Luca the Old Sire
Even Luca's Time was Pregnant with Possibilities
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Luca the Old Sire
He is one of our early sires about whom we have some information, thanks to Grandmother Lucy. We will call him Luca. 3.6 million years ago he roamed the savannahs of Africa, home to many early changes that make us, humans, what we are today. In his youth the robust young hominid was an incorrigible rebel. He was an Australopithecus afarensis, as the scientists call him today. He wouldn’t listen to the rest of his group. He was a prankster who would always try to hop on his two hind feet. Over his lifetime he had developed the ability to expose less of his back to the harsh African sunshine. It all had started as a prank.The savannah conditions provided no tree cover. Foraging for plants, roots and an occasional meal of fruits was no easy job in the near-desert conditions. The heat was unbearable during summers and our young grandsire had noticed that there is less sun on his back when he tried to walk on his two hind legs. Others on the foraging gang did not know what Luca was up to. Luca would be panting heavily after his long awkward trots on his two legs. He would throw up his front legs and grimace.
“When you have four legs, why use only two?” asked all those around, including his father and mother. Nobody but Luca and his close friends knew why he would experiment with his body in such punishing ways. Even Luca did not know, much less his friends, what would come out of his experiments. Luca only had a vague glimpse that he would be the forerunner of big things to follow. And you and I and all our friends are what followed!
Luca was a diehard optimist and was willing to work… work hard even for fun. He wouldn’t rest content until he had perfected the circus act of walking on two legs. It was just nice to walk a little longer on the two just to amuse his friends and elders in the group.
But as he started working on bipedalism, other things started to happen, both to his body and the things he could do. It now became easier to reach out to the trees. Luca had become taller than the rest in the group. Of course it took many more long years, centuries and millennia and much more before bipedalism became the order of the day. After all human efforts get rarely get completed within the span of one person’s lifetime. In this sense Luca was no exception.
21 April 2006
Even Luca's Time was Pregnant with Possibilities
In the previous story, I told you about Luca, the name we gave our grandsire. Our grandsire never grew old to become a sophisticated wise old man. He grimaced violently when rivals entered his territory or let out shouts when something did not please him. He displayed no gentleness at family dinner, which consisted of foliage, fruits and dry plants. He had no patience with children and never showed any felicity in giving away or sharing good things with his grandchildren.He was after all half human and half animal. But remember his times; human being, as we know today had not appeared on earth. As you know, humans are Homo sapiens and our grandsire, Australopithecus afarensis. Even these names sound so far apart. But let that not detract the fact of his existence and our evolutionary connectedness to him. He is our predecessor, only time separates him from us.
Half man, half animal! Doesn’t Luca remind you of Lord Narasimha; the fourth of Vishnu’s Avatars or Incarnation. We needn’t blindly believe in our Scriptures. We need only to appreciate the symbolic significance of the great Gods and Goddesses. The best man during Luca’s time may have given so much of himself and his wisdom to his suffering fellow beings that they saw godliness in him. Or may be they didn't. Any way, we could transport ourselves to those times and see what Luca and best among him did and wonder – not with fear but with understanding! And naturally we are likely to look at those heroes with reverence.
15 May 2006
