Kendrapara, Jul 28: Just as the sight of a honeybee makes one scared of being stung, in case of a swarm of bees, everybody runs for cover.
But a betel shop at Aul in coastal Kendrapara is a rare sight, where swarms of honey bees come every day to the shop of Ganesh Chandra Roy alias Hira, the owner, who feeds them with sweet pan masala. Incidentally, one can find the betel shop-owner covered with hundreds of bees.
Strangely, to everyone’s surprise, the bees neither sting the owner nor the customers, coming to the shop.
Hira, a resident of Lokapada village under Aul police station, was once a professional artist in opera and won accolades for performing female role. He, however, now ekes out his living through the betel shop and variety store at Aul market.
His betel shop has gained fame among the locals since last Raja festival, as they throng to the shop to see swarms of bees flitting around the shop.
According to Hira, during the Raja festival, he used to sell special sweet betel. This year, the fragrance of sweet pan masala, cherry and fried coconut attracted the honeybees to his betel shop.
When a swarm of bees first came to his betel shop, he along with customers became panicked and scared of being stung by bees.
But to the surprise of Hira, a swarm of bees came and sat on the cherry and other fragranced sweet pan masala.
Seeing the bees are not attacking him and the customers, Hira started offering them cherry and other sweet pan masala. Since then, to his amazement, the honeybees have become regulars to his betel shop just like his customers.
“Whenever I open my shop, bees swarm in huge numbers, and I used to feed the insects with cherry and other sweet fragrant pan masala and betel,” he said.
Every day, Hira spends around Rs 150 to feed thousands of bees hovering in his betel shop.
“I do not know where the honeybees are coming from. I think they are local. As I developed an emotional attachment with the bees, I feel great to work in my betel shop amid swarms of honey bees,” Hira said.
Earlier, customers were afraid to come to his shop due to swarms of bees all over the place, but when they learnt that the bees are not biting, they started coming without fear, said Hira.
The betel owner said he loves to spend time with bees too, as he gets immense pleasure and has developed a special purpose vehicle with the bees.
