END OF A CIVILIZATION

Six months back, I noticed termites at my bathroom door sill. I ignored them as I was planning a complete renovation in a years time and left the entire vastness of the sill to their disposal. The small, fragile but relentlessly hardworking creature, soon started building a colony in the heart of hard wood sill. Thousands of worker termites built a palace for the queen and a housing scheme for Queen's offspring was under construction. Day in and day out, the creepy creature was busy implementing the architectural marvel for a comfortable living for the society as whole. A civilization was underway...

Away from the vagaries of nature and in the lap of luxury, my little friends started growing in numbers quickly.

In Rakesh Roshan style computer, I started capturing and deciphering sounds emanating from this enigmatic world of growing activity and prosperity as follows:

at the end of 1st month
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Queen Ant: "My dear sisters, At the end of current term I wud like to congratulate you for having done a good job. During this period we have recorded a growth of 500% in terms of population, 700% in terms of area and our GDP has gone up by 1000%. But we have to do better in order to make our world stronger, more beautiful and comfortable. I am going to set higher targets for the next term, lets hit the bull's eye."

at the end of 2nd month
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Queen Ant: "My dear sisters, At the end of current term I wud like to congratulate you for having done a great job. During this period we have recorded a growth of 1000% in terms of population, 1500% in terms of area and our GDP has gone up by 2000%. Also, our mortality rate has dropped from 30% to 15%. But we have to do better in order to make our world more beautiful and comfortable. I am going to set higher targets for the next term, lets hit the bull's eye."

And so on...

...Blissfully oblivious of their ever diminishing resources, the termites kept working harder and kept eating and growing faster, till one day, I found a heap of dust below where the door sill used to stand once. A solitary cockroach was devouring the remains of a thriving civilization, which were now laying on the ground just few breaths away from history. I took out an anti termite spray from my tool bag and cut short the agony of dying termites. Mercy killing is a civilized act, so I believe...