Spidermen

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Spider & Fly

A very old Spider
Said to the older Fly:
"You can come nearer, dear,
My fiber’s gotten dry";

Said the older Fly
To the old Spider:
"I can’t come nearer, dear,
I can no more FLY!"

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/10/bouquet-of-old-cauliflowers.html

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That rather epitomizes old age and decrepitude...the old moneylender who is broke inviting the old lavish spender who is about to croak...

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My Father told me this story of Robert Bruce and his inspirational spider:

Scottish Bruce was fighting for the liberation of his Scotland from England, got defeated six times, and was hiding in a dilapidated hut, thinking of hanging up his boots.

He then saw a spider trying to hoist the first member of her wily truss and failing and falling six times. Bruce then promised himself that if the spider succeeds in her seventh attempt, he too would take up his arms once more against England.

She did...and he did drive out the English and became the most renowned and loved King of Scotland.

I haven't checked history but since then periodically Scots tended to assert their independence from England.

Around 1994 there was this Professor XXX of the University of Dundee visiting our Department. I don't know why but he expressed his wish to meet the Faculty. I had this policy of applying anti-reflection coating to my body, vanish from the Department, and materializing at Harry's to avoid these convivials.

But I was caught leg and middle by our HoD, Prof CLR, who dragged me to the Seminar Room. After a reasonable crowd had assembled (some with axes to grind), Prof CLR got up to do the Intro:

"On behalf of the Faculty, I welcome Professor XXX from England..."

Upon which, XXX got up, turned round and said:

"Scotland, Scotland, Scotland...."

As CLR was squirming and correcting himself, XXX clapped and signaled everyone to follow him....Clap, Clap, Clap...

Apart from whiskey and kanjoosi, Scotland is also famous for her Scotch Tape Adhesive.

There was this Prof R who was 15 years older to me, but took a liking to my brand of cheap Vazir cigarettes that I used to buy wholesale from Gole Bazaar and stock up in my Room E-13 in the Faculty Hostel for a Rainy Day. He would tail me every evening on our way home from the Dept, whine to me about his frustrations (like the Bongo complaining to Bass Drum), filch a couple of my Vazirs, waste an hour of my woolgathering time before promising to continue tomorrow.

One day, at the Fork at Harrys, I told him that I was going to the Tech Market and he suddenly remembered that he too had to buy sweets in the Market. After a couple of steps, I announced that, on second thoughts, I better go to my Hostel...upon which he said he too had better postpone his Market Visit...for the pleasure of my company...

Scotch Tape!!!

My Father also told me that Kekule dreamed up his Benzene Structure when he saw a spider in her hexagonal web...but this doesn't seem to tally with the Authorized Version (AV)...snake catching her own tail...

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In my Qrs C-1-97, I watched many garden spiders weaving their fantastic webs in monsoon season. It was a lesson in Structural Engineering...radials and chords emerging rapidly as if by magic.

And then she would sit at the center waiting. As soon as a poor insect gets caught she would run along the nearest path (CPM), weave a noose tightly around him and get back to the center waiting for the next one. The poor insect dies out of excruciating suffocation, it looked to me, before he is leisurely devoured.

On my walks to the Tech Market, of a Sunday morning, I would see a dazzling multicolored thin strand of silk hanging from the branch of a neem tree. As I stopped to watch, the lower end of the silk thread would be woven round a poor wriggling worm being slowly hauled up in fits and starts. But I could never spot the spider hiding among the leaves up and above hauling her breakfast.

KGP had this tradition that every decade or two, some species would appear in a mega-gigantic version...like snails as big as rats...

One season there were these giant spiders with their huge webs on each and every electric pole; and once I saw a tiny bird caught and devoured mercilessly.

My son tells me that strands of some spiders are ten times as tough as steel of the same gauge. But any attempt to breed spiders and spin their yarns, like silkworms, is frustrated by the cannibalistic tendency of spiders...the bigger one will eat up the smaller one...till only the biggest is left.

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Spiders are a favorite simile for the Atman of the Upanishads...

"yathornanabhih srijate grihnatecha" (as a spider sends forth and draws in [its thread] )

.............................Mundaka Upanishad

"yastantu nabha iva tantubhih pradhana jaih" (covers himself like a spider with threads)

............................Svetasvatara Upanishad

"yathornanabhih tantunoccharet" (as a spider moves along its thread)

..........................Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

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And what about the World Wide Web?

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