Bats, Honeybees and What Not!

I have been planning this post for a while now and it's almost been 7 months that I haven't written a thing. It's not like I did not have anything to write but I genuinely did not feel like writing at all. The past year has been a total emotional roller coaster. It was the weirdest year for sure. Time kept changing its pace on an hourly basis. Sometimes an entire day would be slow, somedays I would sleep till noon just to pass the time, and some nights I would binge watch just to, well, pass my time.

But I remember there was this one particular day when something interesting happened after a long, long time. You see, I and my brother love to go on terrace and walk-in circles, climb up the water tank just to get a wider look. We love to watch flocks of bats (is it what they call a bunch of bats ? Found it! They are called cauldron of bats.) So, I and my brother love to see a cauldron of bats flying over. The weather has always been pleasant in Pune, especially at the golden hour, the sky grows red. Sometimes when it is about to rain it goes grey and its shades, and the cool breeze blows (it might get stormy sometimes) roughing up your hair.

It feels good, doesn't it?
Now imagine experiencing THAT every.single.day!
Yeah, that's the stuff.

So back to the story, I and my brother love terrace walk. On this particular day (for the honor of the amazing day, the day must remain dateless.) my mom, who by the way, does not visit this awesome place which is apparently so close to home, that often. I will just admit it, she is scared of bats! (that's a legitimate fear) So, on this particular day, she (I don't know for what reason) climed upstairs and after a short while we heard her come running down the stairs shouting "HONEYBEES, HONEYBEES, LOTS OF THEM!" (sounds better in Marathi though). She came running down TWO flights of stairs. It was ten in the morning, we were having breakfast and she comes running down shouting "HONEYBEES HONEYBees, honeybees", she did not even sit to catch her breath. And out she went running. She did not stop till she out of the house. We tried to calm her down, and after a while (thankfully) she came back inside and drank a jar full of water. She swore never to go on the terrace again! honeybees or no honeybees, she banned terrace for life! I officially announce that fear of bees is a real fear. Capital R and capital F (thank you Chandler, I love you).

So, yeah, back to the story, we, as bored as we were, tried to 'investigate' the whole honeybees situation but our beloved and so scared mother did not even allow us to climb the first step, Moms! I know, right? (the sentence is not over yet) for FIFTEEN DAYS! and yes that was the highlight of the day or week or month, maybe.
Yeah, so no bat watching, no terrace walks, no climbing up the water tank for a wider view, and worst of all no cool breeze blowing through hair for fifteen days. And that was it! we wanted our beloved routine back. So we planned an expedition just like Byomkesh Bakshi ( 2000's people google it!) we started to collect evidence and tried to get answers to important questions like how many of them are there? How big is the honeycomb? where is it really hanging? and most important of it all how do we destroy it? (that makes me sound so non-environmentalist, right?). After a lot of discussion with mom, without mom, with brother, with 'I an not ready' brother, we decided to climb up Bagmar aunty's stairs and 'investigate' the crime scene with our highly refined senses. So, we marched into Bagmar aunty's house ready for the quest. My brother who is so afraid of anything that flys or bites covered himself with a monkey cap (with goggles on) a thermal jacket, army pants and gumboots. In his right hand he held a mortien spray and in his left he held the mighty mosquito bat (I really don't know what was that for?) as you can see team Byomkesh was ready with all the zest and enthusiasm that was left within us, for this investigation.

I must tell one thing about Bagmar Aunty, she is 78 years old and she talks a lot! yeah I know I talk a lot but once you meet her the crown will automatically change heads. And she lives with her 18 year old grandson, who by the way is into hotel management and thus our source of delicious and fingerlicking food.

"Hi aunty! can we go upstairs, please, we just need to check the size of the honeycomb which is probably hanging on our terrace, that's it!, so can we?" in one breath.

"Honeycomb, eh?"

"yes!"

"You know, I remember the last time when there was a honeycomb hanging down your house, it is a very interesting story children. Here have some cashews, freshly roasted. So, last time there was a honeycomb hanging on your roof was in the 90s. Me and your your granduncle (oh yes, one more thing aunty's husband died almost 5 years ago.) discovered it and told your father about it. He too, like you children came by. Your granduncle took him upstairs but alas! they couldn't find one! instead, your found your mother, who has just moved here. He told us taht it was love at first sight on the day he married her....."

this went on for a while and finally she said "...I don't want to break the tradition, so yes go on! I hope you find it this time." "I really hope not." I murmured. So, we climbed up the stairs and lo! Aunty was right! No honeybees, not a single one and definitely no big old honeycomb. But we sure did find a fully grown mango tree three terraces away. I guess Aunty was right about love at first sight.

See sometimes...life is difficult, everything seems so distant and you feel heavy, you get a sinking feeling and you want to so badly crawl into your bed and never come out. You just want to hide away from it all. But the funny thing is that life is so full of ups and downs. It all adds up to your 'oh so wonderful' life. You just have to save those three magical words "I am okay" with other six "It is going to be okay". You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Because we all decide to do so many things like I want to paint more, I want to practice my piano everyday, I want to learn sanskrit and so on. But, eventually, we end up doing not-so-much and that is okay.

See life would be pretty damn boring if you would have figured it all out, right?

So, give yourself some credit and 'cut yourslef some slack'. You will eventually figure it out with every mistake you make, with every loss you face, with every win, you will eventually get where you were supposed to be.

Just take one day at a time. (cliché but true.)riting