I took my son out to the play area to play last Saturday. After some time two kids came to play basketball and were enjoying themselves on a cool Saturday evening when disaster struck. Inexplicably, their ball got stuck in the hoop and wouldn't budge. They tried so many thing, throwing things at the ball; plastic bottle, stones, shoes, sticks everything they could lay their hands on. Once or twice they tried climbing on the poles to get it off but it did not work. Somehow one of the guys was enterprising enough to climb differently and get it down.

Why did this simple thing strike to me? On seeing their struggle, I started thinking about the pre-historic man and his struggle to survive and develop with the host of tools that are at man's disposal today. For a simple thing such as lighting a fire, the pre-historic man had to spend a lot of effort. Now we don't even have to think about it, and at best we just have to press a button or turn a knob. I was also amused to see the effort and innovativeness of those guys to get back their ball. No matter what the situation or problem, man always manages to find a way around the problem to solve it. This innate inquisitiveness has enabled man to emerge as the most powerful species on the earth, a species which can control the fate of this world.

I just hope that man uses this power to improve and extend the life on and of the earth.