Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Anjali - Hosting a Feast For the Ants

Anjali has a healthy fear of ants ever since one of them bit her many months ago. I tried to tell her then that there were certain ants that bite - the big black ones and the small red ones. Somehow she never got the hang of it and maintained a healthy distance from all types. Today she saw a whole bunch of red ants crawling around in the backyard and came running over to me. 'Will these red ants bite?' she asked. I said that they decidedly will and that she should keep away from them. She told me how they all are carrying big grains of rice and I told her that they are storing their food to eat later. I went back to my work.
The Ant Feast In Progress

After a while I get to hear from Shobha that a colony of ants were now having a feast in our bakyard. Anjali had decided that the ants have nothing to eat and took some sugar and put in near them so they could all eat. The ants responded to her generosity and instantly crowded around in a massive feast.

I asked Anjali why she gave sugar to the ants. 'Because they don't have anything to eat,' she said and ran away. Simple!

All the hurt and fear and apprehension is gone from the earlier memory and all that matters now is that they have nothing to eat. Why can't we (grown ups) be that way?

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