Perseverance

A wild butterfly has entered my room. It is flying towards the tube light, hitting it and then coming back. It keeps doing this until it falls into some dark and congested place. While she was sitting on a book, I pulled the book and threw her out of the window. After some time, she has come back, and keeps moving towards the light. I know she will keep doing this till her last breath.

A long time back, when I used to prepare for engineering entrance exams, sometimes I went past 2 in the morning. I needed to get out of my room, in order to enter the main building. In those chilly winter nights, under the electric bulb, I used to see a procession of ants, moving, one before the other, night after night. They used to carry something with them, without any attempt of stopping and taking a breath. I knew they would keep doing that till their last breaths.

Why don't we humans have a comparable perseverance as that of a butterfly or an ant? Though scientists are famous for their disciplined life, and of course Yogis and monks "have it" in them, even they take several years of practice to reach that state. What about others? Have you ever seen an insect that won't run towards the light? Or a single ant who decides that from today onwards, she will not travel in a queue, but take a break in between, take a nap, or a peg or two? Or a papaya tree that decides to generate sour fruits? Why is that we humans, despite being the wisest of all, are the stupidest of all too? Why can't perseverance come naturally to all of us too? Our scientists are able to create a Dolly from a cell, but will they ever be able to selectively develop some natural characteristics in the human beings, such as perseverance? Why should humans learn that in a hard way, but the butterfly should inherit it?

Rahul Tiwary