The Little Typhoon and the sting

The Little Typhoon came running in to my room, eyes and nostrils flared due to exertion. She was holding her little finger and wringing it now and then. Her face was mirrored in confusion - fear, anxiety and a weak smile. Not knowing what had happened, I also tried to imitate her facial expressions – muscle for muscle.

This buffoonery must have reminded her of a pair of monkeys aping at each other. The weak smile became a wider grin and she stopped wringing her finger.

Recovering quickly, she started wringing her finger again, with reduced vigour. I read the sign correctly and asked her the question she was waiting to hear, “What has happened?” From her breathless narration, I understood that she had been bitten by an insect while she was plucking some flowers.

To make sure that it was a harmless insect bite, both of us went to the spot of encounter and she pointed out the flower plant – with an accusing finger.

Closer inspection revealed that the particular flowering plant was playing host to variety of insects – ants, butterflies and honey bees.

The Sherlock Holmes in me told her that, from the slight reddish colouring and swelling under the skin, it might have been an ant or a honey bee. On second thoughts I revised it to be the honey bee as the ants scurrying in the recess of flower cups were black and tiny- the harmless house roaming insect. I confirmed it to her that she had been bitten by a bee and asked her to apply a little paste of chunna.

Forgetting her pain, she started asking why some ants, mosquitoes, scorpions and bees bite? Are they hungry?  Are they angry? I have not yet found the best way to deflect her questions and why to forego a chance to brush up my memory, enjoying a little fun in the bargain!

I started explaining that ants are very small, do lot of work like collecting and taking care of their own young and the sick. Waving my hands in the air, as if lecturing to a science class I said, “For doing any work you need energy. The sweet liquid from the flowers is like glucose and that is why ants visit the flowers”.

Not so easy! She had a counter ready – “Then why the ants carry sugar crystals from the kitchen shelf to their house, if they can not eat solid food?  I explained to her that the ants, whenever they want, can wet the sugar crystals with their saliva and change it in to sweet liquid. Thank God, she was already aware of the fact that sugar and salt will dissolve in water.

With out any preamble, I just told her that butterfly is a winged insect, like a hang glider. Immediately she responded, “Like Spiderman, it spreads the cloth wings and flies” – the real child in her came out in the open when she said those words.  Back to her usual self in a moment and with all the innocence in the world, she asked, “Why should the butterfly also take food from the flower?”

I could understand from her expressions that she was worried about the ‘hang glider’ giving a stiff competition to the tiny ant.

I showed her a butterfly just hovering over a flower and said, “It has a very small stomach and finds it difficult to digest solid food. That is why it takes a sweet liquid diet”. Before I could finish the sentence she blurted out, “like the saline water along with medicines given to patients!” It was her ‘Eureka” moment!

After taking a little time, I let her know that honey bees are special insects – they not only collect the sweet liquid from flowers but change the sweet liquid to honey and wax. The flower hides the sweet liquid and the bee finds it like in the game of ‘hide and seek’.  I was mentally expecting a claymore mine to blow me away off the track.

The little lady, with wringing finger, got engrossed in the honey conversion process- she forgot to question me about the wax part.

After listening to my narration, she asked, “When ants, butterflies and bees take sweet liquid from flowers why the bees alone sting? The scorpions and mosquitoes do not drink the sweet liquid from the flowers, then why they sting or bite?

Did I not warn you that this Little Typhoon is a living dynamite? Now, carefully go through the questions – she had grouped insects that taste nectar and the ones that don’t. She had also made a fine distinction among the same set of insects and in comparison with the other set in the second question – mosquitoes and spiders do not taste nectar but sting.

That was not to be the end of questioning session. She asked me why ants are seen carrying rice and cereals too, if they can not eat them as it is.

Searching for convincing answers, I just closed my eyes to think and phrase my replies. The long time I was taking might have interfered with her other busy schedules of the day. She quietly walked out, leaving me to contemplate.