It was a bright day as Rocky, a 2 day old black worker ant, was busy carrying the food to his colony. Rocky's colony was situated on the bank of a river headed by a queen ant. Ever since Rocky transformed into an ant from pupa, he always wished to explore the world. .
One day,sick of moving in a queue during work and saying "hai" to every single ant he sees on his way, Rocky asked his friend Tommy "For how many days are we gonna do this?"
"Till we die" replied Tommy.
"What? There gonna be no fun in our life? Just work?" asked dejected Rocky.
"Well it all depends on how you take your life dude. Be happy with what you have" replied Tommy.
Rocky didnt reply. Tommy sensed Rocky wasnt happy and so he said "If you want happiness, then you should probably go to the Paradise."
"Paradise? what is Paradise?" asked Rocky as he was getting curious.
Tommy replied "Yeah,Thats how they call the land that is on the other side down the river. I have heard that it is supposed to look like Paradise. You will get whatever you want. Fried bugs, sugar, plant seeds, you name it, you will get everything. A place where every ant dreams of. but"
"But?" said Rocky as he look puzzled.
"Yeah it is a paradise but reaching there is almost impossible. Lot of ants have tried it. but no one was able to cross the river" replied Tommy.
"Is there any other way?" questioned desperate Rocky.
"There is bridge far from here.But it is too far that we will become old and eventually die before reaching it. " replied Tommy.
Rocky didn't say anything after that.
In the night, after moving all the eggs into the nest they both went to bed. Tommy fell asleep at once while Rocky kept thinking about the paradise
Next morning on their way to work Rocky told Tommy that he was planning to go to the paradise.
"What? no one in their right mind will do it! It like suicide !" exclaimed Tommy.
From that time on wards, Rocky decided not to tell anything to Tommy and started to work on his plan. He thought he needed a boat to cross the river.so every night after everyone slept he went out in search of the right leaf to use it as a boat. Days passed but he wasn't able to find a proper dried leaf. Finally he found a leaf which he felt it would make a good boat and started pulling it to the river bank. He wasnt able to pull the leaf far as he was the only one pulling the leaf. It took four nights for him to bring the leaf to the bank.
Next day he went to work as usual and didn't utter a word about this to Tommy. At night everyone went to sleep and so did Rocky. At dawn, Rocky woke up and loaded the boat with some supplies,took a really really small stick for paddling and pushed the leaf into the water and boarded it. Rocky was so happy that he was on his way to the Paradise.
On his way he met humans, who were bathing in the river. The river became rough as humans splashed the water at each other and the waves were so strong that Rocky's boat would have almost toppled. "Hey cut it out! cut it out" yelled Rocky. But Human wasn't able to hear that. And so Rocky paddled the boat as fast as he could mumbling that humans were deaf.
Two days passed, Rocky was worn out paddling all day and he thought carrying food in the colony was much easier than paddling the boat. But he felt that if he reaches the Paradise he needn't suffer ever after.
The sun had set and it was getting darker. As Rocky didn't have anymore energy to paddle, he fell asleep. It was past midnight, wind started to blow, the sky became cloudy and it started to drizzle. Rocky was bombarded by rain drops. The leaf started to sink and Rocky jumped into the river. He swam towards the nearby rock. Finally he got on the rock and found a spot where he can hide himself from rain. It rained all night and Rocky didn't move an inch from that place. As he was tired he fell asleep.
Next morning when he woke up, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. He came out of his hide out and climbed to the top of the rock. From there he was able to see the land. He was damn happy that he had almost reached the Paradise. But the rock a was in the middle of the river,little away from the river bank and hence Rocky had to cross this part. But his boat sank and he felt swimming across the river is too dangerous.
Days passed, Rocky sat on the top of the rock left with no clue of what to do next. His stomach growled due to hunger and his hope of reaching the Paradise started to thin. That night Rocky felt that he was left with no choice but to swim across the river though he knew that the possibility of reaching the land was very less as he was very weak. Rocky made up his mind and jumped into the river. Rocky swam as fast and as hard as he could. He almost reached the bank but the waves were rough and finally all his legs gave up. Rocky started to drown. It was the waves that brought him to the bank. Rocky was dead tired and he couldn't even move a bit and slept there without his knowledge.
Next day, the Sun was up and Rocky was struggling to open his eyes as he was still tired. Rocky finally opened his eyes and he saw the paradise. But the place was no better than from where he had come. The place was bad. Rocky felt that he had wasted half of his life time for this. Everything he believed in, everything he dreamed of vanished in air. He then walked not knowing what to do next where he encountered slave maker ants who arrested him and made him to work as a slave in their colony. He was forced to work day and night. He felt that he had a happy life in his colony and it was his greed that brought him here and left him to rot. Rocky became old and he really wished that if he could go back in time and change his decision of coming to the paradise.
