Anything Everything

The universe consists of millions of galaxies of varied sizes and shapes. Every galaxy consists of millions of star systems, like our own Solar System. Our Sun is just an average star. One among billions of billions. But, one thing is sure. Sun is no ordinary star. It has 'The Earth' revolving around it, which has Life.

The Earth is the home of a myriad of creatures. But, the only life-form that has the potential to change the face of this planet is the human beings – Homo sapiens . Highly evolved, highly intelligent species ever to walk on this planet. We are indeed special – very, very special! I won't go into the controversial topic of origin of mankind or the cruelties done by man to nature and to his own siblings. This is an ode to human beings.

Oh! Brain, thou maketh Man. Man is intelligent. Kudos to brain. Weighing about 1400 grams, this highly entangled mass of neurons is the control station of ALL of our activities. Hunger, thirst, muscular action, senses, thought, imagination,memory are all the products of the various neural networks. Artificial neural networks are one of the engineering fields that simulates the connections inside the brain to produce efficient computing systems.

Thumb – Fingerprint on History. The major milestone in the development of human civilization is the opposable thumb of man. We have, and ONLY WE have opposable thumb. This superior property enabled us to make tools and weapons, grab them, and use them with ease. This is the start of civilization, without which we still would have been jumping off tree tops.

Eyes – Uncovering the Truth. Our eyes are far, far better than the most modern cameras. Our eye itself is a digital camera. It converts light into electrical pulses and send it to the brain. But, the sensitivity of our eyes in dim light, our ability to see a range of colours from violet to red in the spectrum is a very rare ability. Not all life-forms can see, only a few can. Amongst those who have eyes, only a handful can see a wide range of colours. We are part of that elite group. Our binocular vision enables us to have depth effect. It enables us to have a 3-dimensional portrayal of the things we see. It also enhances clarity of vision.

Bipedal – Walking tall. Look around yourself. How many other beings can walk tall on two legs? Only man can, no one else has that peculiarity. Of course, some forms of chimpanzees can walk in two legs. This is considered as a milestone in the evolution of mankind. That is the reason why Homo erectus , the first ancestor of man to walk on two legs, is considered an important link in our developmental history. Walk with pride!

Mind – Key to all Mysteries. The human mind is the key to all the mysteries around us, while still remaining the greatest of all mysteries itself. The darkest of man's questions and it's answers are present in the mind. Human mind has immense potential that is yet to be understood fully. This mind is the seat of wisdom, imagination, love, empathy, good and evil. Unleash the good and lash the evil inside.

Imagination, thou hath changeth the world. This article would be incomplete without the mention of the imagination of humans. We have been bestowed with a highly intelligent brain. This brain enables us to imagine a multitude of ideas on every other topic on this universe. Without this power of imagination, we would never have made any of the modern amenities for increasing our comfort. All the gadgets around us, all the technologies we depend upon were once wild imaginations. Every scientific hypothesis is the imagination of a genius. A theory is a proven imagination. All works of fiction are the offspring of an imaginative mind. Imagination sows the seed in the fertile mind of a writer. The idea is conceived in the womb of mind. The product is finally delivered after a period of creative maturity.

Sure, Man is beautiful (and so is woman!)

All these are not just the features of human beings. They are the gifts with which we are blessed. In the past, we used them to change ourselves, and the world around us. We have more and severe challenges in front of us. Break free our imaginations from the trammels of conventions. Let them choose their destination. They will bring you the honour of being remembered by the coming generations.

What makes man different from other species on Earth? It's of course our intelligence and imagination. Man had invented many different things to live in ease. One such invention is “MONEY”. Money is an important invention of man. Now a days, every action of a grown up individual has got some financial aspect in it. It has become the backbone of human civilisation.

Go back to the old barter system of finance. The exchange was not just every time, because there is no measure of value for a particular product. Then came money. Money evaluated everything. We have to pay that value in cash or equivalent to buy that item. The paper notes that we use now a days have simplified economics. No need to carry heavy coins in large numbers. The latest plastic money concept has revolutionised economics. No need to touch money. Money become virtual.

