Saturday, July 28, 2012

Of civilisations

pardon me for recycling my posts. this is taken from my journal written sometime 2 years ago when i was in Dhaka. I was thinking about dinosaurs and the theory of evolution when my sisters and I started talking about great civilisations before us.

"about a year and a half ago, a bengoli couple( Miraj and Shumona) who were acquainted to Dad came to Malaysia for their honeymoon and I somehow became their tour guide in Kuala Lumpur. Bengoli people are generally very big-hearted and hospitable so if they are fond of you, they make sure you know it. I try not to say this and perhaps I would never in a million years let myself think this even with people close to me, but this couple is very fond of me. I did after all spend a week bringing them all around KL. It's human nature to have a strong sense of gratitude towards people's help and hospitability. So even though we met only that time in Malaysia, I became like family to them. 
They would always email me to come visit them here, and here I am finally. So today, they came over and decided to take me to out. We ended up going to Shumona's Dad's house which was extremely awkard for me cause I'm like "The Guest of the House" and I'm just a kid. It would have been different if my parents had followed, then I'd just be the daughter of "The Guests". Shumona's dad(perhaps a man slightly older than my dad) came out to entertain me. He was a bewitching learned man so we had a lot to talk about. He started telling me about the Egyptian civilization and continued expressing his fascination and admiration for History which led to us talking about the nature and destiny of a civilization. He said, Alexandria was called the Lost City because part of the city is now lost underwater. C'est la vie. The world will turn upside down to end a civilization. Like the nation of Lot (Prophet Luth, PBUH). That is the cycle. 
With the flash floods, mudslides, tsunamis, scientifically speaking, the physicality of the world may indicate a mark for the end of our civilization. Looking back into history, even thousands of years before the birth of Christ(PBUH), this seems relevant. Untill now, noone has yet to discover the technology behind the construction of the Pyramids and the mummification process. Untill now you can't find anyone comparable to avicenna and the likes. We are no more advanced than those civilizations before us. Only our modernity and technological convenience led us to think we are. This does not go to say that our civilization is a weak one. In contrary to that, this is highlighting that every single civilization has had its profound achievements. However, the lessons behind the decadence and fall of all the different civilizations made me think, noone, no nation, no society, can escape their fate. No nation is too profound for collapse. We will have to face what is already written whether we like it or not. 
I love this thought. The thought of being a part of a civilization instead of individualism. 
Anyway, do I really think our civilization will come to an end soon? I have no answer for that. If soon is 50 years away, then perhaps yes. I have forgotten what is the point of this post "

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