Darwinism

It has been a long time since I saw a Kannada movie by name “Gouri Ganesha” but I keep recollecting certain sequences from the movie again and again. Not because it has some unparalleled comic scenes in it but because it gives a moral in the end. Those of you who have missed the moral or have not yet seen the movie, please go watch it, it’s worth it. If you aren’t familiar with Kannada language, I pray someone comes up with English subtitles or a remake of this more than 15 year old movie!

Let me brief up the story for you. The story revolves around an intelligent unemployed bachelor struggling to make his living in a metropolitan city. His cunning wit not only helps him cheat people and earn him that day’s living but also gets him caught time and again for his pranks. Next, he moves around the city in search of a new scapegoat only to get caught again. The story gets good momentum when he finds the diary of a deceased damsel in a mortuary and gets to know the intricate details of incidences in her life and persons behind her sorrows. She would have had escaped the clutches of three men in her life to remain chaste but ultimately would have failed to sum up the money required for the cardiac surgery for her illness which would have claimed her life. But the men are under the delusion that she isn’t chaste. The protagonist uses his resourceful wit to create a fictitious son for her and each of the three men believes themselves to be the biological father of that child and sends money to the protagonist assuming him to be the caretaker! The fixed monthly income solves the basic problem of the unemployed protagonist and things turn out to be favourable until a day when all the three men coincidently visit him to meet their sons. The movie reaches the climax when they all find out the truth and attack him. The protagonist confesses that he lied to them but he justifies it by saying he did it for his living. He then questions them, as to why is it that they believed him and sent him the money. They turn speechless. He ends the drama by saying; they were cheated because they had in them some weakness and their weakness was their lust. Also he urges the audience to correct their weaknesses, for as long as one has a weakness there are always guys like him to exploit it!

How meaningful it is! But the irony is that most people fail to take the moral of the movie and keep getting into troubles. You know how? Surf some Indian news channels at night (local time), and I am sure you will find some “Crime Stories” being aired. People watch them but they don’t learn anything from them. That is why most episodes have similar crime sequences! To illustrate a few, some stranger goes to a village and promises to double any amount of money given to him within just six months. He does so for a couple of months and sets the final trap. One fine day the stranger vanishes with a huge amount of money and people find the truth a hard pill to swallow. Viewers often tend to blame only the cheat and forget that it was the greed of the cheated that got them into the scandal. What’s worst is some people get cheated by the same person again and again. That reminds me of a proverb: “If you are cheated by the same person twice, then probably you deserve it!”

Well, if you observe closely, there are many incidents happening around us (or with us) that work on this “Weakness” principle. The stock market gives a huge return to some investors and that always comes at the cost of many people losing their investment. The gamble here is partly luck and partly intelligence. One who has the right information of the share market invests cautiously where as the ignorant erratically loses the gamble. This can very well illustrate that knowledge is strength and ignorance is weakness and wherever the weakness is exposed, it is exploited!

Now, who doesn’t have weakness? Well, in some way or the other, everyone has! I mean everyone. The rich? Yes. Richness is their weakness. Anytime, anything can happen in business and the equation may all of a sudden reverse, turning people from riches to rags. Same is the case with politicians. One defeat in the elections can push them to dark. Celebrities? Yes. A couple of flops in their endeavours can make the public forget them. That’s why you see those celebrities, politicians and business executives so very generous (?) when they visit Thirupati! The astrologers are intelligent enough to exploit their weakness!

If you read the Hindu Mythology, there are several instances where demons perform penance and get extraordinary boons from Gods and Goddesses and misuse the powers. The Gods then struggle to sketch a death plan to end their tyranny. For a moment, I wondered, why do the Gods grant them those boons? It is because, even God has weakness! Yes, goodness is God’s weakness and the demons exploit it!

Ah… when God himself has weakness, who else is spared? Practically none. Everyone has an element of either Greed or Lust or Anger or Jealousy or Ego or Pride. Sit back and reflect upon yourself. I am sure; you will discover your weaknesses. You need not feel bad about it. In fact, you should be happy that you ‘discovered’ it. Some weaknesses can be overcome. This is where a ‘Guru’ (teacher) or the company of good people can help you. And some weaknesses cannot be overcome. That is where you need to use your intelligence to hide them. Remember, there is a proverb, never show your enemy where you bleed.

As Charles Darwin puts it, there is struggle for existence at all the strata of life. One’s strength is another’s weakness. The lion’s power is the deer’s weakness. The deer’s amazing speed is the lion’s weakness. In the end, Darwinism says, “It is neither the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Wow! Look at his prophecy! He just summarises the whole essence of life. The humans struggle against bacteria. The bacteria struggle against the human immune system. Humans through their intelligence found out antibiotics. If ‘intelligence’ alone were to be the criteria for the ‘survival of the fittest’, there should have been no harmful bacteria. But look at the nature. The bacteria are responsive to change! They develop alternative biochemical pathways once their niche changes and that’s what we now call “Antibiotic Resistance.”

So, whether you are mighty or weak, intelligent or dull, rich or poor, human or bacteria, you continue to struggle. As long as you struggle, you live. Therefore, as long as you live, you struggle!