think loud: Feb 10, 2024

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Sowmya - Concert No 02

This concert was on 14th October 2021 at Vijaya Navarathri

Art Festival.

Please click below to download

Back in the pool in Goa, I returned to my duties as a heroic ant lifeguard – though on this particular morning the three ants that I had fished out had long drowned. Two were large, one small, hmm… so for the little scavenging ants that meant one small serving and two extra large ones. Not bad for a Saturday lunch! Sure enough, the scavengers turned up and divided themselves into three teams. Team A took hold of the small ant and enthusiastically began hauling it off towards the entrance to their colony – the same dangerous overhung entrance at one corner of the pool, where last year, a party of workers had conducted remarkable feats of maneuvering to haul in much larger and heavier offerings. So, this should be easy-peasy I thought, deja-vu… not quite.

Because Team A was either in too much of a hurry or too inexperienced, they dropped the small ant into the pool along with a couple of workers, and seemed completely perplexed. This really was like dropping a dolly catch. Team B, which had been following close behind them hauling one of the large ants came to a halt, followed by Team C. Hah, I thought, now what? Were they programmed such that they would willy-nilly try to stuff the bulkier ant into the entrance, even after seeing what had happened with the smaller one? Because if that was where the front door was, that was where they had to take their prey… If they were robots that is what they would have probably done. Or would they lose interest and abandon their meals – as I had seen some do on other occasions?

But no, after barely a moment’s consultation among themselves they put plan B into action. Swiftly both teams B and C (and maybe chagrined members of Team A) began hauling their cargo across the hot paving slabs to a second entrance to their colony – some distance away, but which consisted of a crack between two flat paving slabs. True, Team B first tried stuffing their cargo crosswise into the crack, and obviously it didn’t fit, but quickly realised that they had to align it longitudinally – so they could easily push it in. Team C followed suit.

I was so gob-smacked that to reward them, I fished out the fallen small ant and placed it near their entrance: this caused a bit of surprise, but they gratefully accepted it and took it in as well. So, yes, they were going to eat well.

But think for a moment what all this entailed: Their priority had been to take their prey to the nearest entrance, to reduce the risk that they would be robbed en route. When that didn’t work out, they made a beeline for the second entrance – which meant they had previous knowledge about its existence and had probably used it, so had that memory stored in their teeny-tiny brains. Sure, it was a longer distance away, but there was no risk of dropping their prize into the pool. And to mitigate the chances that they would be robbed, they really hot-footed it – travelling in a straight line at breakneck speed. It does seem to imply that some thinking process was involved and I am wondering if just one of them – say, the skipper of Team B, had the bright idea or the bulb went off in all of their teeny-tiny brains at the same time, even in those of the members of the disgraced Team A. There had been no dilly-dallying and standing around wondering, duh – now what do we do, now what do we tell the Queen – she’ll be mad as hell. Like it happens with us when airports get fog-bound and airlines have no clue as to how to deal with the situation or communicate with their passengers, even though this happens every year.

Alternatively, had these ants obviously thought of plan B beforehand and we all know how important it is to have backup plans these days. It was like an SOP being seamlessly put into action. It also made me wonder: If these tiny ants could display this kind of intelligence, what about the millions of other species of insects and living things? What kind of intelligence did they have? Are we grossly underestimating their brainpower? These little ants were solving problems, figuring things out, and perhaps even before the problem manifested itself. It was almost as though they had already earlier discussed, ‘okay, so if this goes down the drain (or into the pool as was the case) for whatever reason, what’s our next option?’ Did they hold a board meeting in which they had discussed this?

Scientists around the world have devised all kinds of devious experiments to test the IQ of insects (and other creatures), and we’ve all seen how intelligent crows, elephants, chimpanzees, dolphins and even several species of fish can be. But reading about these and seeing amazing clips on YouTube (like rats taking selfies because they seem to enjoy it!) is one thing: when you actually witness this happening out of the blue it really opens your eyes and makes you think. Another thing that emerged from this episode was that we all (ants included) make mistakes: Team A really ought not have dropped that little ant into the pool… But that perhaps is how they (and we) will learn. As for Teams B and C, once they saw what had happened, they obviously knew that risk mitigation was now a priority if they wanted to ensure a hearty Saturday buffet.

Courtesy: Indian Express

M. L. Vasanthakumari - Concert No 12

Accompanied by Thiruvallur_Subrahmanyam-violin.

Thanjavur KrishNamurthy_Rao- Mrudhangam
Bengaluru_Ramachar-Kanjira and Nagaraja_Rao-Ghatam, this concert was at Thiagaraja Mahotsavam Thiruvaiyaru in 1970. Please click below to download

M. L. Vasanthakumari - Concert No 12