Koala & the Noble Laziness
Thud!
A lazy Koala opened its eyes when it heard thud sound of its own falling on a university truck from the branch of a Eucalyptus tree. It had eaten plenty of Eucalyptus leaves and dozed off on a branch. Koala did not get worried much by the moving truck. It looked around and closed its eyes again.
The truck traveled for hours, passed through the jungle, entered plain lands and finally reached the university campus. Koala was asleep until the workers saw this strange animal while unloading the goods from the truck. It just jumped down and disappeared in the thick group of Eucalyptus trees in the campus. It could not even differentiate between the jungle it lived in and the campus it has come to.
Next day, people passing by the Eucalyptus trees started noticing Koala. Only a few knew what it was and the rest assumed it to be a kind of bear. Professors controlled their curiosity towards Koala as they had to pretend that they had many other serious matters to think about. Students took selfies with this most cooperating animal ever. Koala was spotted most of the times sleeping on one of the trees. Very rarely some people saw it awake nibbling Eucalyptus leaves.
One day a miracle happened. While Koala was munching leaves, a Zoology student just said ‘Hi Koala’. What a wonder? It responded with a strange sound. It looked as if it understood what he said. Another scholar working on ‘Thought to Speech Conversion & Programming mind’ technology found Koala an interesting subject. He had designed a machine, which, when connected to anyone’s head was able to speak out what’s running in their mind. He had used it on his own mind but to check the correct functioning of the apparatus, he had to experiment on many others. No one agreed as everyone wanted to have their private space and worried what if the device kept receiving their thoughts even after it’s dismounted from their heads.
It was not a tough job for the scholar to fix the device on Koala’s head. After fixing, he waited for a long time but was shocked to know there was not even a small speech or sound. He was sure that his device can sense even a very minute thought in the mind. He wondered how any brain can be absolutely thoughtless like this? Even ants and mice think. After a long wait, he just heard Koala's thought on his screen: ‘stomach is full; I will sleep’. The scholar jumped in joy. He had to wait almost a day to get another one liner thought ‘feeling hungry’.
A week passed. He hardly registered twenty-thirty thoughts in a week, which is equivalent to the number of thoughts that arise in human brain in 2-3 minutes. And most of the thoughts were about sleep and food. He got tired and advanced his plan of programming its mind.
Mr. Scholar adjusted the setup from receiving mode to transmitting mode. It was enough trying to listen. It’s time to feed some thoughts into Koala’s brain. ‘Wake up’, ‘descend from the tree’, ‘walk’.. he gave simple instructions that the Koala followed religiously.
The days passed. The news spread. Everyone in the university started calling the scholar the Koala man. Some people appreciated seeing the way he could translate Koala’s thoughts into words that we can understand and also send our instructions and converting them to the signals that Koala’s brain can understand. Some people complained that he is torturing an innocent animal. Some others criticized his project as it was limited only to know what it thinks and telling it what to do. It was not new as it was no more than a robot which can just follow our instructions.
What else?
They wanted the ability to make Koala think and judge. The Koala man found the criticism meaningful.
After days of working, he developed a ‘feeding system’ which could make a brain use the available knowledge and think. He invited people to interact with Koala. People started asking questions to the Koala. It no more remained just a robotic piece just receiving instructions and following them. Koala started to think.
Questions came from various people: ‘Hi Koala, don’t you think there’s a lot to know and you are wasting time sleeping for 18-20 hours a day?’, ‘Don’t you feel ashamed to be naked?’, ‘Do you have any goals or purpose in life?’, ‘Don’t you compare yourself with us and try to improve the quality of your life?’, ‘Are you not bored of eating only Eucalyptus leaves and sleep on those branches?’, ‘Haven’t you felt guilty anytime for being in this world and not giving anything back to it?’, ‘What if all the Eucalyptus trees vanish tomorrow? Don’t you have any future plans?’, ‘Don’t you feel you need a group and a society? How can you detach yourself from your child soon after it becomes independent?’, ‘Don’t you get hurt or feel insulted when most of the people mistake your identity with bear?’ – the questions continued.
It was too heavy for the lazy Koala to digest all these questions. Most of the times questions are not asked with the intention of getting answers; they are asked to insist, convey and teach something. Although it tried to ignore, the poor little animal started feeling useless about itself. It had never thought about all these. Until now, there was nothing more delicious than Eucalyptus leaves. No place was more comfortable than the branches of its tree. It had never cared whether people thought it was a bear or a mongoose. It didn’t even know people thought about it like that. Can all the Eucalyptus trees disappear from the face of Earth tomorrow? Sounds strange. Is sleeping when we feel sleepy waste of time? Then what’s the right way? Should I give anything back to the world which has given me so much? Koala didn’t understand this give and take business.
