In 1980 I spent a few sleepless nights because someone had said that the world was going to end in that year and it had been predicted in some religious book. I was quite worried and the thought came haunting me every night because I don’t know why that was the only time I remembered the excruciating eventuality, and strangely nobody around me was bothered, I remember. It seems I was the only one who had taken the declaration seriously.
Then there was this Skylab that was supposed to fall on our heads because it had developed some problem. That was too in the early 80s and I was quite young. I worried for my life and the lives of the near and dear ones. Although the faulty satellite could have fallen anywhere in the world (it eventually fell into the ocean) somehow I was sure that the cursed thing would surely land on our block of houses. Among friends we often talked about building protective roofs over the houses but the elders didn’t seem very worried although they did talk about the impending danger.
Then it was supposed to be in 1990. I don’t know if it was a Nostradamus prophecy or what but in that year too the world was supposed to end. I was pretty grown-up by then and had a bag full of problems of my own so the issue just intrigued me but it never actually scared me.
The same kind of excitement was raked up recently when a news channel declared that a meteorite is predicted to hit the earth as early as 2029. They even interviewed a few grim-looking scientists (it seems scientists in India aren’t crazy about keeping clean and shaving regularly) who suggested a few ways of nullifying the approaching rock from the universe. I did some research on the Net and found out — to my great relief — that back in 2004 it had been confirmed that the possibility of the meteorite hitting our planet was remote, and in fact there was no chance of it colliding with the earth and orchestrating an Armageddon scenario.
Although it is relieving, it doesn’t mean that we are safe from future hits. It has been fully confirmed now that the great dinosaurs were made extinct by a massive hit from the skies. The earth has had its share of apocalypses in the past; we haven’t directly faced them because we are, humans I mean, so new here. Dinosaurs walked upon the surface of the earth for at least 100 million years. We haven’t been here properly for even one million years. I think it is the law of probability that has saved us so far. The universe is full of stray comets, meteorites and inexplicable phenomena that can destroy life here within seconds. It’s just that the universe is infinitely vast and there is lots of space for every kind of object in it, right from atoms to constellations. Another thought, what if the laws of the universe change suddenly and every form of matter disintegrates?
Anyway, beyond a certain degree you cannot control life-and-death.
