Sapiens of the Earth: The Curse of the Golden Wheat

In the fantasy film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the entire ship’s crew was under the curse of the Aztec gold. Similarly, the Sapiens of the earth are living the curse of the golden wheat. This is how an alien—who happened to pass by the planet earth while exploring the cosmos—described to his fellow creatures. Here’s the unbiased account of the earthlings as narrated by him.

Sapiens of the Earth: The Background

There lies a pale blue dot, estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, in one of the planetary systems of the milky way galaxy. Life first appeared on it approximately 3.8 billion years ago. Dinosaurs ruled it for about 230 million years before their long reign ended abruptly around 66 million years ago. The exact cause of their extinction is still being debated; probably it was an asteroid strike, the other plausible culprit being volcanic activity. The planet remained without any dominant species for the next 65 million years. Currently, it is Anthropocene: the human epoch, where the human race is the dominant force.

The story of earthlings is but a tiny part of the earth’s story. They evolved from great apes a short while ago—three lakh years, to be precise. If we compress 4.5 billion years into one year, the earth was born on 1^st Jan, life appeared on 25^th Feb and the dinosaurs went extinct on 25^th December. The homo-sapiens arrived on 31^st Dec at 23:36 minutes, started agriculture at 23.59 minutes, the industrial revolution happened at 23:59:58, and finally on the way to extinction even before the clock strikes 00:00:00.

Sapiens were once foragers living a nomadic life and probably a happy one. But around 12,000 years ago, agriculture—particularly the wheat crop—domesticated them and led to the creation of civilizations. And thus began the tale of ignorance, neglect, and decline…here’s the Manav Jeevan Gatha

In the Land of Sapiens: A Tale of Wilful Ignorance

Where Sapiens is the most evolved species
But intelligence has become its nemesis
Where Sapiens call themselves humankind
But humanity is anything but kind

Where Sapiens are engrossed in trivia
And living under self-induced anaesthesia
Where Sapiens are bogged down by ‘-isms’
And life is subject to terms and conditions

Where life is taken too seriously
And rituals are performed judiciously
Where birds sing and flowers bloom
But for Sapiens, it’s all gloom and doom

Where childhood is lost in learning
And adulthood is spent earning
Where animals live in the present moment
And Sapiens care more about the intelligence quotient

Where Sapiens have gone into overdrive
And resist surrendering to life
Where Sapiens live without being alive
But don’t want to die before eighty-five

Where rationality is bounded by biases 
And stupidity gets compounded by viruses
Where Sapiens are busier than the bees
But a virus has moved the cheese

Where Sapiens have gone overboard
And Dr. Frankenstein tried to play God
Where God is to be feared
And the world is becoming weird
  
 Where thy food has become thy poison
 And cure is more profitable than prevention
 Where the meat and dairy are not fit for human consumption
 And lifestyle diseases are man’s invention 
  
 Where global food produces a third of greenhouse-gas emissions
 And doctors are not taught nutrition
 Where food science is no less an art 
 And it’s hard to tell them apart 

Where an asset bubble came out of a tulip bulb
And opium war gave birth to Hong Kong
Where sugarcane was behind the slave trade
And bushfires spread with the eucalyptus aid 

Where hunter-gatherers got seduced by the agriculture
And Sapiens never lived happily ever after
Where it is best of the times
And yet it is worst of the times 

The Idionomist: In Search of The Alchemist

Where man is searching for the philosopher’s stone
And wish to convert all base metals into gold
Where the finite resources are no match for the infinite greed
And nothing is enough for the human breed 

Where too many Gordon Gekko’s are out there
And women own dozens of footwears
Where The Giving Tree ended up as a stump
And debt-ridden entities are fed to the vulture funds

Where success is defined by the bank balance
And life remains out-of-balance
Where GDP wants to touch the sky
And happiness is put on a standby 

Where bulls and bears openly fight on the street
And FIIs beat a hasty retreat
Where the Oracle of Omaha mints money from the cola and the candy
And it’s typical of investors modus operandi
  
 Where Sapiens suffer from cognitive biases
 And the consequence is recurring financial crisis
 Where man is drowning in an orgy of consumption
 And proven wrong are all assumptions 

