Sixth Mass Extinction

So I take it everybody has heard about the sixth mass extinction event happening.

For those of you who DON'T know, have you been living under a rock? The Earth, scientists have discovered, is on the brink of the Sixth Mass Extinction Event. The LAST one wiped out the dinosaurs, which was 65 million years ago.

And what's more, my brother asked me this question: Do you think this mass extinction event is necessary? The world's human population alone is in the billions. Just last century it had hit the millionth mark. The population is multiplying and expanding way too quickly for our planet to handle. Earth.so resources are being used up at an alarming rate! THIS ISN'T CONSERVATIONAL! This necessitates the mass extinction event, which would wipe out many species, humans among them.

 

But I wonder... what if this one destroys the whole planet? I mean, what if every single form of life is wiped out, even the tiniest microorganism?

There was a post I saw on Facebook. It said there are two possibilities: we are either alone in this universe or not. Both are equally terrifying. But you know what?

I would prefer the second possibility. I would prefer we are NOT alone in this universe. I would prefer the existence of other forms of life in other parts of the universe.

I would prefer the existence of aliens rather than not.

 

And you may wonder why this queer opinion. The answer is simple.

Life is a beautiful, marvelous, complicated yet simple thing. And if we are alone in this universe, then at any point of time what if the earth were destroyed? Poof! No more life in the universe! I feel like the universe would be at a great loss then. So I take great comfort in believing there are other forms of life among the stars. Aliens, good or bad, I don't care, are better than no aliens.

 

And as for facing death? I used to fear death. I remember being absolutely petrified of doomsday in 2012. I remember having this horrible feeling in my gut whenever I thought of the end of the world.

But you know what? I don't fear death anymore. The Harry Potter series taught me that. It taught me not to fear death because, in the words of Albus Dumbledore, "To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." If there is ANYTHING I fear, it is pain. So I pray only that I die a painless death and welcome whatever darkness and light may come with eternal slumber.

 

So what do you think? Are you scared of the mass extinction event? Do you welcome it? What do you think about the existence of aliens? And what are your thought on death? Tell me in the comments!

What Has Changed

This poem is dedicated to my old classmates, the people who had been with me from 6th to 10th grade. A lot has changed, I hear! And I guess if you see me now you would find a few changes in me too. (Although mostly I'm still the same because, and I quote, "Ranjani, you never change! And DON'T ever change.") The other poem I posted, Memories, was about remembering all the great times we had back in the old days. This one tells you that, while so much has (apparently) changed, many things remain the same.

WHAT HAS CHANGED:

I know it may seem
Like the wind has changed course,
Like the flowers smell different
From the scent they once endorsed.
I know that the birds
Sing an unfamiliar song,
That the river has flooded
And expanded beyond.
I know things have changed
For better and for worse,
Things have been replaced
And we’re seemingly in different worlds.
You’re not the same people
I knew two years ago,
And neither am I the same girl
Who waved farewell.
But when we all think back,
We’ve all changed a bit,
From children to adults-
It’s called growing up, I think.
But while you notice all the changes,
Concentrate on what’s the same.
For even though a lot is different,
I haven’t changed my name.
The wind that changed course
Still carries the same message,
The flowers still exist
For you to enjoy their fragrance.
The bird’s new song
Has the same old notes,
The river that expanded
Will still sail your boats.
People don’t change,
They merely show another side,
Take up new interests
And show them off with pride.
Yes, things are different
But I’m still the girl you knew
And deep down I know
You’re still you too.

So... yeah, a heck of a lot is different. But the world is ever changing, isn't it? Time will bring change, and we must accept it with grace. People grow up. We all do. Some face it with eagerness, and some try to resist it (*cough* me *cough* I like being childish, so I prefer being that way).

Two Fruits

I wrote this poem about two weeks ago.

