Ants - alert, industrious, persevering
Our younger days, being bitten by ants was so very common, as they were around all the place, and all the while. Ant-powder (urumpu podi, usually, DDT - continued to be used even after that was officially banned) was one of the essential items of the house, even being sprinkled in the kitchen, or anywherelese, as an effectie ant remedy, mostly killing them. Those days, the reddish brown ants were of villanous nature, with a few of them projecting a bulbous back, and their bite used to be really stinging. There was also a general acceptance of the fact that even if they were there in the sugar you used for your tea, and in the process got killed, there was nothing wrong in consuming the tea, or even the ants along with them, as they were supposed to make your sight bright. Usually they used to be referred to us as katturumpu, and though they were considered a nuisance, their bite was referred to as a nuisance tolerable, an annoyance. There was the famous idiom of being an ant in one's heaven (swargattile katturumpu) and there was a song referring to the lover girl as a 'katturumpu' implying a tolerable or enjoyable pain or nuisance.
Today, seaching google for kattrumpu to find its English and scientific names, I am getting hits on the Malayalm serial on flowers channel named 'katturumpu', apparently a poplular one, though I have never watched it.
They were contrasted with the other set of ants, who were found to be innocent and unharming, who would get past you or go over you, and yet would not bite or hurt. They used to be called kakkayurumbu, after their black colour which resembled the colour of the crows. Sometimes, they went around with a whitish attachment on them. I am yet to discover what that was.
The other set of venomous ants were misher or nisher or niru whom later we heard others call puliyurumbu, perhaps, they tasted of puli (tangy) or their bulbous bottom had an acidic content (formic acid?) which perhaps had a tangy taste. Later on, I came across the names like weaver ant or green leaf ant (neythukaran or pachila urumpu). They were our enemies as kids, as they used to be infesting the fruit trees - guava, mango etc. making it threatening for us to climb them and gather fruits as we wished. Much later, in my stint with organic farming, they came to be treated as great friends, and sometimes, their colonies used to be introduced into our small farms to prevent the spread or attack of aphid (munja) on string beans. They are also called red ants (myrmica rubra), and I hear that red ant chutney (puliyurumbu chammanti) is now becoming a delicacy, though I have never seen or tasted it, that appears to a good way for human predators to manage them, and if this is gaining popularity, the farmer friendly ant becoming a threat to the farmers will be remote.
But all this ant puranam, on account my recent interface with ants. I am now an admirer of them. My cell on the 2nd floor, is an open terrace converted into a room. Earlier, we used to do terrace farming, and we used to pile up soil for gardening together with organic manure on the terrace. And ants used to be there as if in the open earth. Now the room was done, and cemented, then floor was further covered with vitrified tiles. Painted and whitewashed. But to my great surpise, I found disciplined colonies of ants, much smaller variety of the katturumpu kingdom, arriving in the room, in no time after an exposed bit of food of any sort was there in the room, either on the floor or table or any nook or corner, or even if it were in a bag, they arrived as if alerted by a camera, or by an sms, and systematically apply themselves to the content till the trace of it is exhausted! Once I left a small box of sweets gifted to me, and forgot all about it. It was kept in the ante-room, and when I opened it after a month or so, I found they were cleared fully with hardly any trace of it, in the process the paper box itself being consumed where the outer layer had the sugar sunk in.
On such 'invitations', sometimes they mark thier route across the bed, or over the desk, and they let you work or sleep in peace, if you don't interfere with their march or work. They didn't even bother to do anything with you, and there were occasions, when I did sleep with the army marching on the one side of the mattress.
If I found them really annoying, there were two options, one to physically remove them by sweeping the floor and transporting them else where, but they would come back. (I used to sweep them onto a dust-pan and throw them down from the third floor - that part is wild & garden, and throwing them down would not imply the typical nuisance of waste or litter being thrown down the street from an apartment up there! I did this with the assumption that on reaching ground, they would not be hurt! I should examine that). But if you remove the cause of their attraction, the food particle or such source, they disappear from the scene in no time. They appear very intelligent - if the food item - nuts or sweets... - is packed in paper, they are bound to pounce on it in no time. But if it were in a securely closed plastic pack or container, then they leave the content as untouchable, but let there be slight opening or careless closure of the lid, then they treat that as an invitation, and come and make merry with the content therein.
And their perseverence and discipline are amazing. You try to remove them, they take another route, and they go about in a very systematic manner.
But, I have come across on rare occasions some ant sisters (most likely), whose sting can really be cause excruciating pain, with effect lasting for some time. As if you were stung with a fire-needle. But in our sweet Kochi, they are rarely found.
I recall that under the Zoology department of Sacred Heart College, we had a guide Rev. Dr. Carmely CTC who had specialised in the area of ants. I think we had couple of Ph Ds in that field under her. However, the entomological branch of Myrmecology did not develop further; whereas Arachnology (of spiders) grew into a large shady tree, producing several Ph. Ds and having many additions to the body of knowledge. There was an interesting study on ant-mimicking spiders, which perhaps, had a healthy border crossing.
I find them (ants) good teachers. In Panchatantra we come across an ant story, an ant being rescued by a bird, and the ant returns the help by stinging the hunter with target set on the bird.
They teach me 3 lessons:
1. Alertness, keen sensitivity to the changes around that affect them and grabbing opportunity
2. Pro-active as a well organised team - team work
3. Perseverance
No comments:
Post a Comment