SHARING THE GENE POOL: I AND THE FLY

Yesterday I was reading a book after having a nice lunch. Suddenly a fly came in and landed on my book. With the same suddenness, it flew away. I continued my reading but the fly kept on barging in and out at the periphery of my visual field. I ignored it, as the book was very engrossing. The fly must have felt aggrieved at my neglect and it started flying past my ears.

 This irritating buzzing sound is one thing that I cannot bear. It is not loud and not shrill but still it produces a reflex shaking of the head, shrugging of the shoulders and sends a shivering wave down the whole body. It is a vestigial form of the same reflex, which grass-grazing animals produce to shake flies and birds off their backs. If I had a tail, it would have moved ferociously. It is amazing how a tiny creature can arouse such a big response. Probably it is imprinted on our DNA from the days of flying dinosaurs. 

The intrusion became so frequent that I could not ignore it any more. I put the book down, looked up and around but now could not see the fly. After a few minutes of thorough surveying, I spotted the fly at the window. It was knocking at the glass pane as if trying to get out. Though irritated I was still feeling kind, did not wish to squat this little bug.

The window was locked and the key was upstairs so I opened the door and tried to shoo the fly in that direction. But the fly kept on coming back to the glass pane and getting hurt.  For the fly, glass pane must have seemed a better option than the open door.  The flies, as you know, do not have a concept of transparent glass. If the mind does not know, eyes do not see. This is true for us human too. We commit the same mistakes time and again in spite of obvious warnings. No wonder a comparative Genomic Analysis research showed that the fruit fly shares two thirds of its genes with us.

I could have gone upstairs and brought the key to open the window. But my compassion to the fly was not big enough to counteract my reluctance to spend that many hard earned calories.  So I decided to swat the fly, not out of spite or cruelty but because of my kindheartedness to prevent the fly getting repeatedly hurt.

I took quite a few swipes with the book I was reading but the fly successfully evaded my attempts. The tiny brain of this fly was outsmarting my much bigger counterpart. How could it calculate so fast the force and trajectory of my swipes and apply successful evasion tactics? Not for nothing, they say “Never underestimate your enemy, however small.”

I had to do some cool thinking. The reason for the success of the fly was that its actions were a well rehearsed involuntary reflex where as mine was a poorly thought out voluntary action. I needed help. I took out my phone and contacted my trusted friend Google, who is not intelligent but knows a lot! Inputting “how to swat a fly” came up with about 6,910,000 results in 0.20 seconds. What a fast reflex!  It told me that flies have 360 degrees vision and can take off in any direction on sensing a threat. It reflexly takes off in the direction opposite to the direction of the approaching threat.  Therefore, it suggested that it was best to approach from behind the fly and aiming a bit further.  Aimed with this knowledge I approached the fly again. This time I won.  Power of Google!

Instead of reading my book, I went back to the screen on my phone to see President Obama swatting a fly. Did he succeed? See for yourself http://youtu.be/5rbUH_iVjYw

Once at the screen, I went to check my E-mails, and then looked at the Face Book, then the newspapers and so on. I spent a good few hours. I know it is not good for me but like the fly, I cannot conceptualize that threat yet.

GETTING LOST IN THE DREAMS: adding flavours to plain and boring sleep

I saw this dream last night. I am going to a hospital where I used to work many years ago.  I am late and hurrying along the different corridors, finally I come to a lift and take it but it only goes up to third floor. My operation theatre is on fourth.  I know how to go there but cannot figure out the exact stairs to take. I take one and arrive at an open roof. To go to my theatre I have to jump through a very long and narrow gap in the wall. I hesitate but as there is no other way, I finally jump and make it to the other side.  Then I realise the theatre entrance is on the other side. I panic and I open my eyes, relieved that it was just a dream.

I see this dream quite often. The place where I am going may be different. It could be a shopping mall, a school, a cinema hall etc. One thing is always there that the places seem very familiar to me as if I have been going there often as a routine. I know the way but cannot somehow find it. In the dream, I also know that the same problem has happened before but I found my place eventually.

Of course, the dream is never this coherent. Halfway through, places intermingle, the level and nature of obstacle change, the urgency to reach the place and the reason to go there alters. The people around me look familiar as if I know them for quite a long time.

When awake I do tend to reflect on the meaning of the dream and I do think of some quite satisfactory psychoanalytical explanations. A man’s lifetime experiences are so varied, that one can rationalize almost anything. Explanations of dreams by others always seem to be based on the experiences of the explainers rather than the dreamer.

Do the dreams really mean anything or are they just the background noise in different areas of brain, which normally do not reach the level of consciousness?  During sleep, these impulses breach the threshold of cognition. One probably sees just random things in the dream but the mind fits it into some sort of a story that makes perfect sense in the dream but feels very bizarre when awake.

You can say that the background noise in the brain does depend on the bits of memories one forms when awake, thus making the dreams related to our wakeful hours. Whatever the truth, one thing is sure; the dreams do add some interesting flavours to the otherwise plain and boring sleep.