Raju Korti
I have lost count, and therefore interest, on the number of "Days" that people observe or celebrate. By sheer accident and idle meandering on the net, I discovered that today (August 21) is World Mosquito Day. A quick research told me that this day is celebrated to commemorate British doctor Sir Ronald Ross who did mankind a huge favor by establishing that the female parasite is primarily responsible for causing malaria and its more dreadful variants.
Ross is himself believed to have issued an appeal to observe the day as World Mosquito Day. I guess somewhere at the back of his mind, Ross was conscious that while he had made a great discovery, he was also duty-bound to propose a vote of thanks to the little creatures who made it happen. The fact that they are belittled as "machchars" -- now a derogatory term for trivial and inconsequential people -- has not taken any of the the sting out of their bite. I remember a decade back having read a World Health Organization report singling out Malaria as the most rampant prospect ahead of AIDS, Ebola, Bird Flu and other modern-day afflictions. The s(t)ing-and-bite brutes have belied their size to make short work of other parasites by multiplying themselves at the rate that even humans have found it impossible to match.
I have also noted with awe that observing World Mosquito Day has been a decades old tradition with the famed London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine -- proof, if it is needed, that mosquitoes have shown themselves worthy of the tradition and honor while fighting for that exalted position. All this at a time when a number of repellents are "all out" to eliminate them and ensure humans have a "good night". If some of my doctor friends are to be believed, mosquitoes have mutated into new and potentially more dangerous avtaars capable of surviving even the until-now-time-tested Quinine. There cannot a better example of truth being bitter than this.
The man who gave mosquitoes the dignity and stature they deserve is Nana Patekar through that immortal dialogue :"Saala ek machchar bhi aadmi ko hijda bana deta hai" (Just one mosquito can reduce a person to a transgender) although it is patently disparaging for the transgenders. The creatures for all seasons sing choruses as humans provide background music with clapping.
The superiority of mosquitoes over other fleas is evident in the profound quote I stumbled upon the internet this morning. "Mosquito control is the currently the most effective measure to reduce the spread of malaria.". In simple words it means the mankind is still as clueless to deal with them as it was a number of decades ago.
A few years ago someone had come out with a brilliant idea that mosquitoes be trained to suck the cellulite/fat from the human body than the blood they feast on - a win win situation for both but mosquitoes have proved time and again they are not dumb. Anyway not as much as the victims they predate on. Ask those who try to slap them off and end up leaving a mark on their own face.
An apocryphal story about mosquitoes. Of course, it is from my own imagination. Two people sat in a bar drinking. They kept swatting mosquitoes in the humidity of the bar and got drunk enough to challenge the mosquitoes. One of them pointed to a table in the corner where a mosquito was relaxing after his own binge. "Let's see if we can kill it", he challenged. Both decided to give it their best shot. One of them drew a revolver, aimed at the mosquito and fired. The plate on which the mosquito sat broke into pieces and the mosquito fled to sit on another plate nearby. His friend jeered at him for missing the target and took the revolver to shoot the mosquito again. He fired with the same result. Now it was the turn of the first to jeer but his friend dismissed him with a swat of his hand. "That mosquito will never have children. I have shot off its testicles.".
Moral of the story: Time to find such brave-harts.
Until then, let's concede their superiority by declaring the mosquito as an International Bird.
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| Mosquito is a mosquito from any angle. |
Ross is himself believed to have issued an appeal to observe the day as World Mosquito Day. I guess somewhere at the back of his mind, Ross was conscious that while he had made a great discovery, he was also duty-bound to propose a vote of thanks to the little creatures who made it happen. The fact that they are belittled as "machchars" -- now a derogatory term for trivial and inconsequential people -- has not taken any of the the sting out of their bite. I remember a decade back having read a World Health Organization report singling out Malaria as the most rampant prospect ahead of AIDS, Ebola, Bird Flu and other modern-day afflictions. The s(t)ing-and-bite brutes have belied their size to make short work of other parasites by multiplying themselves at the rate that even humans have found it impossible to match.
I have also noted with awe that observing World Mosquito Day has been a decades old tradition with the famed London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine -- proof, if it is needed, that mosquitoes have shown themselves worthy of the tradition and honor while fighting for that exalted position. All this at a time when a number of repellents are "all out" to eliminate them and ensure humans have a "good night". If some of my doctor friends are to be believed, mosquitoes have mutated into new and potentially more dangerous avtaars capable of surviving even the until-now-time-tested Quinine. There cannot a better example of truth being bitter than this.
The man who gave mosquitoes the dignity and stature they deserve is Nana Patekar through that immortal dialogue :"Saala ek machchar bhi aadmi ko hijda bana deta hai" (Just one mosquito can reduce a person to a transgender) although it is patently disparaging for the transgenders. The creatures for all seasons sing choruses as humans provide background music with clapping.
The superiority of mosquitoes over other fleas is evident in the profound quote I stumbled upon the internet this morning. "Mosquito control is the currently the most effective measure to reduce the spread of malaria.". In simple words it means the mankind is still as clueless to deal with them as it was a number of decades ago.
A few years ago someone had come out with a brilliant idea that mosquitoes be trained to suck the cellulite/fat from the human body than the blood they feast on - a win win situation for both but mosquitoes have proved time and again they are not dumb. Anyway not as much as the victims they predate on. Ask those who try to slap them off and end up leaving a mark on their own face.
An apocryphal story about mosquitoes. Of course, it is from my own imagination. Two people sat in a bar drinking. They kept swatting mosquitoes in the humidity of the bar and got drunk enough to challenge the mosquitoes. One of them pointed to a table in the corner where a mosquito was relaxing after his own binge. "Let's see if we can kill it", he challenged. Both decided to give it their best shot. One of them drew a revolver, aimed at the mosquito and fired. The plate on which the mosquito sat broke into pieces and the mosquito fled to sit on another plate nearby. His friend jeered at him for missing the target and took the revolver to shoot the mosquito again. He fired with the same result. Now it was the turn of the first to jeer but his friend dismissed him with a swat of his hand. "That mosquito will never have children. I have shot off its testicles.".
Moral of the story: Time to find such brave-harts.
Until then, let's concede their superiority by declaring the mosquito as an International Bird.
Ek machchar koh ithnaa bhaav. Insaan kuch bhee nahee hai uskey saamney - raathonkaa neend haraam kardethaa hai - aaishappatth..
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