"AN ESCAPADE WHICH TURNED
INTO A LIFE-CONSUMING MISTAKE "
Before sharing this experience I would like to tell you an interesting and surprising fact about forager bee."Whenever a forager bee finds a source of nectar,it returns to it's hive to communicate the location of that source of nectar to other bees with the help of a special dance called, WAGGLE DANCE."This small creature has very small brain just like it's size as compared to a human being.
When I was around eight,there was a play ground(would be better to call it a beautiful garden) in front of my house having many types of flowering plants which had multicoloured flowers in bloom.Roses had a majority there covering 30-40% area of play ground. There were some butterflies and bees foraging for nectar that you could have seen easily if you had been there.Normally every evening I used to go there for playing with my friends.But no one was there of my age,all of them were three or more years elder to me including my brother also or younger to me .For boys the most common games were Cricket and Badminton and for girls those choices were replaced by 'Hop-scotch' and 'Hide & Seek'.There were some cute and sweet babies with their parents who seemed very happy with their rattles in much the same way a foreager bee is happy with nectar.There was also an old woodapple tree and some birds could be seen easily sitting on it's branches preening themselves using their beaks and twittering .I felt like being there day in,day out,morning,noon and night because it was one of my favourite places in childhood.
So one day,I decided to feign stomach- ache to avoid school .I was thinking of an excuse to go in the garden as I always used to.In afternoon I noticed my mother was very busy in her household chores.I thought it was the best time to sneak out of house because I knew my mother would not allow me to go out as I was having stomach-ache according to her .But as I walked on a few steps to go out ,my mother heard my steps.she called my name to ask me where I was going at that time but I tried to play deaf.In an instant I found myself looking at flowers(i.e mission was over to come outside).Suddenly a beautiful scene attracted my attention ,a bee was collecting a sweet liquid(called nectar) produced by flowers.
I want to capture that forager bee.But it was not so easy as it seemed to me because bee could sting easily.I kept looking at it for a long time with a great attention because I found it very attractive.I stood feasting my eyes on the beautiful and extraordinary chemistry between flower and bee.In the twinkling of an eye an escapade clicked my mind to catch it.I took a broomstick from a broom lying on the ground .Nearby I saw a broken wood apple(bel) lying under the tree .I picked it up and broke it into two pieces with the help of a brick so that I could use it's glue which was wrapped around it's seeds.Thereafter I applied that glue at one end of the broomstick with the help of a pedicle and I placed that glue-applied stick on the wings of forager bee and consequently bee got stuck with broom-stick. I felt so elated because I did everything with precision to catch it.I felt to be on cloud nine as i saw that bee clung to the broomstick with the help of glue .
I want that forager bee to hoard more and more nectar so I placed it on a flower which was having more nectar .I kept doing it until I was satisfied by the fact that bee had hoarded enough nectar for it's use.Then I wanted it to go back to it's hive and convey that good news to other bees.So I made an attempt to separate bee from broomstick but all I got was a fiasco.Then I used a pedicle very carefully to isolate it from stick and that proved a successful attempt for a while until I saw bee was on the ground writhing with pain.I could see clearly that bee was not able to fly because it's one wing was broken.At that time all I could see was the bee tolerating pain which I had given it as a bonanza.It was utterly mortifying for me to see that bee in such a bad condition and I started obsessing about what it had done wrong to me??."Absolutely nothing!!"I thought.Forager Bee tolerated pain for a while and finally died. "Dammit!! I had killed that innocent creature only for my little gladness " I was terribly cursing myself at that time.But I knew no difference it would make to curse myself because I could not return it's life .I wished I had magical powers at that time .But those were just crummy thoughts because it had died .I dug a small hole and put it into the hole and covered it up with earth .I kept sitting beside it's small grave for hours and kept thinking "how happy bee had been if it would have got nectar" because I had heard about bee's popular waggle dance.But I had smashed it's all dreams in an instant .Any one could rarely surmise "How shocking that experiment was for me??".That day I promised myself not to repeat such a nightmarish,terrific and life-consuming mistake again in future.
