If evolution was true, why don't we see a mishmash of species?

"If Darwinian evolution held any weight, what we ought to be seeing around us is a mishmash of man-panzees, and man-gutans and not a clearly formed species of each organism. This discontinuity is confounding." This was the dilemma my friend Sharath raised while we were engaged in another of our heated debates on 'nothing-in-particular'.

Intriguing. I thought, but the wonder held only for a moment. My high school biology came flashing back and I had an epiphany of sorts. It goes something like this

'While species(Let's say Ninja turtles) were evolving, the heritable changes happened in the germplasm and not the somatoplasm. One such genetic change, led to a modification of the reproductive anatomy of a few organisms in a species thereby making them reproductively isolated from non-mutants.

In other words,these mutant ninja turtles :) could fruitfully mate only among themselves(mutants) as any cross mating with non-mutant versions would lead to no offspring or a sterile offspring. Now by virtue of this single reproductive mutation, the mutant-ninja turtles mated and evolved into a new branch in the evolutionary tree. Very disparate from their uncle's nephews and nieces. The end product if viewed as a snapshot in time(In the evolutionary timeline our lifetime would be less than a snapshot) ,would be a collection of independent and disparate species with no apparent link to each other. Which is what we see today. Voila...Darwin stands vindicated!!!

Eulogy of an enchanted pupil

It’s official now. ‘Fooled by Randomness’ is my favourite book of all time. There’s something about the way Taleb spins probability theory, financial markets and our very own Weltanschauung into a heady cocktail. And for a change, he remains intelligible for the most part!!

Here is a sample anecdote from his book,

Imagine you were playing Russian roulette with a rich baron. The game goes something like this. You are handed a gun with one bullet in its barrel. You are supposed to fire the gun at your forehead and if you survive, you win a prize of 10 million dollars. Would you play such a game? Would you risk your life (16.667% probability) for an 83.33% probability of becoming a millionaire?

Such is Taleb’s take on numbers and probability theory. What I thought beyond my comprehension and/or interest is fast becoming an obsession, viz., financial markets, thanks to the Master.

Coming back to our Roulette game, if such a game was played every year beginning from the time one was 25 and everyone one on the planet did play such a game for the next ten years, there would be a handful of survivors and a large graveyard. These survivors would then preach the world how Russian roulette should be played!! I bring to your attention at the risk of repeating myself that these “Survivors” did the exact same things as the ‘hapless dead’. They just got lucky!! The gun takes no prisoners (He has a theory about the ‘gun’ as the ‘Generator’ of probability, more on that in the book). It only plays by the ‘law of probability’. It’s as simple as that. Such is the hold of randomness over our lives. Taleb calls this curious phenomenon ‘Survivorship bias’. Encapsulating ‘Survivorship bias’, it is the glorification of the survivors who were likely ‘lucky idiots’ than ‘the brave-all-odds courageous survivors’ that they are touted to be. (Taleb is a veteran of the financial markets and has survived the stock market crashes of 1999 and 2008 so pardon his lingo, he is as much ridiculing himself as his successful colleagues!!)

Wait a second before you sign him off as a misanthrope, he does mention in retrospect that while the whole notion of a Russian roulette is a bit too fantastic to be real, but it helps to display the role of probability in life. He also alludes, no less vividly that not all survivors are ‘Lucky idiots’ and that unlike a gun, the ‘generators’ of probabilities in life are not entirely random. Some understanding of the generator would help one survive better. His motif remains that one should be careful who one reveres as a ‘Survivor’; he might just be a ‘lucky idiot’. (‘Food for thought’ for the media, no?:-))

Elevation...

Languidly browsing my mails one rainy September afternoon, I stumbled upon one which was an invitation for a trek. Pretty interesting, I thought to myself. To be honest, until that point in my life I had no experience in outdoor activities, leave alone trekking. The prospect sounded thrilling yet daunting at the same time. 'I am game', I informed my friend Bhale who was the organizer.

And so it was that on a fine morning, I woke up groggily to greet the yet-to-emerge sun. All of us united at the NC(Night Canteen). There were 21 of us pack wolves out for the hunt. The clock was just stretching its arms wide as if yawning, to denote six in the morning. And so began the sojourn.

Halfway to Chembra, there is a hill to be traversed. This hill has roads winding up to steep 180^o turns and sharp inclines. The drive up to Chembra is a very gratifying one, especially in the early morning. Rather, it’s gratifying for the pillion, a rather grating one for the driver!! The road is full of potholes with heavy vehicles moving in either direction at a good speed. But the vista while going up is really picturesque. You are just above the clouds, but not quite. Verdant mountains covered by the white misty haze ensconce you in all directions. The weather is cool without being cold.

