BY SUCHITRA MEHTA 

 

MY neighbour called me the other day in a distressful voice, “Be careful, don’t open the windows of your rooms. There is a big bee hive hanging from the side of your balcony. Hundreds of bees are hovering around that might attack you”. As we reside on the top floor of a high-rise building, the shadowed and slightly hidden balconies on the top of the building are the favourite places chosen by bees to construct a beehive. I did not panic as I am ok with these small creatures including wall lizards and moths! I tried to peep out from the balcony and started exploring where the hive was. I could see a big house full of honey around 10 feet away seated on the wall by the side of the window. Instead of making plans to knock it out, I heedfully espied the whole structure. What an unrivalled and skillfully done architecture it was! I read about it and understood that the bees are eusocial flying insects. Meaning that they belong to the highest level of organisation of sociality. They are good at cooperative work like division of labour, taking care of the offspring of their colony, work in tandem in an organised way. Unless provoked they generally won’t harm us! The next thing I did was to get my camera and capture the ‘beauty with a sting’.

 

While I was busy focussing my lens on the hive’s hexagons - the architectural marvel created by untutored and unschooled creatures, I heard a commotion made by other society members as they got alarmed about the impending danger. My mobile jangled with WhatsApp messages by neighbours in full panic mode. The beehive catcher was already called and all of us were requested to cooperate so that he could do the job properly. As the hive was closer to my room window, the so called gunman approached it through my apartment. I hurriedly warned him not to use any deadly techniques while undertaking the work and requested to take all efforts not to harm the bees. I did not want to witness it and was feeling rather sorry for the loss of their treasure. After some time the beehive catcher was ready with approximately 30 kgs of honey and asked the society members if we would be interested in purchasing some. I got one litre bottle for myself. The bees were gone. Few of the herd who were not present when this catastrophe happened kept visiting the site for 3-4 days.

 

However, as they did not find the queen, they understood and went away. Next morning, I had my oats with that special honey and thought how much hard work each one of them must have put to collect that one tablespoonful of honey! Again in the evening sitting in the balcony, I put some of the honey in my black tea. My mind was still lingering around the hexagons. There was a mixed feeling of acceptance to their unconditional and truthful work disputing distrust from my side to destroy their kingdom in one go. Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound, so I turned around to check where it was coming from. The bee was sipping nectar from the basil plant in the balcony. I think, I heard it saying, “It’s OK, we are starting afresh! Don’t forget to water your plants and make sure that they blossom. We can take care of each other that way!”