the law of use and disuse

hello

i remember to have read a law that suggests something on this line in school....something to do with a giraffe and generations of giraffe..sss...having to hunt for leaves or other food by straining their neck and the neck got longer and longer with generations...and some fishes when they got a line higher up in evolution forgot all about their olden types of breathing to get a better set up and breathe fresh..!..some lost their tails...others grew tails to suit their surroundings.....

this set me thinking...with our modern ways of life we have become more comfortable in living...we mobike when we can cycle...and cycle when we can walk...we will soon forget how to squat..!

we have dining tables to suit this new lifestyle...we dont squat on the floor to eat or just talk, entertain or whatever...we have sofa sets ...cute looking stools and other furniture to help keep our knees all straight and stiff...eating out is another matter altogether...no place where they squat on the floor and serve...the marriage halls and other functions also have table and chair for eating..!

the indian toilet was some help...but now we have replaced it with the western type where you just sit like you sit on a sofa...read something...and for all you know it is just another place to sit..! no bending knees here too...

luckily the stairs i think...you have to bend to climb just a wee bit?...no again... we have lifts and many people prefer to go up the lift than having to climb stairs...there are some health fads who do climb up the stairs if it is just two or three floors...no no use trying to climb ten or twelve..puff, pant and faint..?

gone are the olden days when grandma used to puff puff that cooking range called aduppu on the floor...all done up in mud and heated with wood...or that cute kumutti...when everything tasted yummy...she had to squat to cook ...get up to bring water, vessel or ingredients...up to wash again...up when someone knocks on the door...sit again or bend to get the cooking going,...then to serve..,to a whole lot of hungry mouths...sometimes crying babies...........we now have table top stoves table top mixies...table top grinders...

at least the garbage can is a god send i thought....but no we have garbage cans that open with a press on the pedal and close when you finish putting the litter...modern ways.. i guess..

washing machines to help you wash when they well slap slap on a hard stone bending or washing the vessels by sitting on a low height stool called palaga ...when the knees have to bend...

grinding in aattukkal the older day grinder or the ammi was all on the floor and even if they did stretch their leg ...it was only for a while...and the idlies and dosas tasted so much better...the chutneys still taste good when done on the ammi...

when we get used to modern day gadgets and living, it is difficult to switch back to olden days of cooking grinding etc...but atleast we can squat on the floor ...put our furnitures far far away...with so little space? you ask and i wonder... and squat and watch tv...squat and eat atleast when it is a holiday and we are not fully dressed with shoes et all..?

i wonder if mankind will become short like kamal hassan in the movie.. apoorva sagodarargal...all because we dont have any need to bend our knees so why make knees functional the creator might think...and the future generation will all be walking minus knees...just because we didnt care..?

and then there is the case of overuse...that is just as bad ...like we use the eyes and ears...not to forget the stomach...
an entirely different piece of story altogether...!

sathya