Khalbali hai Albany, Mushik

Ah Keep your eyes on the road,
Your hands upon the wheel.
Keep your eyes on the road
Your hands upon the wheel.
Yeah, we're going to the roadhouse,
Gonna have a real good-time.

The Doors, Roadhouse Blues

The smartest animal in the Universe is the mouse. Of course that was in the book H2G2.But the amazing alacrity of this animal, its gung ho attitude to living,' never say die' attitude that enables it to evade the glue traps we hapless humans keep setting for it are indeed crackerjack stuff. Maybe its Lord Ganesha who came and saved his mushik vaahana.Aint Ganapati the lord of new beginnings, wisdom and success. Shouldnt mushik have some part of his rider's qualities?Smaller than its country cousins Bandicoota Bengalensis and rattus rattus, Mus( musculus)is a smarter, swifter, sweeter( twas mickey mouse not rat aint it?)and sexier version of the brotha hood of black skinned, queer nosed squeakies.Them brothas have a shrine to their name, the Karni mata shrine at Deshnok, near Bikaner. Pray which intelligent Homosapien sapien ( Khushboo aint intelligent dude) can boast of that.His ( seems every bit a guy to me) survival instincts are more than fortitude, its blessing that has enabled em guy to wade through unscathed what we humans have struggled with...plague, leptospirosis, hantavirus.The last organism they have succeeded in establishing a nonlethal relationship with, something our immune system seems averse to.On the Gough Island mice have learnt, and are teaching each other how to attack and kill tristan albatross chicks, birds 200 times their size to feed on them and survive.!

The word mouse comes from sanskrit mush- so it seems when I look up...meaning to steal.But I gather it has more to do with stealth.Adaptability and survival instinct.If you watch the movie mousetrap- bout how a mouse in the house drives a duo mad and makes them destroy their prized mansion - you will become an instant fan of this guy man.

When we begin dissection in medical school we study the anatomy of the human body but when its experimental physiology we always do it on mouse.My first dissection was of the mouse brain.Its a mini human brain...same thalami, putamen, cerebellar hemispheres.Its a prototype. All drugs are first tested on mice and of course its famous lab cousin the Guinea Pig.When Gregor Mendel, intrigued by color traits in mice wanted to study them, his padri in chief forbade him to share quarters with critters that indulged in sexual intercourse. So we have the story of the sexless Garden peas that we wonder why on earth are we being taught.

Time to hit the road..