My mornings start consciously knowing
that I have to be at home and I have to be with myself. I need not rush, for
anything. This pandemic has given us an opportunity to redesign our lifestyle, to
make it simpler and healthier than pre-Corona days. To give priority to our own
lives.
While contemplating about the activities
for today, a bee caught my attention that had found its way into my room and
was now trying to find an exit through the glass window, but kept on hitting
the glass panel without success. I opened the door and with the help of a
newspaper guided it slowly towards the door. It went out, I shut the door to
avoid its re-entry. But, in the process it reminded me of an incident of our college days, in-fact
an accident due to the bees. It taught us
a few lessons, and today the bees remind me again that laying down motionless makes one
safer from their stings!
We were then in the second year
of our engineering course. For celebrating Makar Sankranti, we - the students
from Bihar, had planned for celebrating Makar Sankranti by going out for a picnic
to the picturesque jungle around the Kerwa Dam, Bhopal. All the arrangements
were perfect and the picnic started with a round of tea. We got divided into
small groups as per our interest. We got busy in various activities like Antakshari,
swimming in the river flowing adjacent to the picnic spot, playing cards, badminton or just simply engaging ourselves in the gup-shup.
We had carried gas cylinder and
stove also for cooking. However, after reaching there, in order to get the real feel of the picnic; some of the friends decided to use firewood and makeshift chulha for cooking instead of the gas
stove. We were at some distance from the place where the makeshift kitchen was
operational. Everything was going well and we were enjoying the winter sun. All
of a sudden, the friends who were near the kitchen started shouting and running while
trying to escape the bees chasing them. In no time, the swarm of bees reached
us and attacked us too in vengeance. They were in very large numbers and were of bigger size than
we usually get to see hovering on the flowers. Their sting was fiery and painful. Each of us had taken a number of stings, beyond counting. That day I discovered that bees leave their sting stuck in the body of the
victim and they themselves die later on.
It was such a fast and deadly
attack that one of our senior fell unconscious with pain– he was stung by more
than two hundred bees. I was stung mostly on my face and neck only, thanks to my full sleeves jacket. Me and many of my friends had to jump in the
river to save ourselves from the bees. It was mere luck that we were alive, didn’t drown! The
picnic was a disaster and we ended up in hospital as many of us needed pain killers,
anti-allergic medicines and saline too.
When we reached hostel, the
incident spread like a wildfire. However, it didn’t deter our friends from UP who
too planned a picnic trip on the next Sunday at the same venue. We had warned
them, not to use firewood as the smoke rising from it disturbs the bees and
they might attack again. But, the mistake was repeated and they too had to bear
the brunt of the bees with the same fury. This time too some of
our friends jumped into the river to save themselves from the attack. After some time, when the bees started thinning out, frantic search for one of our friend started who had also jumped into the river along with others. Everyone who had jumped into the river came out, but he was not so lucky. On jumping blindly into the river, he had got stuck between the heavy rocks and he couldn't make it to the surface. He
was drowned! The worst had happened. Local villagers helped in fishing him out. We had lost a dear friend on that fateful day.
We had learnt some lessons, the
hard way. Firstly, do not disturb the wild life, it can be very dangerous.
Secondly, lay down motionless on the ground covering ear and nose with hands –
the bees won’t bite – they will at the most sit on you for a while and fly away.
But, the moment you move your body – they won’t spare you. Thirdly, as the old
adage states, never jump into an unknown river or water body – as you never
know what lies beneath!
I find a similarity with
COVID-19. You are safe from it till you are in your favorite hideout – your home!
Don’t venture out! Be safe!
"Re-designing Life" is very impressive to see you quote here. By the way very good Blog, Stories that has lessons for the current situation as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting. I liked it Madhukar. Good job. There are some grammatical mistakes though.Please correct them.This is a much better template for a Blog, or whatever.
ReplyDelete