3 Wishes - A Short Story

There lived a man who was eternally dissatisfied with his life. He never smiled, and always found reasons to criticize everyone. One night he got lucky. On his way home he met a Genie who felt pity for the sad man. The Genie was dark blue in colour and looked malignant and monstrous.  At first the man was scared, but the friendly smile of the giant assured him. The Genie said that he will grant him three wishes, provided he agreed to one simple condition. The man was ecstatic. ‘Finally, my life was going to change for good’, he thought. His first wish was to be rich. The Genie reminded him about the condition, ‘Whatever you wished, your neighbours would get double of that’. The man agreed. He would be rich enough to fulfil all his desires.

The man reached his home, had his dinner and went to his bed anxiously. The excitement kept him awake all night. Next morning when he got up, his  humble house has already turned into a beautiful mansion. He was richer than he ever dreamed possible. As human nature is, the happiness wasn’t meant to last for long. The moment he stepped out of his mansion his heart shattered into pieces. He remembered Genie’s words, ‘Whatever you wished, your neighbours would get double of that’. Happiness is not absolute, but relative. It is the positive gap between your reality and your expectations. His expectations were always set by the standard of his neighbours. His absolute wealth had no meaning because, based on his current expectations, his reality was that he was the poorest person in the neighbourhood. It also meant that he was the weakest, a condition no living species likes to be in. Our desires are ancient and inbuilt in our operating system. It is the carving that leads to motivation. It comes from our bodily structures and not the mental state. Desires helps us survive and wants us to be the fittest. ‘Fittest’ is a relative term. When a lion is chasing you, your absolute speed is irrelevant when you know that you cannot outpace the beast. All you just need to ensure is that you are not the slowest of the lot. Luckily for him, he still had two wishes left.

Our eternally dissatisfied man went back to the exact place and at the exact time he met the Genie last night. As expected, the Genie was right there. The Genie asked him about his day as a rich man. With a dejected look on his face the man explained his disastrous day. Concerned, the gene asked if he wanted another wish. This time the man gave some thought to the matter and uttered after a while that he wished he was turned into a poor man. ‘Are you sure?’ asked Genie with a confused look. ‘Yes’, insisted the man.  With his wish granted, the man went back to his home satisfied. Tonight he felt asleep early. Next morning when he woke up his mansion was turned into a poor hut. It did not matter to him, all he wanted was to go out and visit his neighbourhood. He was now the richest person in the village. As he came out of his house there were poor people begging to him for food and money. It took him some time to realise that these beggars were none other than his neighbours. For the first time he felt proud that he was better than them. He took out some money from his front pocket and donated to his poor and filthy neighbours. While he was walking down the street with his head held high he felt someone grabbing and pulling is shirt from the back. As he turned he saw a thin poor girl, probably eight years old, begging for food. Looking at the pitiful condition of the kid made him sad. He looked around and saw the pain and agony. At that moment he realised what he had done. To satisfy his desires he made his entire neighbourhood suffer. For the first time he felt their pain, he felt empathy and compassion. Emotions makes us human beings, and it is emotions that teaches us to control our desires. Emotions also help us connect with fellow humans and that connection is a tool of survival too. He still had one wish left to undo the horrendous act he committed.

The man went back to the Genie again. The Genie asked him about his day as the richest person in the neighbourhood. He knew exactly why the man asked for such a wish. ‘It was horrible’, replied the man with remorse, ‘and this time I know exactly what to do with my last wish’. ‘What is it that your heart truly desires?’ questioned Genie. ‘I want to undo everything and go back to the way I was before’, came the reply. ‘Your wish, my command’, said the Genie with a smile in his face, knowing very well that his message was conveyed. Next morning the man found himself back in his old house. When he grabbed his mobile to look at the time, he was surprised to see the date. Not a day has passed since the night of his first wish. Was he dreaming it all along? But it felt so real. Keen to know what happened, he ran out of his house into the neighbourhood. Everything was as they were before he met the Genie. His gaze fell on the 8-year-old girl playing happily with her mother. He never felt so happy in his life before. That whole day he spent in his neighbourhood, meeting and greeting his old friends and making new in the process. He realised how lucky he was to be part of such a caring community. Relationship is the cornerstone of happiness, and it took the man some time to realise that. The worst way to find happiness is to go looking for it. You don't find happiness, happiness finds you when you stop looking. That night the man went back to the exact same spot where he met the Genie. Somewhere in his heart he hoped that the Genie was real, and he wanted to thank him. Alas! No one was there that night. Instead, he saw a dark blue cloth fluttering in the wind. 