By the time you reach the peak of this hill, you feel elevated and I don’t mean just physically. It’s something about the pristine beauty of Kerala Mountains. You feel like you’ve returned to your mother’s womb. I know, you’ve heard that line before. But I guess that’s why it’s cliché; because it is true. ‘All ye nomads, here lies your destination’ call the hills unto you. At the peak of this 30 min uphill drive, you can halt to soak in the view. And the weather is just perfect for a cup of chaya (tea in chettaland J), with a panoramic view of the mountains.

A cup of tea and a couple of snapshots later, we set off to finish the remainder of the drive. The drive from uphill Wayanad to the base of Chembra, is replete with tea and coffee plantations. Occasional Siver-oaks dot the plantations with green pepper vines trailing up the trunk. The primary occupation of this place seems agricultural. You find arecanut, jackfruit(Artocarpus), and Eucalyptus trees widely spread over the place. And I have not even begun on the palm vegetation. Coconut trees are prolific in Kerala. The two rainy monsoons, the north-east and the south-west ensure Kerala is a spice and plantation haven.

While the fauna is not much to speak of, we heard the King Cobra (Ophiophagus Hannah) is to be found in the forestlands along with elephants and wild bear. My friend Harshad, who’s got a keen interest in butterflies (the invertebrate kind) found enough material to shoot (not literally of course, he is a conservationist).

We had reached the base by now. All of us gathered for a group photo and our second cup of tea and light snacks. Whoever said the journey is more important than the destination must have travelled through Kerala, or some such land. The serene morning vistas take your breath away. At this point we had approached the mountain.

Until that point in time, Chembra was just a word in my Weltanschauung. And now, there he was right in front of us, all 2100m of His Highness, simultaneously reckoning and enticing us to conquer. If I had heard the word ‘Majestic’ earlier I wouldn’t have been able to relate it to something I knew. I had found the perfect embodiment now, of majesty. We could only see the peak in transitory glimpses when the white clouds hovering like a halo around the peak, decided to let us, mere mortals behold the divine spectacle.

Around this time, the rest of the group had caught up with us. A brief stop at the camp office later, we were off to scale the peak. Chembra is part of the Wayanad hill ranges in Western Ghats, adjoining the Nilgiri Hills in Tamilnadu and Vellarimala in Kozhikode district of Kerala. At 2100 metres above MSL, it is the second highest peak in South India next only to Anaimudi (2695m) in Tamilnadu.

And so the trek started. It took me barely 15 minutes to start regretting all the potato chips I had eaten and all the walks I never took. Most of my mates were in good physical form and were zapping past me while I stood panting for breath. Not something I am proud of, in retrospect. But it was definitely a reality check for me.

At the lower altitudes of the mountain, you find plantations of tea and coffee being tended to by pickers.

As we climbed uphill, the weather became more serene and cooler. We were barely sweating going by the amount of physical exertion we were under. All around us were brilliant green mountains. Apart from a distant cell phone tower there was no human artefact on Chembra or around it. The higher you climbed, the more you felt drawn into the beauty of the place. The vegetation on Chembra is mostly that of a grassland variety, so you can see around yourself for miles. As you climb higher, it is just miles and miles of natural grassland dotted by the occasional cluster of trees. The path winds up in a serpentine pattern of well trodden gullies. Halfway up the hill at around 1500m. MSL you reach a small lake with clear blue water. When we reached the lake, our weariness just vanished. We dipped our tired and swollen feet in the cool water. Our chetta (guide) warned us against getting into the water as the floor was slimy. We had a small break here to replenish our lost energy and water reserves.

And then off we were. The lake itself was close to halfway from the bottom. From here, it was another long trek. Our chetta offered us all branches of trees, to be used as walking sticks. Most of us decided to forego the sticks eventually.

As we treaded upward, and looked back at the lake we discovered a most ethereal sight. The lake we had just traversed began assuming the shape of a heart. Imagine a blue heart in contrast to the verdant green background surrounding it.

As we crossed each peak, there was another peak waiting ahead of us. It was insane, you dragged your feet up one summit, thinking it was the last only to be conned and discover another peak beyond itL. Tired and panting for breath we scaled all the peaks. I guess my first trek is something I can enjoy only in retrospect. Because when it all happened, I was too exhausted to notice anything around me.

And finally we reached the summit. We were now above the cloud cover. The clouds were moving to the right, right below us. We were probably in a cloud ourselves but couldn’t see it. It was a truly stunning spectacle. There I was. It was like an epiphany. I realised

“I am higher than I have ever been in my life and higher than I will probably ever be again.”

An R.Kelly song from the 60’s kept ringing in my head at this point.

"I believe I can fly,

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day,

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar"