Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Mosquito Effect


If you are wondering what the content of the post would be by reading this title, then my sincere suggestion would be; please stop guessing could sometimes on CnC we too talk about incredible things (may be someday even we might write on fairly tales and Harry Potter on our blog).

Well this post is coming from a frustrated soul, who is clueless about ways to settle a dispute. Every night me and my enemies drawn our boundaries, sign peace treaties and cease fire; but all these unwritten laws fail in few minutes and we are back at war. I stand tall like a brave Spartan warrior up against a fleet of over 300 enemy soldiers (a lil exaggeration though); I wait and kill them when they are within one yard radius from my body. Fierce battle lasts for hours, neither can I stop and donate blood to my enemy nor do the mosquitoes quit the battle field; they breath through my smoke bombs (don't think otherwise I am talking about mosquito repellents here) and keep trying to enter my territory. It's a complete bloodshed, either mine or others.

The results of this wars are, either they lose their life by getting smacked by me (high success rate of .1%), or leave me with a small protrusion (as if they have filled something in my veins rather than sucking it out; happens 10% of the cases I guess) or the most common, I try to zero them, but then end up hurting myself and they fly away.

It is a never ending war, though I wish to win, I am clueless of the how?? Can anyone suggest a first hand tested strategy which can be of my help??

I tried to get a few solutions from various philosophies from noted thinkers, writers and religions that "love" is the greatest weapon and one can win anything with love. Some went on to say that we can even win over my enemies with love. Even our own Munnabhai quite promotes this concept (remember the incident where a person benevolently cleans the paan strains created by a crook without shouting at him). So does that mean I need to love mosquitoes as well? Will a mosquito stop biting me if I voluntary allow it to bite for more and more times??

This is where I feel all these concepts are not always practical. Just take a simple case of a ring master in a circus; the tigers and other animals perform the necessary tricks only because they are afraid of him, not because of the piece of meat that he offers them at the end of the stunt. If we realise it's the same with most other trainers as well. We learn more when they are strict and we work under pressure. Remember this is the image of boarding schools which most people have - that the teachers are strict and students get punished for all in-disciplinary acts. It's this fear that helps most students do better. I am not sure if others feel the same, but I think I miss my teachers whom I was more afraid of than those who were nice to me. Or may be its just that I learnt it the hard way.

It applies to my mom as well.. She is all nice and loving when I do well but at the same time, will scold me if I ever do something wrong – and I believe it was this fear that still keeps me conscious before I could ever dare do things wrong. So it is this balance between love and fear that helped me grow the way I am and I believe its and in-build art which most mothers possess.

Now when I say all this, I am remembered of the buzz around the country. What should be our next step to counter terrorism?? Is war the solution?? How to resolve Kashmir?? Are we prepared for the War?? What would be extent of damage?? What could be the outcome?? So many questions but very few concrete answers…

But then here also mosquito effect stands to explain the international relations..

Why is Pakistani government under greater treat when the United States of America pressures it and comes up with statements against them?? At the same time India, which has been highlighting the epic centre of all the terrorist activities, it was not at all catered to?? And now look even Pakistan is trying to take a few steps by capturing some key members of the militant groups??

Now all this is definitely not because of love..

It's not that I am trying to prove that love is not powerful and only fear rules the world. There are instances where problems which otherwise failed, were solved by love. Take for instance the relation between Indians and Pakistanis; keep aside all the terrorist and political activities, I think the increased communication between common people is serving as a big step to bridge some of the differences between "aam admi" of both the nations. The apple traders were the happiest when the trade was restored this year.

So the mosquito effect tells us that love and fear are both equally powerful tools and should be used according to the situation. And just as the war between me and mosquitoes seems never ending, where sometimes I win and sometimes they, similarly the success of love and fear will be never ending sometimes the problems get resolved by love while at other we need to use fear.

And regarding Terrorism and countering it, its an issue with so many complexities attached to it. I am dying to see what step our politicians take and bring long – term peace and tranquility back to one of the most beautiful part of the planet.

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