Beauty and Evolution
The first edition, 1992, of Mystic and the Blossoms |
If one went about trying to define beauty, it would be very
difficult to do so with precision. It is something like love that can be felt but not
described. We know that birds and a variety of animals express tender love. It
is heart breaking to see birds scream when their young ones are in danger, but
it seems that they may be oblivious to beauty. Appreciation of beauty is something that appears
to need evolution into a human or a godly being. Therefore an appreciation of beauty
may be a mark of evolution. It is difficult to imagine gorillas and donkeys appreciating the beauty of a flower or a butterfly. It is tragic to see that there are humans too on the
planet that are quite oblivious of beauty.
As a professor of engineering and a faculty member in three leading universities of our planet, my profession was to make scientific contributions and
educate students of engineering. Some remarked that I was making a valuable
contribution to society because technology improves the quality of life.
Personally though, I was not fully satisfied. Technology can improve human
lives but it is not sufficient in itself to do so. It has to be combined with an
evolution of human character. This point could not be explained easily with a
scientific paper; nevertheless I wished to get the point across. Therefore, I
made up and wrote a fictional story of a backward village that developed into a
beautiful and prosperous place as a result of the combined influence of
technology and character evolution. The appreciation of beauty was one of the
points included in the story. The story was longer than a short story but
briefer than a novel. However, when it came to publishing it, there was neither
the time nor the patience to go through the routine that a new novelist
goes through. I was much too involved with my profession and this was just a
side hobby. A friend, a Professor of English at the Indian Institute of
technology – Suresh Upadhyay – suggested what the title should be - The Mystic
and the Blossoms - Nevertheless, I managed to publish it locally here as a
small hardcover. It was a single run of 500 copies therefore it did not get
around much. Over the last decade though, with the spread of the internet newer
editions have been published, after knocking out the ‘the’ from the beginning
of the title and now it is available worldwide e.g. here (http://www.amazon.com/Mystic-And-Blossoms-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/1411648579). Today while looking through my library I found an old fading
copy of the original hardcover edition and photographed it next to a statue of
Buddha that a friend Keiko Amano had once suggested I snap and share. That is
the photo that accompanies this post.
UPDATE: May 15, 2014: The Kindle version of this book is currently available as a free download over the next five days. Do download it. you will enjoy the story. http://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Blossoms-Ashok-Malhotra-ebook/dp/B005GT391M/
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