Dream On

There was a time in 18^th century Europe when fervent encounters used to happen between two broadly defined schools of thought – scientific and traditional – whenever they explained an observation. Origin of species, for example, was tried to be described by both biblical conservative and rational challengers. Former had no dearth of sources – ranging from holy books to their own authoritative fiats, while later just had plane logic. The encounters were frequent, leading to heated debates, ridicule and sometimes violence. For their interests were mutually exclusive a middle-path between them was almost impossible to draw.

Middle -path or compromise would mean that science might have to acquiesce to the wishes of tradition, rejecting its own hallmark of rationality. So it never happened. Science remained pristine in its objectives and approaches. And time rewarded it with an increased acceptance throughout the world. But a recent happening in India has marked a rare but unfortunate event of that compromise.  It’s a funny handshake between those two schools of thought where our incredibleness shows the world how both of them could cohabitate.  It happened in Unnao – don’t doubt your general knowledge; nobody heard about this place, until recently.

A mystic while asleep had a dream in which he saw 1000 tons of gold buried under an abandoned fort of a 19^th century king. When he woke up he decided to “wake up” the ASI and Government of India. He wrote letters. Media crowded the godforsaken village propagating the Great Golden Dream through their News channels. Government of India already exhausted with India’s surging current account deficit, decided to give it a shot. Archaeological Survey of India, a scientific body, in its quest to register something consequential in its name hit the ground of Unnao.

It’s rather ludicrous that what could have been a thorough surveying along with remote sensing techniques as a determinant of the project’s viability, the same is being driven by a saint’s dream. India should better now employ these Sadhus in ISRO to know beforehand where they should find water on moon; or in the Ministry of Finance to know their credit rating before Standard & Poor releases it. Once clichéd as “land of snake charmer”, perhaps India is looking for substance in its past.

Note: The availability of this article is subject to the failure of ASI Team in materializing the mystic’s dream. If out of the blue, the dream comes true, this article will have to be expunged.