Abhay's Bhay

Pre-pandemic, my sister and I got an opportunity to foster a pair of bunnies as a favor to a friend. Excitedly, my sister and I welcomed a pair of Lion-head bunnies named Charlie and Bandit. Extraordinary little creatures, bunnies are. These two, in particular, are called Lion-head bunnies because just like male lions, they have a wild mane around their necks. Both of them are coffee colored, with Bandit being the chonky one and Charlie having a white spot on his nose, they were easy enough to distinguish between.

As a first-time pet owner, and some one who had never interacted with bunnies before in his life, I was more confused than the bunnies themselves when they arrived. We didn’t have an understanding. Every time I’d look into their eyes I’d only hear elevator music. You know when you have a pet, all you want to know is what they’re thinking, right? I did not get anything from them. Indoor bunnies are amazing. The special requirements for their pen usually is that it has to be a certain number of bunny hops long and wide to ensure they can have full mobility. Those first few days though any time I’d approach their pen, they’d run and hide which honestly really hurt my feelings and broke my heart.

I’d always assumed having a pet meant companionship, yet these two wont tolerate my presence. Later I realized though, cats and dogs are predators by nature. They stalk, they hunt, work in packs and have a sophisticated social structure in the wild. Bunnies, however, are prey by nature. Their first response when they sense danger is running away as they do not have tools to defend themselves. Cowardice is built into their DNA as a survival mechanism. So, I decided that rather than being offended by rejection from these two cotton balls I’d just lower my expectations from them and let them do them. Things started going smoothly afterwards.

More like I started being jealous of those bunnies afterwards. All they’d do is sit, eat, shit and look majestic while doing it. Super chill animals they are. Bunnies tend to be mute, you’d hear them move around but no vocal noise. 90% of their diet is hay, rest some pellets, water and occasional fruits for treats. They’re super clean animals, they constantly groom themselves and each other to keep clean. If it wasn’t for all the pooping, they’d be perfect pets. Anytime I looked at them, they were just staring in the distance and chilling. What a life.

This one day my sister and I were hanging out in the living room. She was feeling a little under the weather and asked me to massage her head. As I stood behind her slowly massaging her head, from the corner of my eye I saw that Charlie was cleaning Bandit’s head too. I said to myself, ‘hah, they’re grooming each other!’ and as I looked down at what I was doing, my mind went. ‘whoa! I’m grooming my sister!’ or at least the human version of it. Since that day every time I run my hands through my hair my mind says I’m grooming myself.

The more I thought about it the more similarities I started to see between us as a species. Humans and bunnies, we’re both warm-blooded, both are mammals, both eat, sleep and poo. If at the very base level to survive all you need is lowest cognitive function like bunnies, why do I as a human have to worry 24/7 about paying rent and food bills? Why do I have to stay up all night thinking about that one cringe moment from years ago? What’s the point of having higher brain function if all you need to survive is basic sentience? What is the point of human experience? Why are we special?

Is it because we can communicate complex thoughts via speech to each other? Is it because we can understand and apply science? Is it because we can share memes?

As it turns out the answer is yes to all of these questions. We’re the only species that we know of that is capable of conveying complex thoughts and collaborate on shared knowledge. This is what has enabled us to progress so far and develop science that helped create this laptop that lets me write my own thoughts. Funnily enough, when we hear the word “Meme”, most of our minds jump to funny pictures or videos we share on the internet. You’d be surprised to know that the term “Meme” itself was coined by Dr. Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book called “The Selfish Gene”, way before the internet was a thin. This is fun because the term “Gene” essentially means information that is passed through to a population via genetic means or reproduction, according to the theory of evolution. Dr. Dawson, though, defined “Meme” as information passed through a population via nongenetic means. That means everything you see, read, and understand the applied context of is a meme. The billboards you see are memes, the subway posters you see are memes. That also means the very first memes ever to be created were the cave paintings left by ancient humans.

As someone who suffers from existentialism, all these questions are super important to me and the answers I found are equally liberating. For centuries and millennia people have debated trying to quantify what it means to be human. Turns out no-one can give you an answer that will satisfy you. I learnt that We, you and I, are special. Bunnies are bound by their genetic code and all they’ll leave behind will be copies of themselves who will do the same things over and over again. We are different because we get to leave behind a legacy, our thoughts and work that can be collaborated upon to make future better. That, at least according to me, is the beauty of human experience.