Random Thoughts

Dead as a dodo?

by TRANS WORLD FEATURES | @By Ranjita Biswas 30 Sep 2024, 12:55 pm

In our English language class we came across many idioms. One of them was, ‘Dead as a dodo’ to indicate something extinct, gone forever. Meaning, metaphorically, something that is  no longer effective, valid, or interesting- in a manner of speaking.

 

Dodo, the bird, which lived in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius appeared on earth more than 25 million years ago and by 1662 it vanished. It was a stupid one, and deserved to die out, some say. Well, recent studies by paleontologist Neil Gostling at the University of Southampton show that it was not the case after all. It was solely due to human intervention or greed that did the bird in. Like many other species humans have managed to get exterminated- and continue to do so, despite warnings by environmentalists.

The new study reconfirms that the dodo belonged to the pigeon and dove family known for its intelligence. As Portuguese and Dutch explorers from the 16th century onward made a beeline to countries like India and Indonesia sailing on the spice trail, they made stopovers in the island and trussed the birds for food indiscriminately. The poor flightless bird did not have a chance.

Thinking about the dodo, one also wonders how many things in our lived world have become extinct or near extinct as well. Like B&W movies, long playing records, transistors as the hand-held mobile phone does the job, and so on.

But is it so? Things and events have a tendency to get resurrected. Like a Buddhist line of belief, our life- even every moment, is always in a flux, changing according to the moment’s existence and action.

Now, think for instance about the recent pager bombing in Lebanon. Pager? Isn’t it some ancient device? How can it compete with our smartphones and tablets in the 21st century? Well, a conflict can change many things.  Fearing that the phones could be infiltrated by spy agencies the Hezbollah brass-tacks went for the pager- yes, that near extinct old device, only to find it didn’t help in the long run.

Vinyl records? Oh, that one which needed a turntable? When YouTube,  Spotify and all those Apps are available to listen to your favourite music who cares for it? But human minds are tricky. It can feel nostalgic, it can find comfort in something one grew up with. Of late, there has been a booming market for turntables and vinyl records. Some swear by it for better audio quality, some like it for its presence; for whatever reason, they are investing in them.

Think of multiple Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks who goes on collecting good old typewriters even as fingers fly over the keyboards across the world. It’s funny, but the thought comes, can a typewriter be infiltrated by spyware?

Retro films, retro dresses, fashionistas flaunt, have all the signs of getting back to a time past. There are B & W photography exhibitions today. Some famous film makers are making films in that tone too, shunning colour.

So nothing is ‘extinct’ forever, perhaps.

What one wishes will never go extinct or out of fashion are values and qualities that underline a society’s survival, making human beings what they are. But then it was the humans who led those poor dodos to disappear from earth forever, remember?