delusion of great achievements or swelling pride, I raise my head high; I know that the sky above me will remind me to lower it.

Its an irony:

Our greatest lesson in humility is right above us. And we are too proud to even acknowledge it.