Story inspired by a folk tale.

Subhrashis Adhikari

Author: 5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

www.subhrashis.com

Also Check Out:  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes 

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1

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How Stories Made Us...

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” - Kurt Vonnegut

Why did we paint the caves? What's the connection between the rock arts of hunters and gatherers, the ‘fiction’ of Harare and the ‘Maya’ of Upanisads? How are humans related to Zebra flinch? Why do we create stories and how did it make us the top predator? How can stories limit our potential? Can we script a new story to create a better world?

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Compassion - The Future World

In a future world of greater population, limited resource, global warming, and technology threatening our jobs, the risks are global. They would need global solutions. Is there solution to our global problems?

Human brain is a complex mass of tufu-like protein that guides us through our life. Information travels faster than any F1 car inside our brains. It acquires, processes, interprets and stores information, while creating prejudices and biases. Every thought and memory that the brain generates is a complex process that uses several parts of the brain. Science is yet to unravel it’s mystery. What we do know is that it has evolved over millions of years from a rather humble beginning. 

The reptilian brain was the first to evolve. It controls the vital functions that help us survive, including heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. The basic instincts like hunger, thirst, survival and desire to procreate is rooted in this primitive brain. In other words, it controls our desires. The main structures of reptilian brain are brain stem and cerebrum. Reptilian brain represents our nature. In nature the fittest survive. Indians call it ‘prakriti’, which is guided by the rule of the jungle ‘matysa nyaya’. According to the rule, big fish eats small fish.

The next part of the brain that evolved is the palaeo-mammalian brain. Its main structures are hippocampus, amygdala, and the hypothalamus. This part of the brain gives us emotions and binds us together. Morality and empathy comes dominantly from the mammalian brain. It makes sure that even the weak survive, as long as (s)he belongs to the same group. Rule of ‘prakriti’ changes to rule of ‘sanskriti’. Sanskriti is culture, or a set of social rules that defines a group. The group can be a tribe, a religion or a nation. Matysa Nyaya is now modified to big (read powerful) groups eating (exploiting) small (weak) groups. According to the new rule, a small fish in a big group has more chance of survival than a big fish in a small group. Empathy is the glue that helps the group bond strongly. 

The connection of empathy is created through mirroring as discussed in the last post. We are less empathetic towards people we consider as ‘others’ who does not mirror our ideas and expressions. If empathy is the factor that helps creates groups, and you are empathetic towards people you can relate to, then empathy is limited by the Dunbar number. It is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people whom you can consider as close and relate to. For most humans it is close to 150 individuals. Stories like religion or nationalism can loosely bind a bigger group, but it is not the strong glue of empathy.

Neo-mammalian brain (or primate brain), i.e. the neocortex, is the latest to evolve. Our cognitive abilities and intelligence is derived from this part of the brain. The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) of neo-mammalian brain is involved in all executive functions, ability to plan, decision making, expressing our personality, aligning our thoughts and actions with internal goals, and moderating social behaviour. Basal Ganglia, also part of neo-mammalian brain, store routine, repetitive behaviours, and thoughts. Habits are stored in form of thousands mini-programs or maps which helps brain go on autopilot and save energy. 

Neo-mammalian brain gives us the ability to change ourselves. I must mention here that the three parts of the grain is a simplification, but a good analog. We have done enough research to understand the limitations of our brain and know our cognitive biases. While bigotory, racism, sexism etc still exists, we are slowly getting over it. The laws around the globe are more liberal than they were a century ago. According to Steven Pinker, the world is more peaceful that it ever was. But, how can we get better?

We can create a better world if we find a way to be compassionate about everyone else irrespective of the group they belong to. If we use our PFC to set a goal of being compassionate, and practice it consciously everyday then it becomes a mini-program that gets stored in our Basal Ganglia. One can become compassionate by practicing.

