Ghachar Ghochar

by Vivek Shanbhag

We had no compunction towards our enemies and took to increasingly desperate and violent means of dealing with them. We’d flatten them with our hands or feet or books wherever we saw them. If we noticed that they’d laid siege to a snack, we might trap them in a circle drawn with water and take away whatever they were eating. Then watch them scurry about in confusion before wiping them off with a wet cloth. I took pleasure in seeing them shrivel into black points when burning coals were rolled over a group of them. When they attacked an unwashed vessel or cup they’d soon be mercilessly drowned. I suppose initially we did these things only when we were alone, but in time we began to be openly cruel to ants. We saw them as demons come to swallow our home and became a family that took satisfaction in the destruction of ants. We might have changed houses since, but habits are harder to change.