The mosquito menace

I stay in a complex of 9 buildings that are divided into A and B Blocks. A Block has 5 buildings and B block has 4 buildings. Between both the blocks there is a huge road on which kids come to play in the evening. It also has a Badminton court and Football court and older kids play football in full swing and there are lot of other activities, like skating and cycling and cricket happening simultaneously on any given evening. One more breed takes an active part in the evening activities along with the humans and they are Mosquitoes!!!

The moment the sun sets and darkness sets in, we are attacked by swarming armies of mosquitoes and no matter what color you have worn, blue or black or yellow, they bite you with their full might and make it impossible to sit in one place. That is the time when everybody starts walking and running instead of sitting and talking peacefully. We wave hands and legs and an outsider may think that we are actually doing Aerobics.

There are many trees around and everyday fumigation happens at around 5 pm. But it is of no use at all when the sun sets and we wonder what actually goes into that fumigation liquid. Newer methods of keeping mosquitoes at bay are introduced in the market. Odomos and Good Night stickers, roll-on liquids, gels, sprays are regulars in every househole. But no product has really succeeded to chase the mosquitoes away. They do their jobs of sucking our blood very dutifully and nothing, absolutely nothing can keep them away from biting us.

Oblivious to all the menace created by mosquitoes, the kids are happily playing, running after each other, fighting with each other and playing hide-and-seek. Just like nothing can keep the mosquitoes from biting us, nothing can deter the kids from playing. Be it any season. any day, they are always ready to play and when we ask them to get back home, they say 5 minutes more and those 5 minutes then can stretch anything upto 24 hours. With mosquitoes hovering on their heads, they are oblivious to where all the mosquitoes have bit them. We fear if the mosquitoes would cause or bring any epidemic, but so far, it hasn't happened.

We get so helpless in front of these tiny creatures, we don't have any means to tackle them. We have some respite in monsoon, they vanish in the rains and then as soon as winter comes, they are back to trouble us. Though the premises are kept clean and efforts are taken to curb this menace, we have little or no luck in that regards

Staying on the ground floor has its own advantages and disadvantages, I think.