All cognitive information gets stored as memories called engrams.The way we act and think results in biophysical or biochemical changes in the brain and other neural tissues. By visualising a particular outcome or goal that you seek changes your brain. It makes you more positive and increases the likelihood of the outcome. Positive faith leads to positive results through placebo effect.

According to Indian philosophy actions leave behind mental impressions in our minds, called samskara. Samskara affects our future actions and thoughts. That is Karma. Compassion and kindness is contagious and can be rewarding. When you give compassion, it comes back to you.

If we want a better future, we need to erase the borders and create a compassionate world. Compassion not just for fellow beings, but also towards other species. It might sound too idealistic at the moment. A democratic world was once idealistic too. We have changed, and we will keep changing. 

The future world would be very different from what it is today. Next time when you think of someone, try consciously to forget about the identity of the other person. That person may belong to a group that had exploited your group in the past, that person might be from another country that you now consider your enemy. Forget all that identity and think about compassion. That person might still live in the medieval era of bigotry. That is not a good enough reason for you to turn into a bigot too. 

As the old cliche goes, be the change you want to see in the world. We have moved from prakriti to sanskriti. Now it is time to move towards global citizenship - vasudhaiva kutumbakam.

REF

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3839944/

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1358.full?rss=1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28655877

https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qqcRGagyEuAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&ots=-ON2X3Fgvz&sig=QylIP4w-Y2kfam0GgaJGKhnHyt4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.amazon.in/Neuroscience-Coaches-Insights-Benefit-Clients/dp/0749472375

https://swarajyamag.com/culture/understanding-the-vedic-model-of-the-mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engram_(neuropsychology)#cite_note-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(Indian_philosophy)

https://vasudaikakutumbam.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/vasudhaiva-kutumbakam-%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%B5-%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%9F%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%82/

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

Also Check Out:  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes 

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1

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A CASE FOR EMPATHY

From ‘I think therefore I am’ era we have landed into the post-truth era of ‘I believe, therefore I am right’. 

An interesting experiment was done on two apes. The moment one ape took out food to eat, the other one received a shock. After some time the ape who was receiving the food preferred to starve in order to avoid harming the other ape. Empathy is product of evolution, and is probably rooted in the neo-mammalian brain that generates emotion. 

You feel empathetic towards people you can emotionally connect to, and experiments have shown that the best way to connect is through mimicking. Psycologists have named it ‘mirroring’. When an infant listens to cry of other infants, (s)he starts crying (Marvin Simner, 1971). Adults mimics too, albeit unconsciously. We all know how contagious yawning is. Its called unconscious synchrony, or herd instinct.

Mimicking is a survival mechanism, the same genetic expression that helps flock of birds to fly in formation and move towards the same direction. We constantly mimic when we are talking to others by adapting our body languages, tones and even accents to the person we are talking to. Human beings are social animals and mirroring helps us bind together. It also helps us to be empathetic because similar behaviour makes us seem familiar,  feel comfortable and helps us trust each other. 

Our perception of the entire universe, which includes every human being you know, is an interpretation of our brain based on the information it receives through our sense organs. Humans use themselves as the reference point to create perception about others. In other words, one needs to project oneself into another individual. Empathy gives us the ability to do that. Experiments showed that we can correctly predict others and thus be empathetic towards others when our mental sate is neutral or same as the other person. We miss judge people mostly when our mental states are not similar.

Interestingly, chimps mimic yawn too, but only when a member of their own community yawns, and not when they see someone from the other community yawn. Call it racism. Sherif and Tajfel’s 1954 experiment showed that it was very easy to divide people into ‘us’ verses ‘them’. The experiment supported the Realistic Conflict Theory which says that intergroup hostility can arise due to conflicting goals and competition over limited resources. In a study participants were shown a video of people being injected with a hypodermic needle. The participants showed more neurobiological activity (indicating empathy) when the injected person was of same race. We mirror those who we consider as ‘us’ more than those we consider as ‘others’.

