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.
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