Perplexingly confusing or complexly intertwined: Strange are the intricacies of the human mind

The inquisitive mind, the curious kind,

an intricate mind, undefined.

Hidden recesses, unfold the sublime,

the creative, the eccentric, the borderline,

all are facets of that one mind.

Plato or Aristotle, Kautilya or Socrates,

used it at different points of time,

to explore bottomless pits,

successfully, yet unable to describe,

its unpredictability, its reach or its

abilities, ever so often stumping mankind.

©Copyright Suverchala Kashyap   

Nothing is absolute, but is relative in more ways than one. This maxim seems to make greater sense when one sees the interlocking patterns coexisting in the universe and its tiniest ecosystem. A word that depicts the most beautiful connotation of this symbiotic relationship is photosynthesis. One would wonder what is so great about this very ordinary word. Well, in this very word is ensconced a simple process that ends up creating life, as we know it, on earth.

Of course, there are other factors that lead to it, but for millennia food has been processed by the same relationship between the sun and the earth, plants being one of the biggest beneficiaries, in turn aiding the spawning of several other living beings.

In the same context there are several other examples in Nature that corroborate a cuing system, a system of a stimulus and a response, a system of mutualism, a system that may seem intricately entwined but is capable of functioning independently at some point of time too. Migratory birds, flying fish, dolphins, penguins and many more species, manifest imprints gathered over eons, managing to adapt and retain their unique techniques and their even more distinct responses to an ever changing environment. And hence they continue to survive and or thrive.

Similarly in the case of humans, psychologists have proven that an infant brain develops only as a consequence of its interaction with the adult brain. Therefore, the cues that are given to a child right from the time the mother sets her eyes on her bundle of joy, to the time she has a quizzical look in her eyes when things don’t pan out the way she had envisaged or laid out, when the teenager snaps back at her uttering profanities, there is supposed to be a connect which has suddenly converted into a huge disconnect.

Is this disconnect, or jarring divide, just a figment of someone’s imagination, a fertile one at that or is it indeed a reality that is replicating at a speed that normalcy is being beaten at its own game?

Many questions come to the fore, on a nearly daily basis, when one sees not only a decline in core relationships but a complete and overwhelmingly strong shadow of decadence gnawing into the very DNA of the cuing system. Where is the gap? Why are links weakening and breaking? Why are two way human streets becoming sanitized, clinically sterilized solitary highways, where the signage is either incomplete or doesn’t match with the imprints in the mind?

Why has the concrete and constant urge to explore the outside world suddenly turned inward, leading to an implosion?  Self-destruction seems to be the new fad, plaguing mankind? Where are the explorers, the innovators, the creators and their ilk? Why is there a race to reach the end of the track rather than enjoy the arduous process that may not even take one to the destination? Why are detours considered blasphemous? Why is there undue weightage on results alone? Why there is a focus only on achieving, arriving at a goal, why is the journey not given equal attention or credence? Why people who don’t fit in are, still laughed at, than being accepted for who they are?

Mankind has made inroads into the depths of the earth, touched the zeniths of space but yet the same mind continues to baffle, the brain has man in a tight embrace. There are trillions of neurons creating new paradigms every day, sparking world-wide debates, but the unresolved mysteries surrounding untimely, strange phenomena continue to remain unexplained.

Prevention they say is better than cure, then why aren’t there simpler answers to mayhem and shame? Why does the devil incarnate continue to reign? If all acts of goodness are godlike why is there a dearth of the same?  Why do people continue to belie the strength that lies deep within their own domains?

From celebrity Marilyn Monroe’s vanishing act years ago to Sunanda Pushkar’s more recent escape into oblivion, to Robin Williams untimely exit, to a child wanting to end his life as it was too much of a burden to face…all of this leaves a pile of unanswered questions at Heaven’s gate…      

©Copyright Suverchala Kashyap