Unknown person or animal were threat to our hunting and gathering ancestors. We still feel threatened when encountering ‘different’ beings. Decety and Jackson’s study show that when you encounter people who you consider as ‘other’, you are less likely to feel their pain and emotions. They write in their paper, ‘Shared neural representations, self-awareness, mental flexibility, and emotion regulation constitute the basic macrocomponents of empathy, which are underpinned by specific neural systems.’ To be empathetic you need to connect with the other person. William Ickes’s experiments show that it takes at least 30 minutes of being together to connect (Everyday Mind Reading by William Ickes) with a stranger.

With the rise of social media, humans are loosing the ’30 min’ face to face connect. It is easy to bracket someone as ‘other’ in the social media when you do not have to see the other person face to face. Once you add a tag to a person, that stays even when you meet (h)er/im. This, along with ‘confirmation bias’ based on the huge amount of information (including misinformation) in the internet, can easily give rise to polarised world view. From ‘I think therefore I am’ era we have landed into the post-truth era of ‘I believe, therefore I am right’. Building empathy in the age of technology and internet is not something we have evolved for, and hence we need to train ourselves for the future.

Right supramarginal gyrus, part of cerebral cortex, is that part of our brain that recognises lack of empathy and helps us correct it. It helps one look at the world from the perspective of others. Our brain’s neural circuitry is not rigid. Every thought and action creates new neural pathways and changes our brain. Our brain can be hacked, and it can even be trained to become empathetic.

Stories helps us get connected to different perspectives, and thus become more empathetic. To be more empathetic you need to create positive story in your brain about the other person. Travel, creativity and collaboration can make us more empathetic. One way of increasing empathy is to force yourself to be in other person’s shoe. When you are angry on someone, first calm down, curb your ego and reduce your emotional defensiveness. Be open to diverse opinions and try to find the common things that you share with the other person. Understand the problems (s)he might be facing that led to (h)er/is judgement. 

Experiments have shown that mindfulness based stress reduction programs have changed the brain by increasing the density of grey matter in regions related to 'learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking' (Holzed et. al, 2011). There are four stages of practicing empathy everyday. It starts with imagining and then practicing compassionate thoughts about loved ones, followed by self, then about a neutral person and finally ending with someone against whom you have a grudge. Practicing empathy this way is known to reduce stress leading to a healthier and happier life.

How many people can our brain be empathetic about? Should we focus on compassion rather than empathy? Need a different post for that!

REFERENCE

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalism_and_the_power_of_emotions.php
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201310/the-neuroscience-empathy
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/compassion-training.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092549271000288X
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/39/15466
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15537986
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Empathy-Natures-Lessons-Society/dp/0307407772
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Swarm-Societies-Arise-Thrive/dp/0465055680
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realistic_conflict_theory

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

Also Check Out:  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes 

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1

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Is there Free Will?

In this age of information, we are constantly being bombarded with data that affect our perception. Often times, the media persistently project a single story that gets imprinted in our brains, leading to prejudice. A country like India can be thought of as very unsafe for women. US could be thought of as a precarious place where you might get shot down the moment you land. People from Nigeria might be considered as tribal, even though Nigeria has perfectly modern cities. Once we are anchored to a particular way of thinking, it becomes very difficult to get rid of the prejudices. We often fail to comprehend that our opinion might be just one of the thousand possible stories that we have never heard. The single stories themselves may not be wrong. But, it is just a one-sided story. Truth is multi-faceted. Is our future multi-faceted too? Or is it that we do not have any free will?

"The problem of free will is not about the lack of choice or determinism, but about the way we choose."

Scott Adam’s 2004 Dilbert cartoon aptly says, ‘Free will is an illusion. People always choose the perceived path of greatest pleasure.’ Do we have free will? One would have thought that science has already solved this problem. Quite surprisingly, it hasn’t. It has only changed the way we look at the question. No more do we think that we are at the mercy of some higher powers. The problem of free will is not about the lack of choice or determinism, but about the way we choose. We may like to think that we are in control of our life, at least till we get married! Unfortunately, most of the things that happen to us are outside our control. I did not choose when, where and to whom I was born. I did not select my genes. And in all likelihood, I will have no free will about my death. My looks, my gender, my religion and nationality were predetermined. However, all these factors had a strong influence in determining who I am today. My genetics determines my nature, and my family determines my nurture. This means that we can never have complete freedom of choice. Random events along with our nature and nurture limit the choices we have. Having said that, there are a lot of things that are within our sphere of influence, like the way I want to colour my hair, the profession I want to be in, choosing my partner or when to have a baby. Even the choices that are in our control are influenced by external factors, especially our family. Rich people will have a different set of options than poor people for the same problem. Often our parents and teachers influence our career and thus the profession we choose. Choosing your partner is not just a one-sided decision; the other person needs to agree as well. When to have a baby, and sometimes even what colour you want your hair to be, is often a decision that you make along with your partner. How much of free will does that leave us with?

