Ants in Pants

The ants are out. In what should be indicative of the rains round the corner, large armies of ants have emerged over-ground at the Garden, crisscrossing the area where we exercise. However, instead of rejoicing at their presence, the ladies kept doing a hop, skip and dance at regular intervals in order to dodge them. Santosh Tyagi and Razia Khan looked extremely distressed, stomping the ground all the while. Twice we had to shift position en-masse for their sake, till there was nowhere else to go. The entire Garden was crawling with ants.
Shekhawat wondered aloud why the ants should selectively bother the ladies and spare the men. Ramila Mistry pointed at the men being well shod (particularly Arora’s new pair of shoes) which could be a deterrent. Bapu Rane said a better deterrent would be applying oil on the legs. Bose opined that the ants would go for anything sweet. Obviously there was no sweetness in the perspiration of men.
As the debate warmed up, Arun Patil suggested that the best way to deal with ants was to ignore them. But Rane was not convinced. He was scared stiff that the ants would climb up to his “important” (whatever that meant). Arora prodded him on why he had not come prepared by oiling himself appropriately -- little expecting Rane to disappear into the toilet just when Shekhawat was to shout, “Rane jahaan pe bhi ho, baith jao!” Before long, Rane came out sporting a shy smile: “I needed to take my trousers off because the ants had attacked my important!”
Watching the tamasha was our new guest, Mrs Grover, who took part in the exercises and later dropped by for tea (above right) with the Badmaash Company. She is on vacation from Delhi, staying with her son at Tarapore Garden. She promised to join us every morning for the time she is in Mumbai.
Harish Wadhwa:
* Never underestimate the might of the small. Ants today proved the point. Well, if you step onto their homes, they are bound to retaliate. Blog Monster, that was a nice title today -- 'Ants in Pants'. Sounds like a killer movie!
* Welcome Mrs Grover! It was also nice to have the company of Mrs Bhaswati Bose and Mrs Ramila Mistry today for the chai.