Kartikeya Ghimire
“Friends, how shall we celebrate the New Year?” asked Chante, the leader of the ants in the village of Betali.
“By eating, drinking and enjoying,” everyone replied.
The ants had brought a fat insect pulling together. Without even waiting for the reply of their leader, the ants at once busied themselves eating the insect.
Chante did not like their idea at the least. He thought for a while and said, “No, I’ll celebrate this new year by starting a new work.”
“Ha ha ha …What kind of work will Chante start?” all the ants teased Chante. He had been thinking of this idea since long. Ultimately, Baishakh 1 came, and it was the day for him to show the starting of his new idea.
To make his idea public, Chante gathered all the ants of Betali village at the ground of the Mahadev Janata High School.
“First of all, I would like to request old ant fathers and mothers, who have already crossed 80, to stand in front of me,” Chante requested, speaking over the microphone. Hearing this, the old ants went close to him, walking with their sticks, and sat beside him. Everyone curiously waited to see what new thing was coming.
Chante started making another announcement, “I would like to request the chairman of our ward and all the volunteer friends to honor these respected aged ants for giving us lives and bringing us up. Serve them sweets. Thereafter, they will be put in a chariot and taken round the village as a mark of felicitation.”
What a superb plan! Everyone was amazed. Bhunte, the chairman was so happy that he at once got up from his seat and hugged Chante, exclaiming, “My brother!”
All the old ants were honored in a grand ceremony. Sweets were distributed and the elderly ants were taken to visit the village on chariots. Everyone appreciated Chante’s idea of making a new start on the New Year’s Day. The old ants blessed him very much. Since that day, Chante never lost any competition in his life. He always won, because he had the blessing of his elders.