"We are a very negligible part of the entire universe. If the laws of physics guide everything in the universe, including the birth of the galaxy and origin of life, then why would our thoughts, or we for that matter, be any different?"

Let us ignore all the external factors for the time being and say that only you decide what to choose. When I started having thyroid problems, I noticed that I lost my temper very easily. I became a different person. It made me realize that a lot of what we are depends on the biochemical that flow in our body. These, in turn, depend on our brain. This is well documented in the case of Phineas P. Gage. In 1848, Gage suffered a major accident and lost a part of his brain. The loss of that particular part of the brain, prefrontal lobe to be exact, turned a cheerful well- mannered gentleman into a self-destructive habitual liar. Similar cases have been observed with other individuals with damaged prefrontal lobe. The prefrontal lobe, we now know, controls our emotions. Recent studies in neuroscience indicate that our thoughts could well be a product of biochemical algorithms written in our brain.

"We often fail to comprehend that our opinion might be just one of the thousand possible stories that we have never heard."

How we behave and react to situations depend more on the structure of our brain rather than the situation itself. Take for example the feelings of fear, anger, lust and love. They are the same all around the globe because they stem from the genetic make-up of our species and those feelings results from secretion of same biochemicals. When we are threatened, our brain releases adrenalin and cortisol that create the feeling of fear. Lust is governed by dopamine while the feeling of love by oxytocin. These chemicals are not any different for an African or a Chinese or a European. These chemicals can even be released artificially by intake of drugs or stimulating the right part of the brain through electrodes. We will have the feeling, corresponding to the part that is triggered, without any reason for feeling the same. What if the choice you are about to make is guided by your brain’s chemistry, determined by your genes and memories that you have no control over, following all the rules of physics that are fixed? We are a very negligible part of the entire universe. If the laws of physics guide everything in the universe, including the birth of the galaxy and origin of life, then why would our thoughts, or we for that matter, be any different?

This begs the question, where is free will? An interesting experiment was done almost 35 years ago by Dr. Benjamin Libet. Libet’s Experiment demonstrated that the unconscious response precedes, and potentially cause conscious or volitional decisions 300 milliseconds before you actually take that decision! If our unconscious mind is deciding for us, then it puts some serious doubts on our free will. Are we mistaking randomness for free will? The experiment received widespread fame and critics. May be our conscious mind has a veto power. May be, the way the experiment was conducted had flaws. Even then, we cannot disagree about the fact that absolute free will is a myth.


A 40-year-old man became addicted to child pornography after he developed tumour in the or bitofrontal cortex. Once the tumour was removed, his addiction vanished. Similarly, Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old loving husband suddenly turned into a mass murderer. The cause was a large tumour that pressed down his amygdala, a part of the brain that controls emotion. This brings us to the dilemma of justice. Who do we blame in such situation, the person or the tumour? Every decision we take is in some way affected by our genes, the way we were brought up, and any changes or damages that may happen to our brain. Some might argue that it is the non-conscious process in the brain that drives all our actions. While we can never be completely free, I would like to believe that we are not completely helpless about deciding our future. Or, at least my brain would want me to believe that. While the biochemical inside our body affect our behaviour, our behaviour in turn can affect the chemicals. With help of the right lifestyle, we can change the way we behave. With the help of medical treatments we can cure thyroid problems or tumours. I sincerely hope that it is not the apparent chaos which gives us the illusion of free will.

"We can go to the extent of saying that our perception is more of a hallucination than reality."

