THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER RELOADED

Sreekumar K

The flood had receded since the monster’s plumber had done a good job. This was a great relief for the ant community who were anxious to see their relatives who were trapped on the other side. Though the monsters still thought that the ants communicated using pheromones, they had developed their own language soon after the Renaissance when they found that a chemical white mark at Antinople across their lines played havoc with their communications. The chemicals gave some a high and some a low. For the first time in their history they found the communications funny and still enjoyable. Those who had the guts to publicly declare that it was desirable were labelled defectors and heretics, and were excommunicated. Still, a group of mavericks, met in deserted ant hills and developed a new language that didn’t use pheromones, but just their limbs. It had a sizeable vocabulary of 200 or more basic words made using the permutation and combination of signs using their legs, mainly based on how many legs were up and which ones.

Earlier, when the ants communicated, with the help of pheromones they were all completely connected to one another and there was no hiding anything, fancying anything or imagining anything. Two ant brains were connected like two neurons in the monsters’ brain, with the pheromones acting as neurotransmitters. Basically, ants on a hill had one single brain divided among a million bodies.

Life was easy, but not beautiful. Their architecture evolved rather slowly, even slower that they themselves evolved.

It was Sachrine, son of Sugar, who first theorized that it is possible to develop a language which could be used for higher purposes. There was a lot of resistance from the community. He was almost excommunicated. But he was insulated by his stature as the son of Sugar who, as a child, had discovered a new route to some valuable food sources on the other side of a deserted puddle, .

Sachrine theorized that it was not so much of an advantage to have total communication. This was at the cost of unreality, fantasy and imagination which were totally new ideas. What is the point of talking about things which aren’t simply there,they asked. But he didn’t give up.

By citing history, he proved that reality is not what is. In hind sight, it also included what will be. In simple terms, what is not there today will be there tomorrow. By developing a language in which you can tell lies, you can also envision your future. It will help them create it sooner and better. One question that he asked reverberated through the inner chambers of the anthill. Why are we saving for a rainy day since it is not raining now? So, (he argued) there was reality in the future whether we realize it or not. The first step to bring it into reality is to see it in the mind.

Sliding up the bedroom curtain, a short cut to the attic, Sachrine was laying it all out for Jaggiri. She was from a very traditional clan and had not got any radical ideas in her head. He was more refined than her. Other ants used to say that Sachrine wanted a wife who wouldn’t interrupt him when he talked. A few said that he only wanted to flaunt his anti racist chauvinism when he chose Jaggiri.

“Jag, guess what, there was a time we were all wired together and nothing much happened even in years. The new language has given us the freedom to choose between total and partial communication and see how antizens prefer partial communication and we have changed the way we think, act and build, mostly build. The new language gave us the freedom to explore things personally which brought in variety and a lot to share. When we all saw red as the same red and called a spade a spade, there wasn’t much to share. In fact, now we are a community enriched by unreality which is otherwise known as imagination.”

Jaggiri didn’t say anything. Personally, she had never chosen to use the new language much. Her happiness in that patriarch society depended mostly on knowing her husband’s mind, his likes and his dislikes. Her very existence depended on being one with her husband.

“Dear Sach, I am always impressed by the things you talk about and what the others talk about you. May be, if we remained in my own clan, a matriarchal one, I would have cared much more for what you think and say, opposed them or defended them. Given the kind of society that we live in, I don’t see the need or the point in doing so.”

“That is so mean of you, to say the least. Beyond I and you and our little Glucose, there is a society out there which we need and needs us. It is OK to be part of it and do what we are pheromoned to do. But, since we now have the freedom to go beyond our innate instincts, one has to see the whole picture, not only because we can see it but also because we can plan to alter it. See what the monsters have done with it.”

“O, you’re right, look at them! They are trying their best to have complete communication and live happily like what they think we do. And we are trying to be like them. Sach, do you think they are happier than us?”

 “Well, happiness is not something you have. It is something you are.”

“That is just a play on syntax. When we were courting, you had not yet invented this new language and I knew exactly what you thought. And you too did the same. But, we were not happier then than we are now. And even now, I don’t think we are noticeably happy anyway.”

“Jag, you are skirting the issue. We were actually discussing what role we play in society. Is it that of a subordinate or that of a leader?”

“Sach, do you remember that before you and your friends brought in this new language and all that go with it, there was no subordination. I did my work and they did theirs.”

“Jag, but don’t forget you had no choices either. It was a tight net and we were all tied up. There was no freedom in it.”

“See, you wanted freedom, and now you want to be responsible for the whole clan too. I doubt if there is much freedom in it.”

“You got me wrong there. My concept of freedom is not a personal feeling. We are sympathetic by default. All living things are. So, I don’t think I will be happy as a tyrant like the ones among the monsters.”

“But we were responsible for the group even when we were wired tight together and had no choice. That is what life does for you. Minimum guarantee to thrive and multiply.”

“But Jag, if we accurately look at it, this new life also is the result of that wiring. There was a purposeful snag in our wiring which triggered this whole evolution as linguistic beings. This too is the work of life.”

“But the snag wasn’t in us. It happened when the humans used pesticides on us.”

“Life is not a single species affair. I am talking about the life of anything and everything.”

“Sach, no wonder they call you Sach, the Impossible. You always have the last word. Or let me correct myself. You have been wired to do so well. We ordinary souls are wired too badly.”

Jaggiri regretted the conversation. She wished she hadn’t taunted him like that. Then, with a sigh she told herself that she was wired to respond to this, at this point of time, to this person, in this way.

For the rest of the way they didn’t talk to each other at all and when they reached their anthill on the monsters’ attic, there was a bad dispute going on.

A grasshopper had come begging for food and the workers were teasing him asking him where he had been when they were saving for a rainy day. He had no reasonable answer to give. Sacharine didn’t want to get involved. The workers were never in good terms with him since he was the sole reason why working class was not a birthright any more. However, Jaggiri looked into the situation and argued that the surplus food could be given to the grasshopper too for the minimum price of a song a day.

The grasshopper was pretty old and it sang its swan song in a week. Jaggiri felt no qualms about inviting the worker ants to feast on its carcass.

That night, cuddled in Sachrine’s arms, she asked him what he thought about rebirth.