The Spider's Misinterpretation

I was working on my PC and a spider walked/crawled right onto the monitor screen... it was the kind of spider that stalks its prey...inches closer and when within striking range, jumps on the prey like a tiger!
In my local language 'Marathi', we call it ' Maashi cha wagh' which translates literally as ' the tiger of the fly' because of its pouncing strategy...
Well Mr.Spider misinterpreted my cursor as some juicy black insect moving around and started stalking it...to my amazement and amusement, it started pouncing on it too! I hope the spider didn't break its teeth biting into the monitor! I simulated the movement of the insect with the cursor, going close to the spider, then a bit far, quivering, shaking, crawling like a true insect would do, and the spider fell for it :)
went for almost 8-9 mins...then the spider realized something is wrong and with a sigh crawled to the edge and jumped off the screen...

Some years back, I was observing a lovely spider net glistening in sunrays and how a spider in a net reacts...
I tore a small piece of a dry leaf and threw in the net...the spider came running and grabbed the leaf (prey) ...checked it, then threw it away...
I threw a second piece and again the spider went for it..checked it and threw it away...
But after that when I threw a piece in, it just wouldn't come to grab...clever one, quick to learn and not take notice anymore...I was really impressed.

What took my monitor screen spider so long to realize the folly?
Tried for 8-9 mins before it gave up.Was it too dumb? Too optimistic? Never say die attitude? Or was it simply a new environment that confused it?

Wish I knew spider language... Could have conversed with it and said sorry for fooling it...

What does smell look like?

me and my 4 yr old nephew Ameya conversing today morning...
"Gautam Mama (uncle), do you know what smell looks like?", Ameya popped a question to me out of the blue..
Good heavens! I had never before wondered what smell looks like!
"O I don't know really..how does it look??"
Ameya squeaked impishly,"Gautam Mama, it is green and stinks! And it comes by plane, then takes a taxi, then bus, then rickshaw...and then comes in from here..."points to his nostrils.
"O smell goes in from there? I see....hmnnn.And where does it go from there?", I asked curiously.
"Ummm...Nowhere, it just stays in the nose!"
"But how does it go away then?", I persisted.
Ameya looked up mischiveously, with his big, black as charcoal eyes twinkling and said, " When you press your nose, like this, poink poink, the smell is scared and ruuuunnnnnnnnnns awaaayyyyyyyyy..."
I sat down and started thinking about my own ways of picturizing smell...

Incredible Folktales of India

Rich. Imaginative. Incredible.
I had the fortune to read a compilation of Indian folktales by A.K.Ramanujan, in a book I got as a gift. The book has folktales from about 22 different languages in India.
Things one cannot imagine happen in these tales...

Sample these:
...in a tale from West Bengal, a man who is to tell four stories feels drowsy and falls asleep...the 4 enraged stories come out of the sleeping man and sit on his belly to conspire how to kill him...


...an old woman is full of woes due to mistreatment by her two sons and two daughter-in-laws. And because she cannot share her woes with anyone, her woes keep on growing, and she becomes very very fat...then on day she finds a small room with only 4 walls. she tells woes of one son to one wall and the wall crumbles under the weight of the woes, and one by one, the four walls crumble under the woes given by the 4 people. The old woman becomes thin and goes home....

Incredible eh? I found the tales a mix of fairy tale with childlike imagination and lots of day to day happenings of India. It gave me a glimpse of the ageless tradition of folklore in India...

A must read: 'Folktales From India- A.K.Ramanujan' ISBN- 0-14-023328-8
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