TWO FRUITS:

There were two fruits, both so different from the other
For one was bitter and one was sweet,
And I desired the bitter one
Though the other was more within reach.
I considered, momentarily, the factors and possibilities:
That I would enjoy the sweet one more,
And I could reach it too if I tried,
Yet it was the bitter one I adored.
And then, while still pining for the bitter fruit,
Trying and hoping to reach it one day,
The sweeter one was taken by another
And my feelings then I could not say.
Later I found out the sweeter fruit
Had already been claimed when I saw it
For the tree stood in another’s yard
And into the delicacy she bit.
And feeling miserable I returned
To craving the unattainable bitter fruit.
And feeling hopelessly hopeful I returned
Heart craving only the bitter fruit.

The entire poem is an analogy. What the bitter and sweet fruits are analogous to varies from person to person. What I know for now is that, to me, the bitter fruit is taken too. I am, perhaps, not meant to reach it, I guess...

Not that I am depressed or anything. When god closes one door, he opens another, doesn't he? That is what people say. But it is difficult to find the open door, mostly because we are still banging on the closed one, hoping for it to open. Is this destiny? Or is this a waste of time? Is this a trial set by the gods and the universe, testing my patience and perseverance? Or is this just me overthinking it? The fun thing about life is finding out the answers to these questions. Perhaps we may not find the answer now, but years later we shall all look back and either go "yes, it was fate, it was destiny, and it was not meant to be" or "that was a test, and I passed, and it was meant to be and I survived" or even "it was a trial, and I failed, wasted my time and energy, invested myself in vain".

Recently (a few days ago, actually) I wrote this little poem when I was feeling particularly angry, sad and horrible. Oh, it felt like agony! I was talking to my friend about it, and on the spot typed this out:

FML wish I could die!
God, really, is this my life?
Tired of being broken up,
Tired of wanting to throw up.
Sick of all the shit going on,
Wish I could join the stars above.
Hate my life, and hate myself.
I’m alive, but far past the gates of hell.

 I won't disclose the reason for this poem. I am sharing it because of the last line: I'm alive, but far past the gates of hell. I don't know how many of you identify with it, but to me the second I wrote those words I thought "this line preaches the truth!" because life really IS hell these days. As I sang in my latest YouTube video, The Fantasy Life, "Is this life, what they call a fantasy? It's been a nightmare right from the start!" Where are the gods, I wonder. What harsh, stinging reality is this?! It would hurt less to be doused in acid. For physical wounds, at least, there are medicines to cure. But for the agony we feel when we are sad? What about the wounds that nobody can see, that only we can feel? No anesthesia can numb the pain of a broken heart.

I wrote that poem just a few days ago. A door had slammed shut in my face (although, to be honest, I think it was already closed to begin with) and I was feeling like I had fallen into the clutches of despair (but I'm a drama queen so I'm obviously exaggerating that bit). But I feel like things are finally turning around. I'm becoming ME again. Don't ask how, because I myself don't know how to describe it. I feel happier and peaceful and I feel AMAZING! A door may have closed, but I realized that the closing of that door marked the end of months and months of angst.

So if a door closes for you... chill. Because something better could be on the way. Sometimes you might want to keep an eye on that door, but don't obsess. When a door closes, it marks a change in the direction of your life, even a U-turn!

That's all I wanted to say. 

 

Memories

Hey! I just posted my new YouTube video, The Fantasy Life!

Go check it out!

 

People change. People come and go. Friends, colleagues, teachers, people you loved, people you hated, and others. You might remember them, but to them you may be but a forgotten figment of the past.
You know how the days are just flying by and you look back and think of all those great times you had with your best friend or someone? Then, whenever you see something that reminds you of them, you can't help taking a stroll down memory lane...

Even if they're not around anymore, you know they'll always be there right by your side, as alive as ever through these reminiscences that run through your mind.