The way we make sense of the world depends on the way our brain receives information coming through the sense organs and make stories. In truth, we cannot sense anything directly. All our perceptions are indirect, with the help of proxies. We can go to the extent of saying that our perception is more of a hallucination than reality. One might say that our sense organs do a pretty good job of replicating the reality in our minds. That is why my interpretation of the world broadly matches yours. The Taj Mahal is the same for all the people who have seen it. Its beauty might be just in our brain, but the physical reality of the Taj Mahal has to exist. There must be a fundamental reality that is beyond the boundaries of our mind. What if we all are biased in the same way? We have evolved together and almost have the same genes. Since our brain is similar, our understanding has to be similar. 

Then there are a lot of things that we assume should match, actually does not. Different people interpret the same thing in different ways. Some may observe details, while others see the big picture. Some people have brains focused on facts, while others may be more imaginative. There is no right or wrong way to make sense of the universe. 

Even fundamental things like time and space are more mysterious than we think. Experiments in quantum physics are destroying the very fabric of our known comfortable world. And, it is not just at the micro scale. New experiments are replicating the weirdness of quantum world in macro scale. All possible realities might exist, and we just happen to remember one at a time. May be in one of the universes it is Schrödinger who is in the box and is both dead and alive till Dr. Cat opens it. The single universe of Classical Physics might be the simplified story that our brain writes. Does the Heisenberg uncertainty give us free will? It is more of a hope. The arrow of time works both ways in physics. If all possibilities exists and at all times....then each and every possibility is already fixed.

"All possible realities might exist, and we just happen to remember one at a time."

From the Book  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1

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EAT YOUR MEAT: NO REGRET

We are born naked, wet and crying… and then things start getting worse. But, no one said that life is fair. On second thoughts, life has a weird sense of humour. It is equally unfair to everybody. Which kind of makes it fair. So, when a lion hunts and kills to stay alive, it is kind of fair if not lovely. What is however unfair is to call a lion aggressive because it ate a scared dear. Lions are aggressive not because of what they eat, but because of evolution. The genes that care for the life of a deer went extinct out of hunger. But the amazing thing is that, they are actually very peaceful, much more than some of the herbivores.

If you think elephants are peaceful, you have never seen a wild elephant in a jungle, or an angry rhino. Can you guess how many Indians were killed by tiger in the last 5 years? Around 200. How many did elephants kill? 1713! Do you know which animal is the most lethal killer? Hippo kills more than lions, leopards and crocodiles every year in Africa. It is a myth that eating meat makes you more aggressive.

One might argue that humans are different from animals. To prove that, different experiments have been done globally. They proved that the likelihood of consuming meat resulting in aggressive behaviour is same as the chance of getting raped because you are wearing a mini-skirt. There are people who think both of them are true…. however, truth is that there is no correlation. What some of the researches did find however is that short temper is associated with deficiencies of omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, zinc and Vitamin B12. Some of these deficiencies are actually linked to vegan diet.

I have no intention to turn everyone into a meat eater. There is nothing wrong in becoming a vegetarian as long as you take care of your deficiencies. Agricultural revolution is the root cause of our food deficiencies, and the related disease. Archaeological studies have shown that hunters and gatherers died more healthy than the bodies unearthed of the agricultural people. This is because the farmers diet was restricted to the crops they grew. Hunter and gatherers had a balanced diet from the meats, fishes, and the different fruits, nuts and vegetables they gathered. Paleo-diet might be the best diet for our body.

A strong argument in favour of vegetarianism is the brutal killing of animals. The argument has some validity. Animals have feelings and plant don’t is however just excuse. Who are we to say that plants do not deserve a moral standing? Jagadish Chandra Bose showed that plants are sentient beings. They do not like being eaten. They do get scared, they scream and warn their neighbours when a giraffe starts eating them part by part. To defend themselves they become poisonous. They even warn their friends, who turn poisonous too. The fruits are not meant to attract you, but it contains food for their children. That is why some fruits are poisonous. Plants do not have nervous system like we do, nor does it have the neurons to think like we do. That does not mean that they do not think. They think the way they do. Plants have their own ‘nervous system’ that is a complex network of excitable tissues carrying electrical signals. The bioelectrical field might be a primary source of learning and memory. Yes, plants know what you did last summer. They can even see, hear, smell and respond. What do we do to these sentiment beings after harvest? We chop them, cut them into pieces, and burn them. And we do not feel a thing for these poor creatures just because they are different. We have genetically modified them so much that they have become unhealthy, just like the chickens in the farm. We have made them fat, just to have more of them. The domesticated plants cannot even reproduce by themselves naturally. Their inability to run away or scream is not an invitation to have them for dinner. Our morality is misplaced. Morality is just a cultural construct. It varies from culture to culture. Just because two opinions have different concepts of morality, it does not make one of them right.

