Hallelujah...

Plantae Kingdom was, perhaps, the strongest kingdom to have conquered the whole of earth before humans became stronger, matched their might and finally pushed back their boundaries to claim Plant lands as their own not quite unlike what Israel is doing to Palestinians. But this story is not about brutish human beings, for now at least. Long before humans, the Plantae Kingdom faced another threat. The enemy in that case, the divergent branches of insect tribes, was organized, masters of asymmetric and guerrilla warfare (long before guerrillas even existed) and much more superior in  mobility as compared to plants. Some clans would come out of hiding and carry away the plant children, which they would then eat, before the plants could even respond. Others would together fall upon their heads and eat it away and still others would eat away their limbs. Though some insect clans were friendly as well but they only wanted trade with plants, trade in-fact was the only thing stopping them from plundering plants along with other tribes. So they didn't help. Terror and dismay reigned rampant in the plant kingdom in those times and there was no end to the brutality of insects in sight but the plants refused to give in.

After hundreds of thousands years warfare, or one should call it slaughter of plants, their meditation, research and hard work paid out. They had finally discovered methods to ward off the hordes of insects. They had finally saved their kingdom. Although many methods were discovered but the most elegant and ingenious of those was perhaps the one used by coffea family, though it is unclear whether it was developed by them or some other lesser race but they used it the best. Their kids at birth were inoculated by a wonder-drug which stayed in their body throughout their life and not only helped them fend off the attack of the enemy insect tribes but also helped them in developing better relations with friendly ones. And when they grew up, it facilitated their survival by eliminating food competition around them. They had, after innumerable loses, won the war.

Fast forward another few million years, where Plantae Kingdom has lost some of its dominance to humans, to a desert cave near Mocha, Yemen where Shiek Omer, a disciple of Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili is exiled, hungry and looking for something to eat. But there is nothing conventional to eat only shrubs, shrubs of coffea family. He tries to eat it's seeds. It's too bitter! Tries to roast them. It's too hard! So then he tries boiling to soften them which turns it into a brown liquid which when drunk not only revives him and helps him survive a few days but positively refreshes him! Thus begins a new journey for our coffea family, this time in liquid form. It was no easy journey either, coffee was banned by Christian churches because it's too anti-Christian and it was banned by Muslim empires because it’s just too rebellious a plant, and yet again it persevered on. Fought on to become one of the most consumed drinks of the world just five centuries later. That and end up in my coffee mug.

P.S: I was temporarily prohibited coffee because of some liver problem few months ago and didn't drink it till today; and that coffee was a pleasure beyond words. Oh by the way, just in case you don't know Caffeine is the drug which helps plants kill or paralyze hostile insects, helps improve the reward memory of friendly insects and spreads around the coffee plant on the ground to inhibit the growth of other seeds to increase the chances of survival of the plant and of course the drug which refreshes us when we drink coffee. Hallelujah. A very happy new year to y'all!