Apes

“Us homo sapiens evolved just around two lakh years back in Africa. Less than a thousand people were able to migrate out of Africa, around seventy thousand years back, and all living humans, more than 7 billion people, are descendants of those people. Don’t you find this completely amazing? ”, Ahmad was speaking at very fast pace, his eyes wide with excitement. This was not the first time, he was talking about this, but like always, he spoke with full passion.

“I don’t believe this. Then why are there people all around the world, who look different? Why are Africans black and why are the Angrez white?”, Amar said with fake disdain.

“How many times I have explained this,” Ahmad said with frustration. “Everything evolves and changes over time. It is the environmental pressure that makes us evolve, depending on the environment in which people were put, they changed slightly. But genetically we all are almost the same, 99.9 percent of genes in everyone is the same only. Europe is cold, so people became white. Africa is hot, so people are black there.”

Amar still looked unsatisfied.

Vishal took over, “You see, dogs have so many varieties. But they all are dogs, and they can breed with each other. It is because of the environment, that they become different. The same thing with us humans also. Your family has a German Shepherd, or is it a hybrid, isn’t it Mudit?”

Mudit nodded, “We have a German Shephard. King of all dogs.”

Ahmad interrupted, “We all are descendants of fishes if we go back crores of years back. Amphibians, then reptiles, then mammals, then apes. From these apes came us humans. We all are apes. Chimpanzees and humans are 98% similar genes, only 2% difference.”

Amar rolled his eyes. He looked at Mudit. They both made faces.

“Amar even looks and behaves like one, he hasn’t fully evolved yet.”

Amar showed mock annoyance, everyone laughed.

“I was seeing this documentary. They were showing that at the embryo stage, human and fish embryo look exactly the same. You know that fishes have testicles near their heart, so do we at the embryo stage, it comes down later only, that is why humans are prone to get a hernia. I can show you the documentary,” Ahmad started looking for the file on his computer.

“I will prefer to watch porn,” Amar laughed. Mudit and Faiz also laughed. Ahmad and Vishal looked at each other, they also smiled.

“But seriously, how come Mahabharata happened tens of thousands of years back and what about Yugas, which go back lakhs of years,” Mudit asked.

“Religions are man-made myths, there is little truth in them. Agriculture was invented just around eight thousand years back, big kingdoms and wars came just around five thousand years back, that also in few areas like Egypt, Mesopotamia and Indus Valley. No kingdoms can be older than them”, Ahmad spoke without pauses. “Even in the books taught in schools and colleges, these things only are taught, not religious myths. You all must have read these in school days. Come on, man!”

“THIS IS SCIENCE, THESE ARE FACTS. RELIGIONS ARE MYTHS.”, Ahmad stood up and shouted with mock zeal with raised fists. He jumped on the bed mimicking apes, “WE ARE ALL APES.”

They all laughed, they liked his theatrics, which he displayed often.

“Speak for yourself Mr. Ape, my ancestors were kings and landlords”, Faiz said.

“Hey, mine too”, Amar shouted.

“If we believe the Bible and Koran, then the earth is only six thousand years old. Even though science tells that it is 4.6 billion years old. But, Faiz believes this”, Ahmad looked at Faiz with a sarcastic smile.

Faiz just made his face and kept silent for some time. “I believe in evolution. I just don’t know how to wrap my head around it.”

“We don’t read our B. Tech. books and these guys somehow find reading about apes and fishes interesting”, Mudit said, “we can sell him as a talking encyclopedia”.

“Even I don’t read our B. Tech. books, they are boring, man. Science, evolution, history, these are mind-blowing. The insignificance of our existence, the vastness of the universe, randomness driving everything, I just can’t get enough of these”, Ahmad’s eyes were brightened.

“Whoa! Please talk in a way that we mortal humans can understand, encyclopedia baba,” Amar stood and bowed before Ahmad. Everyone laughed. “Now if baba permits us, we would like to take leave and go for sleep.”

“Good night man,” Ahmad said with a smile.

They left. Vishal stayed for some more time. They talked about black holes and the movie Interstellar.

“Only two guys in our college where hundreds of engineers are studying, who actually know anything about science”, Vishal said with a sigh.

“What can we do man. Our fucking education system and on top of that hyper-religious brainwashing since childhood. We are lucky that we have got such a brain that we like these things. A genetic accident.”

“Or unlucky, if you see it in other way. It is frustrating to talk to science students and would-be engineers, who have no more science knowledge and aptitude than illiterate people of my village”, Vishal said with a smile. “This is why I don’t like socializing, at least you manage to do that. I get frustrated."

"We can't expect everyone to be like us, we have to accept people as they are, they are the product of their genes and environment", Ahmad smiled, "the world is what it is."

"By the way, what was that documentary you were talking about?”

“Our Inner Fish. Very interesting, but alas! there are only three episodes.”

“Ok man, I will get it tomorrow from you. I am feeling very sleepy now.” Vishal also got up, “good night”.

Ahmad was feeling thirsty. He had not taken water for around two hours. Whenever he got to talk about anything interesting he forgot everything else, which happened very often as always there were many guys gathered around him to talk about various things, even though it did not make much difference in their behavior or thinking.

He went to the mess and filled his bottle with water. Just beside the mess, there was a common room, where a TV was placed. Gadar movie was playing on the TV. There were around thirty people watching the movie, all were his batch mates. Sunny Deol was in Pakistan, he was delivering his famous dialogues to Amrish Puri.

Ahmad thought of having a look for a few minutes. He stood at the common room entrance, sipping water from his bottle. People looked at him.

Seeing him, Pradhumn shouted, “come on Sunny, fuck these Muslims.” Pradhumn was one of the college goons, he had taken admission into this engineering college after getting multiple years of coaching for IIT in Kota and failing at that. Few other of his lackeys shouted in chorus, “fuck the Muslims”. Many others laughed, laughter suppressed the TV voice for some time. Most of them were glaring at Ahmad. Few were feeling bad for Ahmad and were embarrassed about what was happening, they kept their eyes fixed on the TV.

Ahmad quickly paced away. Humiliated, he was not able to think clearly. Instead of going to his room, he directly went to the hostel roof. It was dark. There was no one else. Rage and humiliation were jostling to take space in his mind. He stared at the sky, there were few stars visible. He kept staring for some time, he tried to think about the lifecycle of stars to distract his mind, but that collective laughter kept creeping in there. He started taking deep breaths. Gradually, he became calmer. After some time, he mumbled to himself, “we are all apes.”