Where consumers drink coke to #StayWoke
And corporations paint everything in green to look clean
Where sustainability is the new buzzword
And Facebook is (dis)connecting the world

Where human capital is not appreciated
And natural capital is not depreciated
Where accounting has become an art
And creative accountants don’t even fart

Where Greenback is greener than the grass
And Americans are holier-than-thou
Where the US has weaponized the dollar
And dirt is removed by scrubbing the collar

Where capitalism and communism don’t get along 
And both Marx and Smith are proven wrong
Where what is right is nowhere in sight
And Mount Everest has officially increased its height
  
Where Physicists are puzzled by the weirdness of the subatomic world
And economists are yet to understand the working of the real world
Where Broken window fallacy is an economic parable
And man behaves like an enfant terrible

Where a penguin saw the iceberg melting
But Sapiens are in no mood to do any mending
Where Sapiens is a strange creature
And want to tame nature

Where temperatures are rising 
And glaciers are reclining
Where sixth extinction is underway
And global warming is under debate

Where oceans contain more plastics than fishes
And the air has more pollutants than oxygen
Where cycling is basically for Tour de France
And recycling is only for the poor

Where seventy percent of the surface is under saltwater
And agriculture uses seventy percent of the freshwater
Where the water table is going down
And the man refuses to slow down

Where human and livestock numbers are soaring
And the biodiversity is fast disappearing
Where survival is at stakes
And stimulation is needed to keep oneself awake

Where there are infinite shades of grey
And tragedy of commons has thrown the world into a disarray
Where everyone plays the blame game
And none wants the buck to stop and lose the game

Where Amazon.com is growing by leaps and bounds
And Amazon rain forest is dying without even making a sound
Where sapiens have lost the direction
And earth is crying for the attention
  
Where millions sleep without food
And Smith never believed greed is good
Where the law of unintended consequences operates
And the planet Earth is in dire straits 

Where creationism has stalled the evolution
And economics has mauled the ecology
Where Smith’s invisible hand is nowhere visible
And fighting climate change seems infeasible

Where Viktor Frankl searched for meaning
And Tom Peters is searching for excellence
Where Socrates was sentenced to death
And Galileo was put under house arrest

Where Einstein discovered the theory of relativity
And Parkinson’s defined the law of triviality
Where Paulo Coelho explored life’s alchemy
And Yuval Noah Harari narrated the entire human history
 
Where Darwin got inspired by Galapagos islands
And Dawkins admired the immortal gene  
Where the selfish gene wants to reproduce itself
And the man wants to assert himself 

Where Newton sat under an apple tree
And Steve created Apple Inc
Where apple is no more a forbidden fruit
And Sri Krishna played music on the flute

Where Da Vinci fused arts and science to make the Monalisa smile
And Freud-Jung failed to fully decipher the human psyche
Where Gautama Buddha attained nirvana
And Sapiens are yet to learn the art of Dhyana

Where Togo ran the Great Race of Mercy
And Muhammad Ali stung like a bee
Where Monarch butterfly migrate thousands of miles
And Le Mans is known for the legend of Ken Miles
 
Where Weaverbird is a Masters in Avian Architecture
And builds beautiful nest structures
Where Swifts are fascinating birds
And remain airborne for months

Where Alice explored the wonderland beneath the ground
And Satyajit Ray's films leaves the audience spellbound
Where The Fountainhead made the Atlas Shrugged
And Morpheus says people are not ready to be unplugged

Where geocentric worldview was the divine law
But Copernicus came along and noticed the flaw
Where, says The Little Prince, what is essential is invisible to the eyes
And Jonathan Livingston Seagull wants to fly high
 
Where Emily Dickenson chose to become a nobody
And Robert Frost chose the road less travelled by 
Where The Godfather declined the Academy Award 
And indeed poor is the humanity’s track record

The Hypocrite: Raising the Animal Farm

 Where the world is full of complaints 
 And Machiavelli says politicians can’t be saints
 Where politicians want to rule for eternity
 And life has no sanctity
  
 Where once emperors ruled the world
 And mafia ruled the underworld
 Where man had imperial visions
 And history is full of seditions
  
 Where Judas betrayed the Jesus
 And Brutus assassinated the Caesar
 Where earthly gods compete with celestial gods
 And history is filled with inconsequential plots
  
