A gorilla smarter than me

Studies reveal that animals are cleverer than we thought. Many exhibit emotions similar to humans.
As soon as I entered office, I told S that humans and chimpanzees share 99% of our DNA.
I can’t agree with you more, he replied, and went on to say how royally an ape was sitting at Kolkata zoo. Legs crossed, the animal was puffing a cigarette, when children began to throw things at him. After tolerating for a while, the animal began to pick up the things and throw back at the children. When the kids made funny sounds, the ape imitated.
The interesting thing I read is about a gorilla named Kola in Congo. It learned to test the electric fence surrounding his forest reserve by holding a grass stem up to the wire. The stem will conduct a bit of current, enough to show Kola the fence is turned on, but not enough to give him a shock. Author Michael Hanlon argues that not all humans would be able to do this.
I support Australian philosopher Peter Singer who argues that if it is right to take a chimp’s life to save a human then it may also be right, under circumstances, to take a human’s life to save a chimp.
(This is the concluding part of yesterday’s post)

Man, crows have brain

Documentaries about animals being used for medical tests have always thrust a sense of guilt in me as a human being.
I love animals, birds and all natural creations, like a rose, butterfly or that chubby girl.
Just started reading a book “10 Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet)” by Michael Hanlon. Awesome boss. Some points he has argued in defence of animals can leave anti-animal humans defenceless.
There is an example about crows’ intelligence.
In the BBC television series Life of Birds, a footage was shown in which crows in Japan dropped hard-shelled nuts onto the road at a pedestrian crossing. After waiting first for the nut to be cracked open by a passing car and then for the traffic to be stopped when a pedestrian pushed the button, the crows would land to retrieve their nuts.
There is another story also about crow’s brainpower.
A crow called Betty starred in Science2 magazine after she had learned to fashion a hook out of a piece of wire and use this tool to fish food out of a glass pipe. That took scientists aback as this level of tool making skill has never been observed even in chimpanzees.
I stop here to save your time. Will continue this post later.

Daughter robbed

I had gone to sleep at 1.30am and at 3am the mobile sound shook me up. It was my wife.
“Daughter has been robbed near Pune while traveling from Ahmedabad with classmates early morning. Laptop (with her college IT projects), mobile and credit card (which we had given for emergency purposes) have all been robbed along with her new dresses in the baggage,” she sounded worried.
“Is she and friends OK?” I asked.
“They are fine. The baggage is gone,” she said.
“Block the credit card and mobile,” I consoled her and sent an SMS to daughter, who had another cell gifted by a relative: “Do not worry over material losses. They are meant for our pleasure, not pain.”
I tried to sleep. But it was already sunrise.
Dhond and nearby areas of Pune have been witnessing such train robberies for decades. There has been a clear network involving cops, thieves and politicians. No complaints will be registered at police stations to keep the record straight. When the crying students went to lodge a complaint, they refused to register at Pune station, saying “Go the place where you lost your things.”
Me not surprised. The corrupt system has never changed.
It is like this. Just ask the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to order all autorickshaws (3-wheel taxis) to run on fixed fare meters in Chennai. No chief minister has ever dared so far and never would in the near future. The drivers have been fleecing innocent passengers for decades.
Elementary. The corrupt network is too strong.

Truth about youth

Unfair. Talk about children and everyone goes ga ga. “Oh, today’s kids, they are sharp, smart, splendid. (See comments for Papa don’t preach)
Ask about today’s youth and rest assured of the reply: “Oh, today’s youth. They have no values, dumbos. They have no focus.” Blah, blah, blah.
Poor youth (like me!!) are always at the receiving end.
The complaints against youngsters date back to centuries.
See what Socrates wrote about the youth of those days:
“Our youth love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents and tyrannise teachers."
And the tradition continues.
Parents should stop blaming youngsters and accept Gen gap. The gap is widening by the day, and not years.
A woman and daughter were fighting, when a friend advised, “Step into your daughter’s shoes and look at the problem.”
She replied: “Her shoes are small and don't fit me.”

Papa don’t preach

Some people, especially children, have amazing presence of mind.
I was casually chatting with a friend and told him, “I could not sleep whole day yesterday.” His child snapped back, “But you slept whole night?”
My elder daughter was an average student like me at school (But so was Einstein, hehe).
“Why don’t you score more?” I asked her once.
“It’s all in the genes papa,” she replied.
Once a relative arrived with a mischievous child, who pulled down curtains and danced on our bed.
“Keep quiet or I will give you an injection. I am a doctor,” joked my daughter.
“Oh, you are a doctor. I am a policeman. I will beat you with this stick,” the demon chased my daughter.

Better to shut my mouth

Stupid. Utterly stupid. He came close to me and did that. Ya. Yawned. Actually, he yawwnned… Do you remember the circus where the lion opens its mouth and the little girl thrusts her head inside? I felt like that. Did not someone teach him manners? Some just do not have etiquette in their genes.
Now on the subject, we know yawning is contagious. You see someone yawn, you repeat it like a parrot. Experts say it is not because you are bored or sleepy that you yawn, it happens when the oxygen levels in the lungs are low. Males yawn longer than females. We know that animals also yawn.
In fact, reading this post may make you yawn.
Hey, I just read that if you touch your tongue while yawning, it can stop the yawn.
Why am I angry? That guy yawned and I did so too, when that chubby girl passed by. She gave me such a dirty look, I will forget yawning the rest of my life.

Role reversal

If someone is a shy type do not write him off as a weak person.
Edison, Einstein, Lincoln and even Brad Pitt are among a list of shy people, but we know their achievements.
I have a friend who will just blush for everything.
If I ask him, “How are you buddy?” his reply would be, “fhinee…hehe..” (Translate as fine)
If I tell him, “that girl was looking at you,” his face would turn red with discomfiture.
One day I told a female colleague to help him shed his introverted nature. She was a dynamic journalist and was confident she could “brainwash” and make him extroverted. We three went for a tea session and halfway through I left them alone.
After a few minutes, I returned and asked the duo, “How are you guys enjoying?”
The shy guy beamed with enthusiasm “Fabulous.” And the talkative girl’s response was subdued. “Fhinee…hehe…"

Beauty of diversity

I was walking along when my Tamil-speaking friend Salimbhai called me to his photo studio. When I entered, his Egyptian neighbour dropped in with his beautiful kids. An Ethiopian employee at the studio joined the discussion. A Sri Lankan gardener Nizam wished us Ramadan Kareem from outside the road-facing studio.
Just a couple of minutes ago, I was greeting a smiling UAE National employee at a famous mall and had purchased a Pakistani shoe from a Filipina salesgirl.
Suddenly I realized Sharjah’s vibrant unity in diversity.
People with closed mindset miss out a lot. Interaction is an ideal recipe for a wisdom-seeking mind. After all, we are all human beings first and have the same emotions. Like a film dialogue goes: There is no man who does not bleed when pricked nor laugh when tickled.
Heard this story: A man with a blocked mindset went to a Sufi saint. The spiritual leader prepared tea, kept pouring it until the cup overflowed. “The cup is full. It can’t take more,” shouted the visitor. “So is your mind, full of ideas without scope for new ones,” came the reply.