The concept of money is simply superb. It changed the world, due to it's purchasing ability. It can be used to buy anything ranging from paper clip to sophisticated, modern, luxury cars. It is not only material goods that money can buy, it can buy pleasure or comfort. Money used to buy music is an example. In a way, everything that money buys is used by us to derive some pleasure. We use it to alleviate our lives.

Money is multi-faceted. It has become the source of almost all crimes in the world. The quest for money, through the dark corners, will lead to hurting fellow humans, physically or mentally. Money plays very important role in our society today. Money is used to evaluate not only consumables, but also human beings. Money dominates thought. It is used to influence people to do all sorts of filthy things. Money mixed with religion or politics is like a deadly poison. It will take lives of those who consume it (and not of those who had made it!).

Money is a necessity now a days. But it's a good practice not to evaluate emotions and relations in monetary terms.

The Internet is one of the most stunning and useful inventions of man. We use it to gather information about the world around us, the people around us, and the world beyond us. Now a days, it has become the primary source of information to mankind. It's not an exaggeration if I say, “we all live in a cyber world”. This cyber world almost make disappear the boundary between the real and virtual worlds. Though it is primarily a virtual world, we consider it almost as the real world. We spend our consciousness wandering about the cyber space. We are slowly transforming into cyber organisms.

Social networking sites were the miracles of the Internet, like e-mail, instant messenger etc. They help us keep in touch with almost every acquaintance and broadened our relationships. They helped us acquire new friends, retrieve lost ones etc. But, are we addicted to these sites? Sort of. Recently, social networking and micro blogging sites have made many controversies. Some sccuse them of stealing valuable time of professionals, while some are concerned of our negligence towards the real world, while we are immersed in the cyber space. They are making us more and more social. But, only virtually. They are actually mutilating the physical social relationships. We are being trapped in a virtual world, as in the film “The Matrix”. But are there sentinel programs running inside this world? Yes!

Almost everyone across the globe have realised the potential of the Internet. From school kids to professionals to governments to senior citizen, nearly every one depends on the Internet for something or the other. And that is exactly what they wanted. They are the sentinel programs. They are cyber terrorists. They are not cyber criminals. They don't hack into systems to steal money, they do cyber warfare. They target nations, not individuals. They are backed by extremist groups both financially and politically. They trick computing talents to hack into the vital functions of a country like power ,defence, telecommunications, railways etc. They manipulate them to create chaos and havoc inside the country to achieve their political motto – destabilise the government. They use the information highway to demolish a nation, it's people.

But, what does this have to do with social networking sites? They use them as a cover. They befriend the gullible to pave way for their ruthless activities. They use religious faith to motivate people. The proliferation of religious communities in such sites is a major concern. People fall in such pits without even knowing about it. These pits are so dark and so deep that, there is no return, once you fall. The impact of such a fall in our lives is very, very devastating. We will be left with nothing but memories – sweet memories of the good days, and bitter ones of those dark days. So, it's a good measure to watch each of your step in the cyber space.

I will brief the things in a nutshell. The cyber space is just a virtual world. Don't mistake it for, or mess with the real world. Being social is good, because man is a social being. But, we should live socially in the real world too. Be more realistic. If you see a man in distress, don't tweet about it to let the world know, but help him if you can. Sharing your thoughts is good. It relieves our pain, doubles up happiness. But, draw a line between what to share and what not to. Cyber space is not secret-proof. Eavesdropping is more intense there. Every thing you do is being recorded by some one. Keep it in mind! Be aware of the pitfalls and man-hunters, lurking at the dark corners of the web. Always be accompanied by light. It's the only preventive measure. Look at the bright sides of web, stick to these safe zones, and don't poke your nose into the dark.

The Internet is good. It helps us do a lot, ease our jobs, widens our horizons, etc. But don't rely it. No, no... you can rely on it. Don't lean on it too much. Stand on your own foot. Don't get the web control you. Don't be a cyber being.

P.S: For those of you who don't believe in evolution, here's the proof. There's an almost abrupt evolution of a new species of man, in the last 10 years. Homo sapiens have evolved to form Homo cyberus , who are slowly dominating the world!