Power of the Apes

A recent item in newspapers said that monkeys in Delhi created a ‘power breakdown’ in a prime locality of the capital for more than half an hour. What had transpired was that one of the monkeys shut off the main switch engulfing the area in darkness, despite the area having been fenced off.

Now what is wrong in monkeys performing the chores of DESU?  If at all, the monkeys were only sagacious enough to switch off the lights in a prime locality, rather than putting the common man through the grind.   In fact, this power shutdown contains important lessons for DESU.

What is however surprising is the amazingly monotonous regularity with which the apes seem to have cultivated the knack of remaining in news.  If I may be allowed to humbly submit, they do seem to have developed the proverbial ‘nose for news’.  Their escapades at South Block keep hitting the headlines and they are nearly always a photographer’s delight.  Of course, off and on the chief sub editors of newspapers also get a chance to brag their scholastic abilities by giving these photos various imaginative captions with a variety of ‘simian’ vocabulary.

However, the latest power failure triggered off by the monkeys set me thinking.  After all, weren’t ‘Hanuman’, ‘Bali’ and ‘Sugreev’ also ‘powerful?’  And hadn’t Angad challenged the leading demons to stir his firmly planted feet.  The modern-day monkeys too after all seem to have taken a cue from their ‘epic’ forefathers and put their foot down – in a different manner.  That is why they chose to show off their powers by affecting a power breakdown.

This incident reminded me of that famous novel-cum-film ‘Planet of the Apes.’  It visualises a day in the future when apes would rule the planet and human beings would be reduced to being their servants.  The way the monkeys are going about presently, the day would come sooner, rather than later.  It is a doubtful proposition whether the apes would really like to rule over this planet of ours, for the idea presupposes their consent for granted. 

However, the way we humans are behaving, cultivates a doubt in one’s mind if we really descended from the apes, or has Darwin’s theory of evolution become redundant?  For, with the latest fad of cloning and genetic engineering fast catching up, like a computer virus, the apes would certainly be having a hearty laugh at our expense.  They must be thinking that when they can successfully ape anything or anyone, where was the need for cloning?

            Despite the hullabaloo being raised over cloning, the question remains – who is aping whom?  The simians seem to be telling the humans – “Looking at your face, we get the impression that you descent from us has not yet started.”  Or still better, “You do seem to have descended all right, but definitely not from us.”