I Hate You!

This ‘hate story’ started a few weeks back. I have had no issues so far (or atleast it was manageable). But what can you do if deliberate effort is made to irritate you and you begin to lose your patience? What if the persistance begins to get on your nerves?? I tried my best to ignore. But, I simply give up! I hate you… ants!

Yes, ANTS… those tiny creatures you barely notice… until it begins to make your lives miserable, that is. My apologies to the crew of The Ant Bully (2006; animation movie directed by John A. Davis) because I don’t think that’s gonna change my view on them or make me like them. It began a few days after we began buying food at our place (in Mangalore). The ants began to 'make their presence felt'. Ants are attracted to anything sweet. Everybody knows that. So the sugar was kept safely in an air-tight container. Ha! Out of reach from their prying antennae! And so was anything sweet (obvious, isn’t it?). Then it occurred to me that ants are attracted to oil or oily stuff as well. So we ensured that the coconut oil would be stored in a sturdy bottle. Done! I believed that it would be the end to this ant tale. But, boy was I wrong!

We once bought Maggi (4 x 200g pack) and made two for the evening. So yea, two slabs remained. We left it (in the packet) outside, on the upturned drinking water can, and didn’t give it a second thought. What happened? You got that right – ant attack. We returned from office, only to find a trail of ants running from over the kitchen counter to the top of the water can. The packet was full of ants! Argghh. Made a mental note to self: Sweet, oily… and now, starchy stuff too. Don’t leave anything in this category outside. Fine! I thought that was the end of it. Apparently not. Whatever we bought, the ants would ‘find’ out. To the extent that they’d chew through the unopened packets (of mixture, biscuits and the like) kept in the cabinets and nibble on it (leaving those distinct small heaps of powder). The container with semolina was not closed properly and they did not spare that either! Bananas also figured on their radar (in fact, by this time a second kind of ant had appeared). One day we made chapathi and had one left over. We kept in a vessel, covered it with the lid and left it like that over-night. Checked it in the morning – no problemo… so did nothing about it. That day when we returned, we saw the ants marching their way into it and having a nice meal. Hmmmppphh! Where were they last night? Sleeping??! They can be constantly found in the kitchen dust-bin as well, rummaging the left-overs.

The ants are taking us to new levels of frugality and cleanliness! Now everytime we make something or buy something we’re forced to think – Will the ants get to it? Where can we store it? Should we keep it in the fridge? and so on. And I’m not one to quit… the battle is on!