The little animal didn’t have answers for most of these questions; instead these questions just created some more questions in its little brain which it hardly thought all these years. ‘Should I really look for something better to eat and something more comfortable to sleep on?’, ‘Should I really shout and tell everyone that I am Koala, not a bear?’, Isn’t it enough to just live for myself, should I payback to the world?’, ‘How can I reduce my duration of sleep?’, ‘How is human’s quality of life better than mine? Is it because they look colourful everyday? They eat different food?’
It tried to ignore these questions but people kept asking the same questions almost every day in different forms. The lazy Koala decided to change itself. It requested the Koala man to arrange a teacher to ‘know’ as there was ‘a lot to know in this world’. It learned letters, numbers, counting and arithmetic. People didn’t stop there. They taught history, chemistry and trigonometry. It had to lead a ‘quality life’. It needed clothes, better food to eat and better place to stay. It soon learnt that there are special pieces of paper called money that need to be earned for all this.
With its available faculties, it did various jobs in the university. Sometimes it was found carrying files from one department to another. Sometimes it was seen assisting washer man near the hostels. It just did not understand why it was necessary learning history and trigonometry for doing these jobs. It asked everyone it met. No one seemed to have a clear answer. They just dodged the question by saying ‘You’ll apply them later in life or when you climb up the ladder.’
It bought some clothes for itself. They looked good. It tried eating leaves of the other trees. They didn’t taste good. It tried frying them, baking them and found various tastes which it convinced itself to be delicious food. Someone built a small hut for it.
The days passed. In comparison to others, its clothes were not good enough to look better. It bought some more clothes. How long it could eat the leaves of different trees when others were ordering pizza and burger online. It tried that. Its hut was big enough for its size. But how long it could press its body to the trunk of a tree to cool down its body in summer, it needed an Air Conditioner. Hut and the air conditioner are not a good combination. It needed a bigger house.
In the university campus, it met a professor of Theology who opened its eyes in different direction. He added a new dimension of something ‘beyond materialistic’ world. He programmed Koala’s mind about spirit, religions, heaven-hell, scriptures and so on. That took away Koala’s sleep that night.
Koala’s sleeping time had drastically shrunk. Now it hardly slept for 5 hours a day. Some part of the day was spent on learning many subjects as there was ‘a lot to know’. Some more part of day was spent in earning to fulfill its requirements. Yesterday’s luxuries had become today’s necessities. It was running short of time. It was running short of money.
During learning time, it could not comprehend where all that it was learning was being applied in real life. Teachers kept branding it ‘an idiot Koala’. All the hard work it did fetched it little money which was too insufficient to lead a ‘quality life’ as its neighbors. They called it ‘incompetent Koala’. The same world that humiliated Koala had solutions too.
Someone suggested Koala to follow what the world says without questioning. Koala agreed. Banks offered it loans and the Koala bought everything to prove itself to be competent enough to lead a ‘quality life’ as its neighbours. It studied hard without asking the question ‘where all this learning is being applied?’ It secured better marks.
In this process, it lost its sleep. Doctors gave it sleeping pills. Koala became healthy. It kept running short of money. Banks offered loans. It became rich. It fell short of marks. 'Learn without questioning' formula fetched great marks. It became intelligent. Society respected it because of its improved quality of life. It was healthy, rich and intelligent.
EMI statements kept dropping in. Comparisons and competitions increased its stress. Medicines befriended its body to stay healthy. World had solutions. Koala went to temples. Poor god was helplessly arrested inside the small rooms and the rich priest gave a menu of services with price list offered at the temple to get peace of mind. It went to psychiatrists and counselors. They suggested laughter clubs and nature walks. Koala found everything senseless.
It could not sleep that night. There was incompleteness in its heart. It started to think: What did I achieve? Today I know many things in the world without knowing where to use. Is this what the world calls knowledge? Today I have a vehicle that spits dangerous gas but I’m planting trees. Is this what the world calls ‘giving back’ to the world which has given us so much? Today I have stress which is the result of all the competitions and complication I have created myself but I have money to pay to god and to psychologists to reduce the stress. Is this what the society calls higher ‘quality of life’?.. the questions kept heaping up.
It was already late night. It was sure the Koala man would have slept and he does not monitor its thoughts at that time. It started thinking: ‘I am not sure if I’m unfit to this world or if the world is not meant for me. I cannot face my inner struggle, nor I can exhibit artificial happiness to the world. I should better end my life.’
It took some sleeping pills it had in excess and deeply fell asleep. When the Koala man woke up midnight, he just saw the messages that popped up on his apparatus showing Koala’s thoughts. He rushed to Koala and thought it was dead. He just put it in a gunny bag loosely tied and told the university truck driver who was shifting some books to a college in the other town to throw it on the way. After crossing the plain lands and entering the forest, there was a sound which the truck driver couldn't hear.
Thud!
The lazy Koala opened its eyes after hearing its own sound of falling from the truck. The gunny bag had opened up and the lazy creature rolled down to the bottom of a Eucalyptus tree. It was back to the same forest, away from humans, nibbling Eucalyptus leaves and sleeping on its branches more than three-fourth of a day. Happiness is being you!