MEMORIES:

I can look at the most ordinary thing
A plant, a road, a bike, a ring,
And I see scenes that can break and heal me,
Lift me up and bring me down, all in a sea
Of the most profound emotions that I can’t escape,
That bring to life these landscapes.
I see things that once were,
And things that never were,
Things that could have been,
And things that will never be.
I see it all, from one sweep of my eye
Over the most trivial things I spy,
But they’re not trivial, not to me,
For they bring back dreams and memories.
They remind me of you, and all the time we spent,
They remind me of you and they give me strength.
Even if it is the most common thing,
A poem, a picture, a person, food or a drink,
I am reminded of you,
How like you there are so few,
And I want you to know
I’ll always remember you so
Your voice will never die,
You’ll never age in my mind,
For these dreams and memories I see all the time
Will always be with me to keep you alive.

Share this poem with the person you thought of when you read this! Hope you enjoyed it!

Burn (Part 3)

It was a different kind of dream. In fact, it didn't even feel like a dream.
 

I found myself in a kind of vast space filled with clouds and stars. A soft melody played in the distance.
 

"Welcome," said a voice. It was the same feminine voice that appeared in my other dreams.

I turned around, only to see nobody there!

"Who are you? WHERE are you?," I asked.

"I'm right here," came the voice again, this time to my right.

But turning, once more I saw nobody.

Frustrated, I demanded once more where she was. Imagine my fury when I only heard tinkling giggles in response! When the speaker finally got a hold of herself again, she told me, "I'm right here, next to you. I always am."
 

And to my left I finally saw her- a little girl of about the ripe age of ten or eleven! She had beautiful long black hair braided down her back till her waist, a white beaded skirt and matching top, large eyes enhanced with long lashes, and an absolutely radiant smile on her honey complexioned, youthful face. But it was her pupils that were the highlight of her appearance- dark as the night skit and filled with stars. Indeed, one could see the entire universe in them, for they reflected space!

I stared at her for a moment.
 

"Who... are you?"

"You already know."

"...Ishara?"

She simply nodded.

"Is this a dream?"

"No, I've transported your soul to the spirit world for a little while. We don't have much time, so listen carefully to what I have to tell you." Ishara's face turned serious.

 

"For the last few years," she said, "I've been communicating with you through dreams. Ever since you found my writing on the cave walls, I've been with you. So I know what has been happening in the world now. But there's been a grave mistake- I shouldn't have written that on the walls! You shouldn't have known the world was going to end, you shouldn't be trying to save yourselves, and you shouldn't try to escape! All of this... all of it is a recipe for catastrophe."

I gaped at her. She continued.

"Listen, when I wrote those inscriptions, against the wishes of my entire clan, disobeying everyone, ... I thought I was helping you all in the future. But it shouldn't be like that. What's meant to happen should happen. Trying to change fate is going to bring nothing but trouble. I realized this only later."

 

"But the Bhavishyas used their prophetic eyes to avoid danger right? How is that not changing fate?"

"We saw ourselves avoiding danger. Simple as that. Even then, if we saw one of our own dying somehow, we would not try to stop their death or help them. We were kind of cruel in that way. The only thing we did was not tell the person who was supposed to die. Look, some have tried to change fate, but they have gotten things ten times worse in return! My own father... my own father was supposed to die in a hunt. Somehow he got to know this and he tried to prevent it, but... instead of a quick death by a bear, he caught a strange disease that tortured him for weeks before he succumbed to eternal slumber. Changing fate will prove ill. You mustn't try to escape destiny. But, if you want, then I guess there's no stopping you. If YOU decide it's okay to risk changing fate to save trillions of lives, then I shall not stop you."

I nodded silently. By now I was convinced I should somehow try to stop everyone from leaving earth on the space ships.

"But how do I stop everyone? It's impossible!"

A smile played across Ishara's lips. "Leave that to me. This is my fault, and as a spirit I can do what I can to fix things."

I nodded, a bit relieved.

 

"There's one more thing I wanted to tell you," Ishara started. "The day the Bhavishyas were supposed to drown in the Brahmaputra river, not all of us died. One of us was captured."

