The Locust Squad

          Have you ever seen a bee flying alone, collecting nectar? Yeah, most of you have. What about a group of bees, coming from a hive? Okay, what about a million bees, flying together like a huge bee army? A sight not seen every day, right? On this particular day, the 3rd of October 2014, I with my grandpa, was coming home from the market. I had my camera with me. I had been clicking pictures of clouds. There was this spectacular display in the sky. The clouds had formed a lightning pattern, and the setting sun gave an orange tinge to it. I took at least 20 pictures, while my grandpa was busy buying things. After he completed his purchases, we were on our way back. Even while riding the scooter, I was still fully engrossed in taking pictures of the sunset. Then while taking a photo, this bee came in between me and the sun. I deleted the photo, and continued. Immediately, the sky was filled with hundreds of bees. They were flying quite high. On the scooter, there was no protection. But still, with the bees flying so high, I wasn’t at all scared. I was in fact amazed at their number. There were at least a million bees. If you have seen stars in a clear, pollution-free sky, imagine all of the stars moving in a random motion. But the bees didn’t maintain their height for long. Within a minute, they were buzzing around our scooter. Yikes. It seemed as if they were racing against us. But they didn’t seem to be in the attacking mode. On close observation, I saw that they were dragonflies. But my grandpa said that they were locusts, which destroy crops. We reached home, and I went straight for the balcony. Our house was on the fifth floor. The locusts would be visible clearly at this height.  But they were gone. Yeah, gone. They disappeared as soon as they had appeared. Strange. I looked all around for them. No sign. This was the first time I had seen such a huge number of locusts at a time. I know I won’t forget this locust experience ever. I just hoped for one thing, ‘May God save the crops”.

 

-         Manas Trivedi