Anty Life

There is never a hot day in Bangalore, yet there is always hot water from the solar heater. The November of 2009 began with the vengeance of the retreating monsoons. Chennai was under water. Rain god showed all that meant violent love. Flooding roads, crashing trees and lots of tv coverage. 

300 kilometres away on a green patch of higher ground, there was thick cloud cover with an occasional falling drop. Children loved it and others loved for it. It was paradise revisited for Bangaloreans.   

I woke up with a few good text messages from close friends and a nice good morning message from a closer... Yeah alright I had the hots for her...  A hot cup of mom made coffee and exchanging text messages with the girl you have the hots for on a chilly morning with a slight drizzle. (Except for that idling garbage truck) mornings can’t get better.

Owing to the lovely weather and ample time, I ran against my natural instinct and decided to take a bath. Who knows, I might get lucky on a lazy cupid day.  The solar heater was on its off day, so we had to turn to the electric one. I felt a slight chill run down me as I stripped and turned on the taps. My mom told me when I was kid that you must first fill your buckets and then take off your cloths so that you won’t feel cold. I guess after all these years I’m still too eager to get naked. Well, maybe the reasons and places have changed a bit...  but let’s not get into that now. So I was getting ready to bathe and as the solar heater was busted due to the cloud cover, we had to use the electric heater.

I turned on the tap and was greeted with the familiar spurts of hot water as the tap filled my bucket. Just after a minute or so, I saw a few ants come around the tap. I thought they were just some random scout ants looking for food.  

 Huh! Lame ants, what will you find under a bathroom tap?

The bucket was full and I was getting high on the scent of the Mysore sandal soap. Just after I had enough, I placed the soap back on the shelf and turned to wash myself. That’s when it happened! I saw a swarm! There was a huge swarm of black common house ants moving all over the tiles and taps! There were thousands! Or maybe more! Guess what! The seldom used hot water tap had been their nest!  And those poor ants might’ve got too hot under the tap and were swarming out in panic.

The first thing I did was turn off the tap. Then I observed what was happening. A huge mass of slow moving ants were moving in the opposite direction of the heat. A few ants had taken off and were running around looking panicked. That’s when I realised the ants I first saw were indeed scout ants. They had been sent out at the first sight of danger to look out for a new safe place to nest. Only now there were more, maybe a hundred scouts. 

They seemed to enter under other taps, imperfections and holes in the wall. But maybe they were not fit or already occupied.  By then the swarm had moved quite a distance from the hot tap. I noticed that there were three big clusters or three places where ants had formed multiple layers, ant over ant and many layers like that. On closer inspection I saw that two of those clusters had bigger ants in the middle. 1 big ant covered and protected by a thousand others. Those must be the queens I thought. The 3^rd cluster looked slightly coloured, yellow white or off-white. Those were the eggs! So the million ants had formed three hard and impenetrable (or so they might’ve thought) clusters. Two protecting their queens and one protecting their eggs. 

The scout ants were still making their rounds and after a while the swarm slowly started moving, the clusters were dissolved; the queens and eggs were safely moved back to the nest. The scout ants might’ve thought the tap was back to normal. 

I wanted to let hot water out again and see if they do the same drill all over again. But then again, a man’s got to have a heart, plus one can’t spend the whole day in the bathroom right? Just then I realised how I must look, a nude man bent over looking at a slow moving ant swarm.  Hmm... Quite a view.

I did step out of the bath and lived on happily ever after. Until today that is.

It wasn’t until late yester night that I was reminded of this ant experience. I had just finished with a rather communist book and was at a loss of words. The book itself stood by the side of justice and humanity. It might seem clichéd or even retroprogressive to some, but the book dealt with over exploitation of work force by rich capitalists. I’ve always been intrigued by communism. And I just feel common ownership could be really motivating.  

Now communism might seem, as I said, retroprogressive. But isn’t china doing good? Isn’t kerala doing great?? It’s got the best HDI in the country! and not to mention 100% literacy. Why? It’s simply because everyone is given a fair chance. An authority stands up and commands its brothers to do what is right. And goodness prevails. Of course, the authority needs to be on the side of good. Which!! Is the challenge!  

I’m too small and know very less about the complexities of politics; the pits of communism and socialism, the highs of the “free world” and capitalism are also a little blur to me. And my dad would really be worried if I call myself a red, but isn’t keeping it simple the best? 

All I know believe right now is that an ant can move the world. How many times have we been given the ant’s example? Work force? Discipline? Hard work? Always look for alternatives? Always keep your chances open? Never give up?

Well Here’s another, Communism. 

Sadly for your guys, this write has been less about communism and more about what I do in the bathroom, so I’ve thought about reading more about communism vs liberalism or capitalism and maybe... If I find something interesting or at least am able to strike up a good conversation, I would surly put it out here. Thanks for reading... bye