Cockroaches. Oh God! Such a repelling sight. How do they move so quickly? And so fond of drains and WCs. In Mumbai, their population must be more than the human population. Have you seen flying cockroaches?

My family has. My two sons were quite young at that time. It was our old house at that time. With no air-conditioning luxuries and plenty of breeze around, we used to keep the windows open during nights. On that day, we had all the drains open. And at night, suddenly, scores of these flying cockroaches dashed through the windows and fell on all of us. Shaken with fear, we had to throw them off one by one. It took a great part of the night before we had this panzer attack under control. For a long time thereafter, we kept the windows closed and the comforting breeze out. That was, to us, an unforgettable experience.

Ants do not cause that much harm. But on their busy walking around to wherever they are going, they can give you tiny bites and itching. And the bigger ones—if they bite, you cannot even pull them away. In such an effort, most of them get decapitated. Their bites do sting. A tiniest particle of food, and if it happens to be sweet, a whole city population would land. Where do they come from? Where do they go?

I read somewhere that ants can carry around 10 to 50 times their own weight. Hmm. I wish I could carry at least some weight that is around 10 percent of my own.

One of my friends always said, "Don’t say 'as busy as an ant.' Say 'as busy as a bee.'" Why? According to him, these ants move hither and thither without much purpose. Is this true? No idea whatsoever.

As long as we are busy, it is fine. How does it matter if it is like an ant or a bee?

Continued in 229. Tiniest Terrors - Part 4