The Ants’ Defence
By Anam Fathima
Ants Defence Anam Fathima
Copyright:
Anam Fathima/ Al Qamar Academy
Written & Illustrated By: Anam Fathima Produced By: Al Qamar Academy Contact: Al Qamar Academy 14, Kalyani Nagar, Opposite Journalists’ Colony Kottivakkam, Chennai 600041 Ph: 044 24511226/ 9677019226 info@alqamaracademy.in www.alqamaracademy.in All Rights Reserved. An Al Qamar Trust publication Al Qamar Academy is a micro school in Chennai, India. As an alternative school, Al Qamar focusses on inculcating curiosity, enabling real learning and developing a social conscience in children. The school constantly innovates in its pedagogical delivery. The school was founded by IIT’ian Hauroon Jamal and Aneesa Jamal. This book is an outcome of a bookmaking workshop at Al Qamar Academy followed by three one-to-one mentoring sessions for the young authors conducted by renowned conservation educator and nature photographer K. Ramnath Chandrasekhar. The storytelling module used by him during the sessions were designed for Karthavyam, an initiative on public-problem solving.
“Hi! I’m Meela and I’m the Queen’s helper (so lucky to be one!) I love the Queen very much. And I couldn’t let anybody hurt her.
Now, I’ll show you around the house and its dangers. Our house is on top (or rather inside) of a hill called the Anthill. No wonder we ants live there.
In our house we have four rooms. One is the Baby room.
The other – the Queen’s. The third is the Working room. The last is the Seed Room.
We used to do gardening too!! Sometimes the plants grew bigger than us.
But lately no plants are growing due to something called “Pollution� caused by our unfriendly neighbours :
The Evil Scientists.
They had dumped some smelly stuff called trash in front of our house for us to starve. Now we are trapped unless somebody can float through that trash‌
Meanwhile, unknown to the other ants, the evil scientists had found a hidey hole and had come to capture Queen Anty, who had been left unguarded.
We ants were still discussing the Problem about being trapped – no - plants - growing business. “Who
can
through trash?”
f lo at
“I bet I know the answer who! Queen Anty of course!” “How come we never thought of it?” said Golu, one of the ants.
We went to Queen Anty’s chamber (room). We sighed with relief for there had been no one to guard Queen Anty as they usually did. At first, everything looked perfect. Or so we thought!
Then a wise Ant said: “Be careful O youngsters! You will indeed not be satisfied by just guessing O young Ants! There are drops of blue blood. I foretell you the humans have come!� And with that he went off.
Queen Anty was missing! We panicked. “Maybe the Evil Scientists kidnapped her!” “Oh dear! Maybe we can follow the men” suggested Artilla, a young ant. “But how will we? Have you forgotten about us being stuck in the trash?” someone asked.
“Oh, I haven’t thought of that!” said Artilla. “ Well, w hat abo ut digging?” she asked. “ We ca n ca l l t h e gardener ants to help u s . T h e y ’r e g o o d diggers.”
And at last when the gardener ants were finished digging, we went out. Aaah! How fresh the air felt. But the soldiers made us march on. We were following the evil men.
We continue d following the men. We e n j o ye d t h e beautiful scene. B u t c o u l d n’t s e e properly because the soldiers urged us on if we stopped.
At last we reached there – by sliding on ra i n b o w s and floating on clouds.
We reac he d the s c i e n t i s t s ’ la b a n d searche d ever ywhere for Queen Anty. We found her behind a t ra p d o o r w it h m a n y other animals.
When we were at the doorway the men appeared. The soldiers and the Queen fought with the Evil Scientists an d captured them.
But there was only one problem – we had followed the men. Thus we did not know the way back.
Luckily for us we had an ant known as Hashrim who wrote everything down. Normally we would have called him foolish but now we didn’t.
We followed the instructions and came back home. And fixed our home and lived happily ever after.
MESSAGE TO THE READER People who dump garbage should realise that they are harming the environment – including ants, earthworms and other insects.
NOTES Public problems are everywhere. Observe them and make a note here. Find out how you will solve them.
About the Author A F B N sta n d s A n a m Fathima Binte Naveeth Ahm e d. Anam like s reading, writing, craft work and taking care of pets. She loves her two pet parrots very much.
Queen Anty and her faithful children are exhausted by the do ing s of the Evil Scientists. First there was trash. An d now the Queen is kidnapped. It is up to the ants to save her.