 I always thought that ET and its ilk came from far out in outer space, and were as different from earthlings as could possibly be. Consult Star Trek and Science Officer Spock will tell you that extra-terrestrial beings look different, eat different, sound different and think different. Of course, most of them are inimical to the human race and have to be wiped out using the most advanced weapons. Except that Steven Spielberg's thinks they are cute little things who only want to "go home".
Now we are told by the most brilliant of astro-physicists, Dr Jayant Narlikar, that Indian space scientists are going to search for extra-terrestrial life in the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere. A balloon containing bottles is going to be sent up, samples of air will be collected and analysed for the presence of bacteria. The presence of bacteria, the esteemed Dr Narlikar told a 'Meet the press programme', will indicate that life on earth was actually injected from somewhere else via comets. In other words, all of us are extra-terrestrials!
I checked to see whether I have grown an extra ear or a limb, but I haven't. I still look like a modified ape, just as Charles Darwin said I should. And whatever the Indian Space Research Organisation tells me at the conclusion of its experiments, which are based on Fred Hoyle's fantastic theories, I refuse to believe that I have grown out of something dropped into the upper atmosphere by a comet.
And finally, I am most disappointed that ET is not a Martian or a Mercurian, but a cluster of invisible bacteria that cannot even be seen without a microscope. No, I refuse to believe this. One day one of our spacecraft flying through the outer edges of the Universe will encounter that unique form of being called ET. Maybe it already has. Remember Mars Pathfinder? And the way it just suddenly stopped sending signals to Earth? And are "The X Files" just the imagination of TV screenplay writers?
The first Man on Mars, better watch out! There are Martians out there.
Ambujam Anantharaman |