The only reasonable argument in favour of eating vegetables is environment. The amount of water and farmland used to maintain a livestock leaves behind a large carbon foot print. Cows and pigs are the most environment unfriendly. It will help the environment if we reduce consumption of red meat. It will help the environment if we manage the amount of fishing and maintain balance. It would help if we feed chickens their normal food that contains proteinaceous insects rather than grains. It would be more kind if we stop painful slaughter of animals. But going vegan is not going to save the world, but only delay the calamity. Food habit is not the core problem, it is the growing population. We have bred worse than rabbits. It is that habit which needs change. Going vegan and having a lot of children to increase the future food consumption is not going to help.

If you are a vegetarian it might be difficult to accept that, you might even get pissed off. I know that feeling since i got pissed off when I was lectured on why vegetarian diet is heather and morally better. There are two things most people don’t like: number one is to change, and number two is the way things are. Most of the time we do not like to change the way our own group behave, and we hate the way things are with other groups. American psychologist Joshua Greene calls this behaviour the Tragedy of Common Sense Morality. It is easier to care for people who are similar to us, rather than those who are different. Contrary to the popular belief, experiments have shown that it is our emotions, rather than reasoning, that drives our moral judgment. With respect to most controversies, we have already made up our opinion, and only use reasoning to backup our claim, rather than rejecting it. Such ‘confirmatory’ reasoning makes us fall for propaganda, be it in favour of vegetarianism, or against it. There are studies that show plant based diet can be good for health, like prevent cancer. Then there are studies that show otherwise. We prefer to believe the study that only fits our prejudice. Tragedy of Common Sense Morality results in heated debates in the modern polarised world.  Conservatism vs Liberals argument has spread like a viral from west into India. Lets not spread the virus of food habit debate here too. Be it veggies, be it meat…eat what you want to eat. Be it veggies, be it meat…eat what you want to eat. 

P.S. This article was written after I was lectured on why Vegan diet is good, based on pseudoscience logic. I have nothing against any particular form of diet. Its a  personal choice. 

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

Author of 5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

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LOST IN THE BIG PICTURE

Old Delhi is a fascinating place not just for the history, but also for the conversations that the mystic chaos of this place triggers. It was one of such days, in the winter of 2016. We were walking through the haphazard narrow gullies and tangled streets of Old Delhi. It was a puzzle of different eras intertwined together is a small crowded city like a time capsule. This place was once the walled city of Sahajanabad, with busy colourful markets lined up on each side of the streets coming down from the magnificent Red Fort. Sahajanabad was founded by Shah Jahan in 1639. He was the supreme monarch who controlled the markets. Free markets and Adam Smith were yet to be born. While the demographics have not changed much, the market dynamics have completely altered over the last few centuries. The free market has taken over and powerful brands have replaced small businesses. Even Karims survived by evolving into a big brand. But the Baskin-Robbins and Haagen-Dazs have had up until now failed to replace Daulat-ki-chaat, the magical winter dessert for which we have come this far.



Our first stop in the time-capsule maze was Asia's largest spice market - Khari Baoli. This market has become a brand in itself. When we reached there, we were shocked to see the amount of garbage on the road. It was not the usual dirt that this part of Delhi was known for. It was a city that sprang up like a mushroom on an over-filled dustbin. But people kept going on with their usual life completely ignoring the unusual thrash. When asked, we were told that the MCD, who are responsible for cleaning the public dustbins, were on strike. And that was the perfect trigger for a long conversation. The question that came to our mind at that time was why are we in this mess? Is it because of our attitude - this is MCD’s mess and not ours, even though we generate it. Who are responsible for this attitude? Is it the market-driven society that we have built where branded ice-creams would sell more than unbranded Daulat-ki-chaat?



