Once there lived a family of three. A father, mother, and son. The couple looked after the boy so preciously as he was their only son and that made him lazy. At first, they thought he will slowly understand and change as he grows. But to their disappointment, it only got worse.
He hardly helps his father at the farm ever and doesn’t even bother about any household responsibilities. He is not a bad guy but the excessive pampering turned him so and all he needs is a lesson.
The couple didn’t know what to do and decided to get him married to a nice girl. They thought if he has his own family and responsibilities, he might become responsible. So they married him off in hopes of his betterment. But he became lazier as he has one more person, his wife, to depend on.
One day, the elders sat their daughter-in-law next to them and said how they were worried about their son. The girl understood them and decided to teach him a lesson. At least try.
The next morning, she went to her husband who was sitting in their garden and gave him a jar. He looked at her puzzled and asked, “why are you giving me an empty jar?”
She replied, “It’s not empty.”
He looked at the jar again and he saw an ant crawling inside. Just one big black ant. “So there’s an ant in it. What should I do?”
“Can you look after it for me for just one day? I’m going to my parent’s place.” She said.
Fazed, he asked, “Look after an ant? Why?”
“It’s my lucky ant. I can’t afford to lose it. Can you do this for me, please?” She said, in her best loving tone.
He thought she was crazy, not a parrot, not a dog but an ant. But didn’t say it as they were newly married and he didn’t want to upset her over something as small as an ant. There’s nothing difficult about it either, so he said “okay” and smiled.
“Thank you. It’s so nice of you.” And she unscrewed the lid of the jar.
He asked, “What are you doing? Let it be inside.”
She said, “It’s not a good thing to keep anything locked up,” letting the ant outside.
He agreed.
The wife left saying, “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Take care.”
The moment she left, he started looking after the ant. He followed it everywhere it went and it kept on running all over the place. There’s not a second it stopped. Every time he wanted to eat something or go to the washroom, he placed a cup on top of it and when he came back he let it free.
The ant constantly ran and ran and whenever it tried to go into a bush or somewhere he can’t see he placed a stick blocking its way and diverting it. Like that, he did not let the ant go out of his sight for one second.
Just around noon, he started feeling exhausted following an ant around. He thought to himself, “why doesn’t it rest in one place? Constantly moving around, what is it even searching so hard for?”
With great difficulty, he somehow managed to keep the ant safe. It was late evening when the wife finally came home. He immediately took the ant back into the jar and gave it to his wife and said proudly, “See, it’s fine.”
The wife smiled at him.
Fishing for compliments, he said again, “It never stopped running, but I never let it go out of my sight. Seriously, does it ever stop? Phew.”
“It does. Only some time. It works most of the day.” She answers and asks him, “what did it do all day?”
“I don’t know, it searched for food all day. I even gave it some sugar but I don’t think it ate at all.”
“Haha, it’s ok, it will eat it later. And it’s only a part of what an ant does, it does so much more. It helps its community to build a nest, collects food, they can carry more weight than their own weight, protects his companions, and much more.”
“Why does it even work so hard? It’s just an ant.” He laughs.
“If this tiny of an ant works so much, how much a human should work, I wonder?” She offhandedly mumbles to herself, but louder enough to hear.
He listens and realizes what he has been missing all his life. And he says, “I don’t know but it sure feels great to work and have that sense of satisfaction.”
They smile looking at each other.
And from the next day onwards, he helps his father at the farm, takes care of the household chores, and pays more attention to people around him.
Everyone is happy!
Stories are our figments of imagination but also, the teachings of our before generations that were left behind to guide us along the right path. No matter how old we are we would always love a good story.
I hope you liked the inspiring story of an ant. Let me know in the comments what do you think. I’ll see you soon again. Until then, keep smiling.
Story written by – Nikhila Chalamalasetty
(Penname: Sarvani)