that sync' ing feelin'!

I am proud to belong to a species that holds many an enigmatic myth among the biped monkeys. The legends are not merely myths. They are true. Atleast some of them, I have experienced myself. This myth about the full moon that you are trying to investigate is one of those few experiences. The transformation into a human? Well, I have not experienced it. But why would I? Its so clumsy to walk on two feet. How do you manage it? Anyway, coming back to your question, yes it is true that we derive strength and energy, physical and spiritual, from the full moon. We literally drink it off the pool! My mamma taught me to feed off the moon when I was young. And when I grew of age, 3 months old, if you were wondering, I had to leave home as all wolf cubs do to find my own pack. Since then, I have fed on the moon myself and its really relishing, you know without all that hassle of tearing flesh from bones.

There is one thing I have noticed during this process. They say the moon is a spherical heavenly body and that it rotates about its own axis and revolves around the earth. But I always only see the same spots and marks the disc. Could it be that the moon is symmetrical? Did you ever notice it? Ever wondered? Well, ofcourse my instincts taught me more about the universe as I grew older and if you will promise to keep this a secret, I can share the knowledge with you. The truth is, the moon takes roughly the same time, around 28 days, to complete one rotation around its own axis and revolution around the earth. Then its only common sense that from any one hill on earth, we can only see one side of the moon. But ofcourse this is not the whole truth. My ancestors did not have the chance to feed off the moon every month like us. Because in their days, the rotational and revolutional period was not the same, just as the case for earth now. And the other side of the moon is really dark and would not reflect so much even on full moon nights. So they could only feed on the moon when this side of the moon faced the earth.

That made me wonder how the rotational and revolutional time periods changed over time. Our folk legends say that the Moon Maiden is helping us with food ever since man has started making his mark disturbing the ecology. It is true. Nevertheless, there is another explanation! Its the process of "synchronisation".

Long time back, moon's rotational period was less than 28 days and the revolutional period was more than 28 days. The dynamics the many body problem, you know with that thing you call as gravity being the main element, brought these two time periods closer and closer to a same number which happened to be 28 days. Its happening to earth, too. But ofcourse at an unnoticeable rate and the difference being so large, its going to take many many years. But its happening.

This synchronisation is an ubiquiteous phenomenon. Oh, ubiquiteous means universal. Its funny how we have different words with the same meaning! Anyway, many events out there in the universe happen according to laws of synchronisation. Its the way the universe works. All living and non living things must respect those laws. Indeed have you seen the fireflies on the banks of japanese streams? Oh you have not? Well, you must atleast know that fireflies glow to attract their mate. I know this because I am a wolf. I know the ways of all animals and plants, except humans, ofcourse. The weird lot! Oh and unlike in your species, in all other animals, from lions and peacocks to fireflies, its the male that is attributed with beauty. So in case of fireflies, the more beautifully it glows, more its chances of attracting a mate. So when many male fireflies gather at a place, they try to compete with each other to attract the females flying invisibly in the dark. The competition almost always reaches its pinnacle with all the fireflies flashing together in burst. See whats happened? All the fireflies without realising it synchronised their flashing.

And there is this plant, thats called "kurinji". It grows in Kerala and TamilNadu. It mass blooms once in twelve years. It happened last in 2006. Do you know why it blooms only once in 12 years? Kurinji (Strobilanthes sp.) and a number of other plant species synchronise their flowering (reproductive phase) within large local populations at a particular site. Populations at different sites may have different calendars, but the length of the cycle is almost the same within a particular species. This is one of the survival mechanisms evolved to escape complete destruction of the population by seed/flower predators and is termed `predator satiation'. Synchronisation of reproduction by large populations leads to an abundance of `prey' such that the predators are simply out-numbered. Therefore, the percentage of population destroyed by predators is significantly reduced. Jungle fowl and small mammals are the chief seed predators of Kurinji seeds. Other plant species also have adopted this.

Oh and one late night while I was taking a walk in the city, out of curiosity, I stopped by this mesmerising toy shop. There were these two pendulum clocks, small ones placed on the window sill. Since I had no particular place to go, I sat there and watched them. They were swinging exactly out of phase always. The next morning one cub from our pack had strayed in to the city and I went past this shop looking for him. The shop keeper was dusting the items and apparently because he disturbed the clocks, they were now swinging very randomly. I went back that night again and to my amazement saw that the pendulums were swinging exactly out of phase again. It might have been spooky for you. But I realised that even non living things synchronise! By the way, the cub returned home ofcourse!

Oh oh! You asked about we wolves feeding on moon and I seemed to have given you a lecture on something else. And its time I got back to my cave. But you should believ me. We do feed on the moon. How do you think we manage to eat flesh only once in 14 days? Our diet is synchronised! We feed off the flesh only on new moon nights!

-the wolf lady Saki.