 Where the divinity subjugates the humanity
 And humanity enslaves non-humanity
 Where religion thrives on fundamentalism
 And business exploits consumerism
  
 Where theology dominates the geology 
 And mythology is taught as history
 Where history is shrouded in mystery
 And Sapiens go to rest in the cemetery
  
 Where animals are territorial
 And there are thousands of war memorials
 Where wars are fought over national boundary
 And talks are held over the planetary boundary
  
 Where the kingdom of God lies within
 And man goes to the priest to confess his sin
 Where Hitler believed in the superiority of Aryan race
 And all famines are man made
 
 Where Hitler is known for genocide 
 And Gandhi missed the Nobel prize 
 Where Alexander is called ‘The Great’
 And Columbus discovered the United States

 Where the world is engaged in an arms race
 And Kardashians are the royals of the United States
 Where Americans are trying to keep up with the Kardashians
 And U.S. Capitol was attacked by the armed ruffians

 Where gentlemen fought duels to settle disputes
 And lawsuits are used as an extortion tool
 Where growth is the supreme good
 And nobody wants to face the inconvenient truth  
     
 Where cold war and cola wars are passé 
 And trade wars have reached an impasse
 Where the United States remain disunited
 And the UN faces an existential crisis
  
 Where Europeans had taken over the world
 And flags were unfurled
 Where imperialism changed the world
 And it was for the better and the worse
  
 Where the family operates like a Firm
 And royal palaces are full of germs
 Where the sun finally set on the British Empire
 And the Brexit deal went haywire
  
 Where Don Quixote de La Mancha titled at windmills
 And humanity is suffering from chronic ills
 Where humanity has reached a plateau
 And it is difficult to build a chateau
  
 Where kids watch the Japanese cartoon show Doraemon
 And China is emerging as the new hegemon
 Where the Big Brother keep a constant watch 
 And rebels are kicked in the crotch
  
 Where George Orwell’s animals had their own farm
 And Stalin’s communism was never meant for reforms
 Where the Soviet Union went into the oblivion
 And Putin is still searching for the Elysium
  
 Where the accused dies before the conviction
 And regulatory authorities fight over jurisdiction
 Where law of the jungle still prevails
 And undertrials languish in jails 
  
 Where Churchill’s policies, not nature caused 1943 Bengal famine
 And Modi’s failure to rein in Covid-19 is no less a crime
 Where there are millions of gods
 And celebrities are immortalized in Madame Tussauds  

 Where HUL uses celebrities to sell soaps and creams
 And Sebamed is trying to shatter the dreams
 Where consumer is the new king
 And want to fly without wings  

 Where Manu, the first man, laid down the caste system
 And nobody can dare to go against this dictum
 Where India is the land of tantras and sutras
 But Indians can’t look beyond Kulas and Gotras
   
 Where Asia was the world’s economic power
 And Europe did take too long to overpower
 Where the west is known for materialism
 And east is known for mysticism
  
 Where the west is moving east
 And the east is moving west
 Where never the twain shall meet
 But getting squeezed is the middle east 
 
 Where glorified tribalism is called nationalism
 And sexual desire is called love
 Where Love is a sin
 And sanity is consigned to the dustbin
  
 Where #MeToo trends 
 And the woman remains a chattel of man
 Where racism and sexism is justified
 And speciesism is glorified          
  
 Where things are owned 
 And people are used
 Where pets are socialized 
 And LGBTs and refugees are marginalized
  
 Where mighty rules the meek
 And rich overpowers the poor
 Where rich means large waist with a right to waste
 And poor go empty plates with no complaints
  
 Where all are equal 
 But some are more equal than others
 Where poor are being lifted out of poverty
 But society is sinking deep into the abyss of inequality
  
 Where billions don’t have any identity
 But mortals want to drink the elixir of immortality
 Where idiocracy is being encoded
 And privacy is getting outmoded
  
 Where hell is on earth
 And heaven remains a pipe dream
 Where only a few search for the truth
 And majority hides behind the falsehood 
  
 Where the truth is decided by the majority vote
 And the human virus has no antidote
 Where ‘The Truth’ remains elusive
 And the atmosphere is not conducive
  