A moment of silence.

"And the person who was captured was my older brother. King Sadhaka's soldiers captured him from the river and then King Sadhaka forced him to marry his daughter. My dear brother died shortly afterwards, but not after King Sadhaka tricked him into getting drunk and then impregnating his daughter. So the Bhavishya line still lives... and you are it's progeny."

I was shocked! "Then you're my..."

"Ancestor, yes."

"But I don't have the eyes!"

"Oh the eyes died out ages ago. In fact, my brother never passed on his eyes. So somehow the Bhavishya clan really did die out."

"oh..." It was unbelievable! Really!

 

Ishara said that she was always with me, that she was always guiding me to the caves and then she was the voice in my dreams and everything. I felt myself grow weak in the knees. This was all too incredible to be true!

"Our time is up. We will have to part for now... But I think you will know what to do."

"Goodbye... Ishara."

Ishara smiled. "It's not really goodbye though. I'm always with you!"

 

And once more I awoke on the cold, hard cave floor, Ishara's tinkling laughter still resonating in my ears.

 

***

 

Ten minutes to take off. I was on the spaceships with my husband and stared out into the world. In three days, the asteroid will hit the planet that was home to millions of millions of creatures and life forms. A planet, I felt, we all could have appreciated much more.

Only I knew that the ships wouldn't take off.

 

Ishara kept her word. I could smell it before I heard it. The fuel tanks of the ships and warehouses had all been set on fire. The explosion rocked the entire spaceship, sending everyone into panic. They all tried to run off the spaceship, but the doors were jammed. We were stuck inside, doomed to die, and somehow I knew TH same had happened in the other spaceships as well.

 

I wasn't afraid. This was destiny, this was fate.

 

The fire spread fast, causing consecutive explosions that lit up like fireworks and filled the air with chemical-laden smoke. My ears were assaulted with screams of terror and the mayhem around me as panic seized people ran around in circles until they banged into one another and gave up, crying. They slowly found their loved ones again, joining together in prayer and spending their last few moments together.

 

The fire blazed bright as the morning sun as it entered the vicinity. The flames licked my charring flesh, relishing the taste of skin and greedily racing up my body for more. But I was not afraid.

 

This was what had to be done. This was my choice. I decided to let Ishara make sure we don't take off. And she's ensured our death as well.

 

I turned to my family and spent my last few minutes gazing into their eyes. How I love them so much! I felt a bit guilty for causing their death. But... it has to be this way.

Everyone and everything is on these ships. All the shops are burning and every living creature is dying.

 

I closed my eyes as my breath became shorter and my eyes watered. A final thought crossed my mind.

 

That apocalyptic asteroid will be hitting a dead planet. 

 

***

 

And with that, Burn is complete!



Burn (Part 2)

Something about this place kept bringing me back.

Once more I stood in the caves where I had found Ishara's inscription. It wasn't clear why, but I had been coming back up here once every few weeks, spending hours staring at the words on the wall.

The shadows danced as the light from my flashlight rolled around on the cave floor. The moss that had covered the walls glistened and the rough stone seemed... welcoming, somehow.

***

One day, I fell asleep there. and I dreamed the most surreal thing. 

I caught a vision of the asteroid hurtling towards Earth, and I saw the spaceships carrying people lift off and drift into space, barely escaping the chunks of rock that flew from the collision.

And I was on the ground.

I was on the Earth, the ground crumbling and collapsing beneath me, fire everywhere. I simply stared at the space ships, hundreds of eyes on me and the destruction around.

Why was I alone on the ground? Why wasn't I in the ships with everyone else?
Then I heard a voice.
"Stop. Stop them. This cannot happen."
I looked around, but saw no one through the blazing flames. 
"Who's there," I called. "Who's there?"
"Stop it....," came an answer.
Shivers ran down my spine. I could FEEL the breath on my ear, as if a soul itself was whispering to me.
"Stop what?"
"You can't leave. You cannot alter time. Stop them...," the voice insisted. 

