A Visit to the Zoo

Recently I visited a zoo. By the word 'zoo' I mean its usage in a popular and technical sense. So I visited the zoo! Caged animals appeared morose and sulky to the human eyes in general. I overheard some of my own species ruing at the plight of the poor creatures. Some expressed disgust mentioning utter depravity of the mankind that has sunk to such a level that it derives amusement at other's misery. Schadenfreude! And some were playing crude pranks (I lack better words!) with the animals - throwing stones, sticking them through the fencing, snapping the tails etc. Still some were enough moved to offer human eatables to the animals, without caring about its digestive implications. I think they all - if we disregard the pranksters to an extent - were committing a grave error called anthropomorphism i.e. applying human emotions and behavior to judge a fellow animal. I found it quite absurd though in no way I meant to demean my fellow animals. On the contrary I glossed over the possibilities of these beings at higher spiritual pedestal and thus more evolved. My mind too sprouted some reasons in support. I reflected about our own existence and our relation to the society. The way we have social and personal chains all around us, the way we are forced to confine ourselves to a place or restricted from moving to an another place, the way we do our diurnal confined foraging job that ensures food at fixed periods of a day blurred some deeply etched boundaries. All these ramblings, like a deft artist began to paint the picture in my perception. I could see two zoos existing at the same time. As if both saw each other and some subtle conversations transpired between them making one amused and the other - allow me my share of anthropomorphism - crestfallen, sad and at best apathetically withdrawn. My analysis had profuse measures of anthropomorphism. Therefore, I had to confine these vagrant thoughts in the deep cellar of my mind. My thought train was derailed when a boisterous ranting came knocking at my doors of perception. It was a young man bemoaning the 'misfortune' of the caged lion. His lofty oratory on freedom was cut short when something resembling a mobile phone hanging in chains around his neck began to ring. With a marked agility he received the call. The call made him docile and submissive. All his noisy rhetoric evaporated. He had a brief fawning conversation interspersed with many 'sirs' in between. The residual uproarious way of talking surfaced once again when he asked the other guys accompanying him to leave. He added - "Cancel the show! We may have to work overtime tonight and appraisal too is at hand". With these last audible words I saw them leaving in a hurried fashion. At this point of time the lion too displayed his eloquence. It was just a routine roar or a dig at the other man's freedom, it was hard to discern. I too started to leave reflecting on the difference between confined freedom and free confinement. Again it was hard to discern.