People my age grew up reading epic children's series, viz. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew or the Famous Five. In every book, the characters would take basketsful of food to a meadow, to enjoy picnics.

However, during my Class 3 picnic to Vihar Lake in Powai, red ants raided my bag of goodies. I wasn't willing to forfeit my favourite eats to the ants and made futile efforts to dust them off my tiffin. But those pesky and persistent creatures weren't ready to share their treasure with me. Resultantly, I realised that fiction was different from reality, at least in matters concerning ants.