Santhosh's ramblings

We have a plant in the house that cranes its neck towards the sun, catching a glimpse of it for about 2 hours each day. The rest of the day, it remains in the same position, seemingly waiting for the sun to rise again. It eagerly awaits the next morning to enjoy that fleeting moment of sunlight, even though it quickly passes away from its horizon of view.  Sunflower gardens are a breathtaking sight. The whole group or field of sunflowers keeps craning their stems (necks) to follow the sun, capturing its light. When the sun sets, they droop their heads, eagerly anticipating the next morning when they can behold the sun again. In today's world, we are bombarded with lies, half-truths, and manipulated media. False news and perception management through outright lies have become part of our daily life. To find the truth, or even catch a glimpse of it, we must crane our necks and search carefully, like finding a needle in a haystack. There was a time when we could find some truth in cer...

Recently, I spent 2 weeks on a campus where humans coexist with a large population of monkeys (Rhesus). On the night of my departure, we counted about 25 monkeys in one group, comprising fathers, mothers, grandparents, children, and grandchildren. They roam freely in the campus without any issues. Interestingly, the humans in the campus seem to be more afraid of the monkeys than the monkeys are of humans.  ‘ In conversations with friends on the campus, I realized that people tend to stay inside more due to fear of monkeys, almost feeling caged in. On the other hand, monkeys are least bothered because the green campus provides ample food for them. Humans, particularly men, walk around with sticks and catapults to protect their women from the monkeys.   A similar peaceful coexistence was observed during a recent trip to Tanzania. Different animals coexist with each other harmoniously. Animals come close to safari jeeps, almost as if informing the humans of their presence. They h...