For absurd reasons and whimsical ideas man has fought fierce battles and brought untold misery to his own lot.

“God Almighty has made all humans alike …” “So?” Babboo interrupted me before I could complete the sentence.

“So, why do people try to be different from one another?”

“To begin with, who says God has made all humans alike? Some are white, some black, some yellow, and some like you and me – brown,” he said.

“But does a white man have three eyes, the yellow man two, and we the brown ones, only one? They all are made according to ONE master design: all have two eyes and all walk on two legs. All breathe from the mouth, an opening in the upper reaches of their vertical structure. All sit bottoms down, not bottoms up…”

“Very funny! What are you trying to prove?”

“I am not trying to prove anything. I am no Einstein. I am only intrigued to see people going out of their way to look different from others. Allama Iqbal wore a tie while attired in a shalwar-kameez-pugree ensemble. The Quaid-i-Azam wore a cap made of lambskin and a long sherwani. Gandhi preferred to wear almost nothing. Hitler wore a moustache borrowed from Charlie Chaplin. Churchill had a cigar stuck in his mouth all the time. George Bush wears a smile that hardly looks human. He sported this smile even while ducking an incoming delivery from the now famous Iraqi journalist.”

“Don’t you think great men have a right to look distinct and stand out in a crowd?” Babboo asked, ignoring my discourse.

“Great men are great because of their deeds -- or misdeeds, if you like. They don’t need to look conspicuous by their hulya. Tell me, why should they wear pugrees of different designs, sizes and colour? Even the natural growth on their faces is painstakingly tempered and made to look different: trimmed, never trimmed at all, French cut, short and pointed, very short, or just a tiny little patch on the chin? In the moustache department, they have walrus, handlebar and talwar-cut varieties. What is interesting, some people even try to stand out by not taking a bath and looking extremely dirty and unkempt. I have seen some rich people dressing like very poor people,” I said.

“You should remember that it is the variety in their attire and looks that makes them look human, otherwise if they were all alike, they would be like yet another species from the animal kingdom. In that case, why would they wear any clothes at all? They could go to work in their birthday suit. Imagine Grade 22 officials going to the secretariat in their birthday suits,” Babboo started to chuckle.

“I don’t see anything wrong in that. The first migrants on this planet did go to work in their birthday suit.”

“Go to work?”

“Go hunting, yar! That was the only job available in those days.”

“What happened, then? Since God had made them ashraful makhlooqat, didn’t they finally set aside their instinct and started to THINK and REASON?”

“Yes, they did start to think and reason, but in different directions,” I said.

“But that’s how they made all round progress, brought development, sophistication and enlightenment in their life.”

“You think by learning to sit in a chair and eating with fork and knife, rather than on all fours and straight from the bowl, they have become sophisticated? By manufacturing totally inessential goods and products, including weapons of mass destruction -- which even George W Bush doesn’t like, at least in the case of Iraq -- you think they have brought about development? And by marrying women after making sure that they are in love, rather than dragging into their caves any female that came their way, they have brought moderate enlightenment in their personal life?”

“Enlightened moderation, as per General Pervez Musharraf,” Babboo corrected me.

“Whether it is ‘moderate enlightenment’ or ‘enlightened moderation’, in this bloody chakkar of one-upmanship and doing things differently man has only created problems on this planet. For absurd reasons and whimsical ideas he has fought fierce battles and brought untold misery to his own lot. To me it appears that the single most difficult thing for human beings has been to live in PEACE with others. He couldn’t even reach a consensus on ONE God.”

“You may be right,” Babboo conceded. “At the same time we couldn’t possibly live like animals -- devoid of the ability to reflect, discuss and sort out differences with others. For example, a lion does not give a damn to the feelings of the zebra; a hippopotamus has no sympathy for his neighbour, the alligator; a cheetah does not spare a monkey. They all follow ONE rule -- kill the weak and the defenceless?”

“Excuse me, but is man doing any differently? Look what is happening in Gaza! And see how the UNO, the OIC, the EU and the rest of the world are watching -- like the wilder beast, the zebra, the dear and the wild boar who, after watching one of their members killed by the lion, resume browsing with not a shred of concern or anxiety on their faces.”

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