'The idle mind is devils workshop', is a proverb which rings true and finds universal acceptance. The easily available proof of this saying, if one needs, is I myself. Though I am a near-perfect conformist in my life style, in a Jekyll and Hyde transformation, I often turn a volatile non-conformist in my idle hours.
One early example of this wading against the flow I remember from a school excursion in my high school days. It was late night and lights had been turned out in our first-class railway bogey by our teacher. But were we asleep? The dark night rushing by outside and our fertile adolescent minds had no place for sleep. My idle mind was enjoying all the fun and activity from a quieter corner. Suddenly as the train took a turn, a huge stream of light bisecting the inky blackness, arose from the hidden horizon to the heavens. A momentary silence and then a huge cry went up, 'Circus - Gemini Circus'. We were nearing the city of Bhopal. Hearing the commotion our teacher appeared and he too was struck by the sight. He agreed- "yes it must be the search light of some Circus party near the city". I was the only non-conformist. I said it must be the tail of some comet, because the light beam was bent is a slight curve and since light always travels in a straight line, it could not be a search light. The head of the comet must have been below the horizon. For my temerity of commenting against the all knowing authority of the teacher, I got a sound vocal thrashing from him and derision from my mates. Of course, the next day, that very image of the comet was the headline in the news papers. Reverting back to my normal conformist self, I did not confront my teacher next day. Neither did he admitted his error. (It was probably the Ikeya-Seki of 1966 which had a great tail)
This memory was triggered by a news item from a Science magazine, linked to facebook by one of our friends sometime back. : Few years back in my Idle hours, I was viewing a programme on Orangutans, on the National Geographic channel. It was a great programme. I was struck by their very inquisitive-observant eyes and their capacity to understand and imitate. Any one who has seen Orangutans trying to wash clothes with a bar of soap or drinking water by manning a tube-well (hand pump), will appreciate their deep similarity with the Human Child. The expression of an old grizzly male orangutan, who sat sunning on the ground, reminded me of the Grand-Dads of our village, whose faces mirror so well the experience of a life time of struggle and care. In fact they create doubt in the mind, whether to call them apes or our human brothers. I was surprised why Chimpanzee was said to be our nearest cousin. It was definitely not correct. Had not Jane Goodall studied Chimpanzees with so much sensitivity, probably the approach of the scientific community could have been quite different. But who am I to say this to and who would listen to me. But to me ever since that day, and perhaps from earlier too, orangutans has always been far superior to Chimps. Now this news from Science Daily magazine linked to Facebook, states about a research by a team of Anthropologists, which shows that out of a set of 63 unique Human-Primate characteristics studies by them, Orangutans share 28 with us, while Chips share only 2 and Gorillas share 7. The non- conformist understanding of my idle hours, again has found its place under the sun.
These are only two stray cases of thoughts that flock my idle mind, from time to time. But in truth I hold non-conformist notions on many a subject that I have dabbled in. I hold that the Great Pyramid was built 12500 years back, that the ancestry of the present Humans stock is not solely from Africa, that the Neanderthal did not just vanish but passed on some of there genes to modern man (this also has now been accepted by researchers), that the knowledge of the Rig Veda has links to civilisations from before the Great Floods etc. etc.The more I study, I am sure, the more such cases of questioning the established views will come to my mind. I know that little knowledge can distort the truth and therefore I mostly remain mum. I realise that to convert my hunches to firm belief, I have to do a lot of studying, which alas has not been possible till now; partly for want of time and partly due to my inherent laziness. Still, some of my views are quite strong. The only person to whom I sometimes express my views is my wife and invariably I get the reply; 'Keep your theories with yourself, I would rather you deal with your real life problems.' Of course she is right. But the real life problems are so cut out and defined, that my idle imagination finds no role to play. I need something deeper to survive.
Whether I am right or wrong on these subjects; my non-conformist thoughts are vital for my survival. For they act as a motive force to keep awake my otherwise lazy mind. This is perhaps the only pleasure that my conformist existence cannot force me to discard. It pains me to think that this luxury, in not too distant future, will come to an end to the ticking of Natures irreversible clock. ... Thanks to Facebook, I do not feel lonely any more; for I find that there are lot of souls populating the net, who fall in the same category as me. ( The tag of laziness is reserved for me only.)