Adam Smith believed that division of labour can increase productivity by a factor of 2000 by eliminating the time wasted in switching between different types of jobs. In the older mercantilism economy, government controlled import and export to hoard silver and gold that made nations rich. Smith identified the flaw in such thinking and showed how labour was more precious than gold or silver. To Smith ‘man was an animal that makes bargains’ and the ‘invisible hand’ of acting in one's self-interest can benefit the society as a whole. To enjoy such benefit government interventions should be minimised. Smith hoped that the free market would give people autonomy and freedom along with prosperity. He probably assumed that humans behaved in a rational way. That was a big mistake. In the free market, jungle norms take over and the fittest survive. It's economic Darwinism that breeds inequality. While valuing labour, Karl Marx was critical of the free market. Marx believed that the free market only made the bourgeoisie class rich. This new privileged class replaced the oppressive kings, but not the oppression of the poor and powerless. Instead of producing an entire product, workers sell their labour by doing a small part for a smaller salary. This creates huge industries that people can never replace. But how is all this related to my Daulat-ki-chaat? To know that we need to solve the maze.



Our next stop was Ghalib ki Haveli, the residence of the famous 19th century poet, Mirza Galib.

bas-ki dushvār hai har kaam kā āsāñ honā
aadmī ko bhī mayassar nahīñ insāñ honā

Tis difficult that every goal be easily complete
For a man, too, to be human, is no easy feat

Human beings have a symbol-centric brain. Without the symbolic connect, that Galib’s poems did so eloquently, it is indeed difficult to be human. Inside a big interrelated chaos of things that we cannot relate to, we get lost. Lost in the big picture is a curse of the free market. Just like how the labours are ignorant of the way their work adds up to the product that they are creating, the end users also unaware of how these products magically come to them. In the morning when we get up and brush our teeth, we have absolutely no idea who made that paste or where the brush came from. We even have no clue about the food we eat, who grows them, what kind of chemicals are added to make them look good, what kind of atrocities the plants and animals grown in the farms have to suffer. We don’t know how to hunt our food or make our clothes. From all the products we use, to the job we do, we have no clue about the bigger picture. It was not the same with the hunters and gatherers. They made their own clothes. They hunted their own meal. They knew how to make their shelter. They appreciated everything they needed to know about their own life. Modern humans would be lost if left alone because we know nothing.





Because we are the John Snow of the neoliberal world, our choices are easily manipulated. Division of labour has made us so specialized that we have forgotten how to comprehend the big picture. Our likes and dislikes are guided by advertisements. Our happiness and sadness is defined by market. The models flashing on the screens and smiling at you in the big hoardings tells us how to dress, what to eat, and which car to drive. We work hard to earn enough to maintain a lifestyle whose standard is set by someone else. Unfortunately, that standard has nothing to do with who we are, and thus it can never make us happy. And the effort to keep pace with the lifestyle inflation is increasing the stress in our lives. Is there a way out?



We finally found Sanjay Kumar, the man whose family has been selling Daulat-ki-chaat for three generations. We had a long chat with Mr Kumar as he told us all about his family and the art of making the dessert. They come to Old Delhi only in the winters, make this delicious creamy and frothy dessert topped with khoya and nuts, and then once the season is over they leave for their village to farm. The Kumars have been doing this for decades every year. Every person in their family knows the entire process of how to make Daulat-ki-chaat, and not just parts. They were both happy and proud of their product.



With a scoop of Daulat-ki-chaat melting inside our mouth, we finally solved the maze. We realised the most important factor that was missing from a market driven society. It was the social connect. We are social animals, and market driven societies often does not respect that social nature of human beings. We are slowly losing the emotional connect with friends and family. The inequality resulting from our market society is leading to loneliness and depression. Rate of suicide among young generation is increasing all over the world. The problem is so critical that universities are offering courses on happiness, and countries are appointing ministers for loneliness. This, in turn, is breeding a new industry. Professional cuddling is a new hot occupation. Robot dogs are being manufactured in China to give young people company. Soon paying for companionship, for an evening walk, for even a casual date will become a norm. But it is people like Sanjay Kumar and their Daulat-ki-chaat that gives us hope. Not all connections are lost in the big picture.

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