Chintu’s Question

Chintu is sitting at the table and drinking milk. His mother Sunaina is laying the butter evenly on the bread. He has to eat two of them now and two will be packed in his tiffin. He looked at his father. Most of his face is hidden behind the newspaper he is reading but his right hand is moving on the plate and one by one pieces of bread are disappearing behind the paper. That means his Dad is eating. But why won’t his father eat? He has a reason to it. Last night his father and mother had a fight while he pretended to sleep on his bed. The issue is always the same, his grandmother. She is living in old age home from past two years. The reason of sending her there is who will look after her as both of Chintu’s parents work in private sector. Last Sunday his father went to visit his Mom and when he returned he was sad. His mother is ill and doctors looking after patients in old age homes had said this illness is due to low feeling i.e she considers there’s no one to love her to be with her. Chintu’s father was again in doubt of what to do now? He had to share his difficulty with Chintu’s mother and then the same fight started again.

So last night’s heated conversation has affected the environment of the dining table. Everyone is working mechanically. Suddenly Chintu saw an ant crawling on the table top. He didn’t inform about it to his mother or she will just kill it or put the cup in the basin so that the ant gets flushed away in the sink. He followed it to see what it does. It crawled on the empty cup and plate and peeped inside. Then it went in. Chintu was eager to know when it gets out but the ant didn’t crawl out rather his school bus blew its horn to announce its arrival. His mother said “Hurry up Chintu. Your bus has come and still now you are at the dining table” At these words Chintu ran to wear his shoes and his mother just snatched his bag to keep the tiffinbox and the water bottle and then pulled him fast towards the lift. After a minute or two he entered the bus and it began to move. He waved his hand and screamed “Bye Bye Mummy”

His mother too waved her hand. Suddenly a question came in his mind did his granny too waved her hand when his father went to school?

In the school between various activities he remembered about the ant he saw in the cup. After he returned home he didn’t find the cup or the ant on the table. The maid servant has cleaned the house. The next day was Wednesday and his father decided to visit his mother again in the old age home, the coming Saturday. This time Chintu said he too wishes to go to see his granny. Sunaina didn’t wish to send him to his granny so she tried to stop him by saying he has to finish his homework. He said he will surely finish them on Friday night and will finish studies after returning from old age home. So unable to stop him, Sunaina decided to join them for this visit.

Chintu wait at last finished and Saturday came. He was very happy. His father took out their car and they moved towards the home. He went on talking on various things with his father and mother throughout the way. When they reached the home the residents were out in the garden for morning walk or exercise. Chintu found his granny sitting on a cane chair looking at others doing exercise. “Granny” he screamed and waved his hand wildly. His granny saw him and smiled. She raised her hands to embrace him and he ran to her to sit on her lap. Sunaina was just behind him, she said “Don’t sit on Granny’s lap, Chintu. She won’t be able to bear your weight, you are growing fast”

Chintu looked at his granny. His granny said “Let him be Sunaina. I’ve no problem”

Chintu started talking on various things he did in school in home about his friends and then he remembered about that ant. He told about it too to his granny. His granny said “It had come in search of food dear”

“But what food was there in the empty cup?”

“There must be some leftover tea or coffee which it wished to drink”

“Do ants like tea like us?”

“There is sugar in the tea which ants like to eat and that sweet smell attracted the ant”

“So ants search food only for themselves?”

“Oh no dear! Every ant search for food and when they get it they carry it to their home. If the food particle is bigger than the size of the ant then all the other ants come to help it to carry the particle to the home”

“But the ant which climbed the cup was alone”

“No after it gets satisfied it will call others to drink too”

“Where do ants live granny?”

“Ants lives in mud hills they build on the fields. Their home is known as Ant Hill. It is almost like skyscrapers of human beings. Lakhs of ants live there. So every ant brings their searched food to this Ant Hill and stores there. Then they share this food”

“Oh so Ants live together as a family”

“Yes”

“Then why don’t we live together Granny?”

Chintu’s Granny looked silently at her grandson while his parents looked at each other with blank expression.