Of Swines, Humankind and the World going haywire...

I suppose one of the better reasons there are gazillions of living species is to make sure that Darwin's ground for the Theory of Evolution holds some basic merit, and that consequent to natural competition, even after annihilation of the weakest taxon, there are enough families left to inhabit this tiny speck in the vastness of the universe we call Earth. If on the contrary there were a limited few, survival of the fittest would mean one face staring at another familiar(rather similar) face and wondering if the former could at all find different anatomies anywhere else within the cosmos and get some respite from the latter's lividity.

It seems the day might arrive sooner than one would expect. Now, with the advent of Swine flu, there has been revealed what was concealed for several millenia - survival has assumed an altogether new meaning. Influenza symptoms have become the most dreaded of all human fears, when just a few months ago nobody cared if a stranger as much as sneezed on your face. The name itself incites fright. People are fleeing from the more adversely affected regions for the sake of their own well being, praying not to encounter a "running nose" on the way. Travelling to places is a dangerous proposition keeping in mind how easily the flu is communicable. This global pandemic is a sardonic mockery of human advances in medicine - at an age when baneful diseases like cancer have been vanquished by human intellect.

But where do hogs hog into the limelight? To say the least, they are the very harbingers of the virus strain that has bamboozled medical experts worldwide. It seems weird that such silent, innocuous and self-involved creatures could possess a trait so unique and distinct that can affect a race millionfold in population and incomparably superior in capability. Sadly, this distinctive attribute is enough to wreak havoc in an otherwise ignorant mortal soul.

As a measure against the spread of this pandemic, mass gatherings have been prohibited within the IITR campus (to many a person's dismay). And this memorandum has been issued at a time when things looked like life was returning back to usual. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Perhaps it would take more than a few weeks to regain the lost grandeur. Atleast, everything should fall back in place by the time some of us get the long-awaited opportunity to visit Europe or America next year.

PS:

6 fresh cases have been reported in the insti as per reports being circulated..... and i thought there couldn't be a safer place than Roorkee !