Saturday, July 16, 2005
Roosting in my mosquito net
For as long as I can remember, I have been trying to make peace with the mosquitoes in my bedroom. They abound here, aggressively foraging for blood, sucking any warm co2 exhaling animal on their random excursions. Not even my emaciated body is spared. Their sizes vary, but some of the large ones bear testimony to the fact that there is no dearth of blood in these parts. I wonder why the Malthusian theory doesnt hold for them. Their means of subsistence should now have been incapable of sustaining this mad proliferation!.
I never could not talk peace with these j e h a d i s. For a long time, my hapless body's only defence was the humble mosquito mat. Then I switched to the mosquito-repellant cream, but they adapted quickly and started sucking my buttocks or and other vulnerable areas. Incidentally, they use their long tongues(proboscis) to introduce some anaesthic substance leaving the skin numb temporarily and do the drilling and sucking. So usually I wouldnt realize their looting my blood until they make a clean job of it and leave. If the bite lasted long enough, my not so sharp reflexes would try swatting them, only to realize they escaped, leaving me crying in agony.
Truce was reached late last year when I was gifted a mosquito net by my ever so caring parents. The arrangment is quite clumsy and elaborate: two ends tied to an almirah handle and chair and the other two to window handles. The sides are then tucked beneath the mattress. A good part of my time is spent in preparing to sleep, tieing all the knots, switching on the night lamp, entering my burrow and making sure all sides are well-guarded- but all this is time well spent. The mosquitoes, otherwise willing to trade their lives for some blood now respect my space and leave me in peace. Above all they save me from pangs of guilt in having to snuff these defenseless creatures to premature death. With a life span of only a few weeks, should one risk death and taste ambrosia or die with an empty tummy feeling good about sparing somebody? Mosquitos chose the former and I would have done the same if I were in mosquito's shoes and leave self-abnegation for humans ( who incidentally, consider them irritants out on a blood-sucking spree ).
I never could not talk peace with these j e h a d i s. For a long time, my hapless body's only defence was the humble mosquito mat. Then I switched to the mosquito-repellant cream, but they adapted quickly and started sucking my buttocks or and other vulnerable areas. Incidentally, they use their long tongues(proboscis) to introduce some anaesthic substance leaving the skin numb temporarily and do the drilling and sucking. So usually I wouldnt realize their looting my blood until they make a clean job of it and leave. If the bite lasted long enough, my not so sharp reflexes would try swatting them, only to realize they escaped, leaving me crying in agony.
Truce was reached late last year when I was gifted a mosquito net by my ever so caring parents. The arrangment is quite clumsy and elaborate: two ends tied to an almirah handle and chair and the other two to window handles. The sides are then tucked beneath the mattress. A good part of my time is spent in preparing to sleep, tieing all the knots, switching on the night lamp, entering my burrow and making sure all sides are well-guarded- but all this is time well spent. The mosquitoes, otherwise willing to trade their lives for some blood now respect my space and leave me in peace. Above all they save me from pangs of guilt in having to snuff these defenseless creatures to premature death. With a life span of only a few weeks, should one risk death and taste ambrosia or die with an empty tummy feeling good about sparing somebody? Mosquitos chose the former and I would have done the same if I were in mosquito's shoes and leave self-abnegation for humans ( who incidentally, consider them irritants out on a blood-sucking spree ).