 Where humanity is in a state of comma
 But humans want a life without commas
 Where Joe has finally bid goodbye to the Donald Duck
 But Sapiens have nothing to hold on to except the luck 

The Neurotic Who Lost the Moorings

 Where the mind is a monkey
 And the man works like a donkey
 Where the mind rules over the heart
 And existence is falling apart
  
 Where for existence nothing is good and bad
 But the man can’t understand this simple fact
 Where ambition is the only ignition switch 
 And life throws many a glitch
  
 Where chickens are fried
 And men don’t cry
 Where ego reigns supreme
 And joy is found only in dreams
    
 Where a rose is a rose is a rose
 And there lies a difference between poetry and the prose
 Where Sapiens need reasons to celebrate
 And only a few turn lemons into lemonade 

 Where life is a blessing
 And the humans are busy window dressing
 Where life is beautiful with all its imperfections
 And the man is chasing the mirage of perfection
  
 Where desire is chained in morality and ethics
 And beauty is enhanced by Gucci cosmetics
 Where life is not worth living for
 But Koh-i-Noor is a cursed stone worth killing for
  
 Where everything is built on shaky foundations
 And people enjoy tweeting their frustrations
 Where anima and animus are repressed 
 And people remain depressed
  
 Where fission of atoms has created the nuclear energy
 But the science could not harness the life energy
 Where Japan has created a Loneliness ministry
 And governments are yet to understand the human chemistry
  
 Where humans are not satisfied by just beings
 And always want to become something
 Where everyone wants to be someone else
 And nobody wants to be true to self
  
 Where Sapiens are becoming mechanical
 And robots are getting economical
 Where humour is on the run
 And sports are fun provided the match is won
  
 Where religion is the opium of the masses
 And country liquor is made from molasses
 Where mental agony far exceeds the physical pain
 And all material gains ultimately go in vain
  
 Where faith is blind
 And doubt is considered unkind
 Where everything is judged
 And the sky is observed
  
 Where saying dunno is hard
 And it is easy to miss the gestalt
 Where ignorance is a bliss
 And gratitude has gone amiss
  
 Where believing comes easier than thinking
 And belief in miracles is stronger than the magic of reality
 Where only a few become explorers and seekers
 And others just follow the preachers
  
 Where the image of the black hole is captured
 But the human soul remains punctured
 Where man’s arteries are clogged
 And one can trust a dog 
  
 Where Milton sympathized with Satan
 And chose hell over heaven
 Where Pandavas were consigned to hell
 And Vyasa had nothing more to tell
  
 Where everything needs a purpose
 And animals can’t read the scriptures
 Where Sapiens have lost the moorings
 And floating rudderless on the stream 

Paradise Lost: The Coming of End

Where Sapiens are afraid to die 
But together nature and the man can’t thrive
Where mankind is a curse on the planet earth
But Sapiens believe in the rebirth
    
Where God created Adam
And Satan created the virus
Where Covid-19 is a great equalizer
And serving as a stark reminder 

Where man is trapped in duality
But tech will eventually reach singularity 
Where tech was meant for convenience
But AI is casting a shadow on human brilliance
  
Where evolution is no more by natural selection
And genetic engineering has become a man’s obsession
Where Sapiens are bypassing evolution
And Black Swans fall outside the normal distribution
 
Where an iceberg sank 'the unsinkable'
And the cockroaches are evolving to become invincible
Where bacteria are developing resistance
And God will not offer any assistance
  
Where Homo sapiens are ecological serial killers
And butterflies emerge from the metamorphosis of caterpillars 
Where other species of the genus Homo went extinct
And Sapiens are hovering on the brink
  
Where Adam and Eve kick-started this venture
And wheat made the Sapiens sign an indenture
Where Sapiens are living under the curse of the golden wheat
And chances of redemption are very bleak
  
Where the existence is under nobody’s jurisdiction
And the reality is stranger than the fiction
Where it won’t be long before Sapiens are gone
And for the planet earth, it will herald a new dawn
  
Where human miseries are unending
And the judgement day is nearing
Where Satan, the serpent, seduced the Sapiens
And this story is narrated by an alien 

Also Read:

1. Grey Ocean Strategy: Leapfrogging Beyond All Conventions
2. How to Scale Business Heights?

Please follow and Share: