THE RAID

They entered my house without my permission. I was in the kitchen. I couldn’t inform anyone. They didn’t give me any time or gave any heed to my words. They went on with their duty searching everywhere, collecting every bit and piece they got from there. One thing that surprised me most was all my doors were closed. Then how did they manage to come inside? As I was thinking about all these, someone pricked on my hand. Ouch! I looked up and found a line of them marching very quietly into my kitchen through the windowsill. How dare they pop into my kitchen?  Then I understood why they were so interested to linger in my kitchen. It was my little one’s handiwork, to scatter everything around, when he was done with his favourite snacks.

I prepped myself to exterminate the intruders. I poured some water over them and brushed the rest of them from my wall and ceiling. Getting back the control of my kitchen, happily I went on with my business, cutting some vegetables of my little one's favourite. But a couple of moments later I found them again on my kitchen slab, marching proudly taking everything on their back, grains of sugar, lentil, crumbs of bread, what more. My fury had no limits. I scratched them with my knife. Disgusting! I set my mind to wipe them completely from my kitchen. I bowed down and watched them closer. Their line was cut in the middle. They were scattered here and there. Some were injured. Some were dead. Some lost their way. This time I really felt sorry for them because struggling all odds, they formed their line again. I even found some carrying the dead bodies of their friends on their back. Yes! They were true social workers. Their sense of co-operation was unappreciable. There was a leader who led them from the front. And the leader slowed down when the followers lagged too far behind and hurried up when the followers got too closer. They were diligent hard workers too. I saw some of them still collecting their food laming on their back. My little one's rhymes came to my mind, ‘Ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah...’ And a little later I discovered that they were skilled in architecture too. Following their path, I reached the anthill, which was at my doorstep. How fast they are making it! It was not there a couple of hours before. Honestly, a beautiful colony made out of fine grains of sand.

Ants... They may be small. But their deeds are credible enough that even the crown of creation had to learn a lot from them. How could they carry things three times their own weight! God has created such beautiful creatures on earth, for us to think and learn many things about ourselves too. Truly it was a raid. But they had come to raid my heart.