Mosquitoes – our BFF!

Peek-a-boo...but they can see you!

Consider this: This personal blog post by Bill Gates ranks mosquitoes at the very top of the list of ‘The world’s deadliest animals’! Surely this resilient fellow, as a carrier of various virulent diseases, deserves to be far more in the limelight for the disruption that it causes. (And here we’ve been frittering away all our coffee table discussions (albeit behind locked doors,) on the exploits of a bearded man who wants us to play ‘Monopoly’ without the bank rolls!) 

It always confounds me, as to how a creature of this size can be so remarkably intelligent. How do they have the uncanny ability to bite you at the most inaccessible parts of your body – like the back of your gym toned upper arms? Gym or no gym – they will get you! Or maybe your feet while you are cooking in a hurry and not in a position to scratch (or smash!) with your flour caked hands; or better still, while you are driving on a highway and the bloody creature decides to shift between your feet and the clutch by turns! (Surely it is bloody after it sucks up my already dwindling supply of haemoglobin) And how on earth does it identify the baby soft skin of a child versus the toughened exterior of an adult? And why are some people more susceptible to bites than others? They say smells or pheromones play an important role in attracting the perceptive beings. We surely need DNA manipulating medicines now!

Stories abound about the size and feats of these ubiquitous insects. A friend once spent the entire night painting the wall red, dexterously smashing droves of them against the wall of the hotel room! Then again is the poignant tale of a niece who had no choice but to continue with the elaborate marriage ceremonies even after being afflicted by the debilitating dengue.

For almost every Indian parent, night time debates run like this – what is the trade-off between letting my children sleep with  ‘Goodknight’ mosquito repellents on or with none - future lung cancer versus the very real threat of Falciparum malaria?

Of course I am manipulated everyday by benevolent companies trying to make a killing out of our dilemma. Good old Odomos versus ‘safer’ mosquito patches. Goodknight versus All-out. Herbal roll on versus Patanjali eco friendly repellents (yes the Baba sells that too!). Too many choices at a supermarket trip and my shopping expedition quickly fizzles out; let the most interesting advertisement win or else I’ll have to buy a paracetamol! 

The little vampires have the infamous distinction of making a fable out of me in my family. As a UK born four year old kid, shifting to India, hitherto unexposed to mosquitoes (and contraptions like three bladed fans, hole in the floor – Indian toilets), I was totally besieged by the attacking forces. My only line of defence was to scratch the bites out for tell-tale scars and yell ‘Maaaaa…..mosquito bite!’ You might be assaulted by your cheek-tweaking-relatives with the one-liner ‘kitni badi ho gayi hai!’, mine never fail to remind me of my mosquito fighting exploits!

Not really a laughing matter, the impact of this little vermin on our lives is appalling. Consider cumulatively the number of human lives lost, the man days lost, the school days lost, the loss in efficiency, the deterrent to tourism and one will realise that out of all the winged creatures to have escaped the fabled Pandora’s box, this one is the deadliest! Somewhere the God Almighty is chuckling and musing to himself - it only takes a minuscule insect to derail a so called intelligent species. After all, despite all our technological advancements it only takes our deplorable hygiene habits to render all our intelligent efforts in vain. 

Swachh Bharat - any one?