The 15th General Elections in India are over and the winning party is in the process of forming the next  government.  Like before during the current attempt also, no party has won a majority and hence the largest single party has to seek the support of some minor parties so as  to make up the magical  half way number. Accordingly, the early  morning papers invariably contain some surprising  news items such as so and so party has claimed so many berths and so and so party has laid down some  stiff conditions for supporting the major partner and so  on.  All these make an enjoyable reading and  also don’t fail  to note how some small parties with one or two members could ask for the moon.

But this morning, there  was a strange information that knocked me down flat. How would you react to a mini head line  in bold letters which says, “You are going to die.”   Won’t your pulse rate gallop immediately?  That’s what happened to me. A little later I realised  that it’s a warning to all the readers at large and not to me alone ! So, lowering my eyes  I  read the contents somewhat nervously.

Scientists are in the lime light  once again. You are aware that they   seldom give us any good news. And we shouldn’t expect one either for that matter. But, what they had to say this morning was  a horror of horrors. “Men are on the road to extinction as their genes shrink and slowly fade away,” says a  scientific report.  One professor (name withheld for security reasons), a leading sex  Chromosomes researcher with the Australian university had said that male Y chromosome, needed for  a male, is on the path to extinction and could disappear on the time axis.

 According to another professor, the Y chromosome is doing the vanishing act and that’s going to cause millions of problems in  the future.

 Luckily this grand enlightenment had been printed on page 13.  Had it been on the front page, many young men would have fainted at reading it and  recovered only when they came to the end of the report, which gave the  approximate time when all this would  happen – 5 million years later, if you please.  5 million is a long way off, isn’t it?

So, all of us  could  relax and wipe out the frightful prediction right from our memory. Can you by any stretch of imagination, visualize how the world would be after 5 million years? Even the hundredth generation of your  current grand son wouldn’t  have survived to see that great 5 millionth year;  no one would even remember what the scientists  had forecast in the unfortunate  year 2009 A.D.

But there is another hidden information also.  The study talks only about the Male chromosome. What about the female species?  Perhaps they are not going to be affected by this deteriorating process at all. Great!  So, after 5 million years, our grand Earth would be inhabited only by women. Can you imagine what the world would be like when the last man is eaten up by Y chromosome? What would it be like  if there are only women in every walk of life without men? I leave it to your imagination.  I don’t think scientists could help you in this regard. This scenario  would also  call for an articles of sorts.  Wouldn’t you like to try one yourself about the future Earth after 5 million years?

My humble request to all the scientists is, ”Please prognosticate all your findings henceforth only in  multiples of million years into the future and nothing about tomorrow or the day after lest you scare us to death.  OK?