And then I woke up in a cold sweat, remembering the dream vividly. Every detail in every flame, every breath of that voice I heard, every spaceship leaving Earth... I remembered.
And it was then that I noticed something I didn't till now. 

A hole in the wall near the round, Just large enough for a hand to slip through, almost covered by moss. It was almost invisible, hidden from eyes more concerned with the inscriptions above it.
Sliding my palm carefully into it, my outstretched fingers touched a smooth stone tablet. 
I curled my hand around it and pulled it out. It was ebony black, about ten inches long and six inches wide, a finger thick. And it was engraved.
The engravings on this were of the same language as that on the wall. Having studies the language obsessively ever since discovering the inscriptions on the wall, I could fluently read and write in this strange and forgotten language.

Do not trample with destiny, it said. Do not trample with fate. What is supposed to happen must happen for a reason, so do not try to change it. 

I sat there for who knows how many hours staring at the lines on the tablet. Who had left this here? Was it Ishara or someone else?
I recalled my dream. Strange that this stone tablet I find in a small hidden opening just moments after I wake up conveys the same message. Pondering over this, I realized something.

The Bhavishya girl, Ishara, by warning us had attempted to change fate. If we were all destined to die, then that should be what happens. Ishara was just a young girl, and she thought she was doing something for the greater good. But that's not it. We can't try to escape the apocalypse. 
I had to do something!

But then I thought. Didn't the Bhavishyas use their eyes to avoid danger? Isn't tat also changing fate? Then why now, why was it bad now?
I was confused.

***

For days and months on end I mulled over this dilemma in my head. The dream recurred almost every day. I had hidden the stone tablet in my backpack and smuggled it out, keeping it to myself and not breathing a word of this to anyone, not even my family.

But the effects had begun to show about eight months later. Depression had taken hold of me.

I didn't know what to do. The wheels were already in motion for the spaceships to take off a few weeks before the supposed doomsday date. How can I possibly put a stop to that? Simply telling people we were all destined to die anyway and we shouldn't try to save ourselves won't work. That'll only make me the enemy.

***

Seven days before the spaceships take off. 

Fifty eight of them had been built, each the size of a small city. People were slowly loading onto them, into cramped spaces where they would live now, at least until a new planet had been found fit for civilization, which hadn't happened as of yet. People were advised to take only what they need: some clothing and essential belongings. No furniture or heavy equipment. Just one small suitcase per person, plus a small bag for family requirements such as medicines and cosmetics.

Meanwhile, every major agency on earth had taken up a warehouse on every spaceship to ensure the citizens can use their products until stock runs out. Mostly, however, the warehouses were used for food and water. Four of every species of animal, plant, insect and fish had been loaded into a special ship. Space suits were made for at least a thousand people, in varying sizes just in case someone had to commute from one ship to another or had to step out into space for a while. There were even a huge greenhouse, a hospital, a few schools, scientific labs, and other common necessary amenities in every spaceship.

Basically, extensive planning had been made over the last ten years and nearly everything had been thought of. Every situation, even the most absurd and rare-case ones had been thought of. 

I was in the caves again. In a another two days it would be my family's turn to board the spaceships. But I was still wondering if this was right.

The dreams were more vivid now, and there was a more almost hysteric urgency in the voice I heard. The caves, once comforting, now had a slightly agitated atmosphere. But this was the most calming place at the moment, and I was drawn to this spot. The nearest spaceship, which my family would board, was a few kilometers away. 

It was completely normal routine for me to sit there quietly for a few hours and fall asleep. That day was no different.

It was then that I suddenly had a new dream, entirely different from the other. 

***

And that's part two of Burn! Part three, the final part, will be up shortly, maybe in a few days. I hope you enjoy the story so far! I hope it's interesting. Please leave a comment below, and share it with your friends if you like!