The recent times have been the best for the likes of me. Our clan has flourished over the last few years especially in the suburbs of mega cities like Mumbai and other metros. You see most of our folks feel that the larger the city the better. Till the recent past, say as early as about thirty years back, we used to stay in large colonies in jungles and swamps. As the jungles started thinning out we moved to the edges. The swamps were not spared either. Most of them were re-filled and put to use under the new fangled schemes of the reclaimed lands. It was not only our population that had grown! In fact I had heard the parents and older guys talking about the competition that we, the mosquitoes faced from the human beings.
I was born in one such swamp on the outskirts of a wasteland. The entire clan was waiting fervently for my birth. You see it had been a long while since a female was born into the clan. I suppose, I need not elaborate the superior status that the females of my clan enjoy. We are gifted with the capacity to sting causing illness and destruction to human race. All hopes were pinned on the eggs laid on the surface of superbly slimy, greenish-grey water puddles. The members of the clan had been to various places and pledged offerings of various types of blood, shit, garbage and whatever they could think of, to all the deities of the world. The head of the clan had even risked visiting the lord at the dumping ground, behind the huge building from which the humans managed their cleaning operations. It was big deal you see, to be able to get into the dumping ground. One would assume that a dumping ground would be easy access for our people. But mind you it was easier to get into the building itself than the dumping ground! I am told that the security here was higher as more than just garbage was dumped there by the men of foul means. Anyway coming back to the point, every single mosquito was silently or openly hoping that I would be born a girl. And lo! Girl I was.
“Isn’t she a beauty? Such beautiful mouth brushes and what a thorax!”
“Wow, mark my words she is going to make history with those superb antennae.”
Such and more comments were made by the humming and whining females gathered to see me break out from the egg. What a stroke of luck for the rest of the clan! I was the darling of the group. Now they could hope to renew the war against humans. I was the original Anopheles reborn to avenge the pride of the family of Culicidae.
The clan raised me with much care and love. The oldest member of the clan, Mr.Toxhorynchitinae, was assigned to oversee my training. He had an impressive body of work with an impressive name to go with it. But to us he was simply Guru TC. I was given the best of training about every possible skill required to make a success of the war that we were fighting. It started with flying classes. Everything depended on how I would make an entry, how precisely I could land and most importantly how efficiently I could take off for the next flight. This I realized was the first key to long survival beyond the customary 2 weeks. As far as infecting the men is concerned, I had learnt how to sting from my mother’s womb, so that was not something to worry over.
My Guru chose to put me under tutelage of the most experienced flier. His name was Crane Flier. He had been in and out of thousands of houses and had landed on the most number of hands, faces, legs and such surfaces available at large. I was put through several hours of grueling flying classes. Initially I used to feel tired and often landed haphazardly on the stagnant water and dried feces. Gradually though I built up strength and could fly without stopping for as much as 10 seconds. Then I was cleared to get on to the next level. Crane Flier told me that if I had to make a success of my flight and landing, I need to be very careful of what surface I choose to land on. Landing on the left side of any person seemed to be most dangerous. A lot of my friends had met a bloody end while sitting on the left hand of the human beings. It was so easy for those humans to tap us off with the right hand.
By now I had started attending more than one class. While I enjoyed flying, I needed to know more. Guru TC had told me that my purpose in life was to be of use for the greater good of mosquitoes of the world. I was destined to be the savior and inspiration for all. My aim and goal in life was to bite as many human beings as possible and once I had come of age, I was expected to spread the malaria far and wide. That was the best weapon that our clan had against the rising numbers of species called man. While I knew about our weapons, I needed to know about theirs too. I was no ordinary mosquito. I had learnt to take off after landing in less than half a second. Not a small achievement! I had inherited my brains from my father’s side and courage from my mother’s side.
So I set out gathering knowledge on their weapons. I pestered the oldest mosquito in our wasteland. Everyone called her the Fortune Fly. She had great experience of various lands and had survived over 14 days when I approached her. Such a long life was totally unheard of in our society. She was weak these days and had broken her left wing and right eye in the last attack that she led against the filthy humans. So she set about down-whining all the knowledge that she had gathered over the years to me. Right hand seemed to be the most powerful weapon that all humans possess. Other than this they use all kinds of gooey stuff that can lead to fainting. They must be really thick skinned to be able to stay afloat after using all those pastes known as repellents. There are some other huge white luminous things that make horrible noise. I have extra sensitive antenna and can pick up the thin sharp noise miles before that giant looms up in front of us. Then there are the huge things hung on windows that they call mosquito net. These are not so difficult to negotiate, I soon learnt while out on a date with my would-be suitor. Some other things that we come up against in our part of the world are newspaper rolls; blindingly white yards and yards of stuff around the sleeping areas of the humans and some horrible smoky things coiled in corners.
Armed with all the information above, I debuted into the war in a high rise building on the edge of the swamp. The first day was a success. I got the sweet salty taste of blood the hard earned way. Later in the evening the leader of our swarm told us that 6 out of 102 folks that I had visited in the early evening were now looking dull and had already pulled out their woolen clothes and may be visiting a doctor. We celebrated by sharing the blood that I had carefully carried in my antennae.
Life was a roller coaster ride as the minutes and hours progressed. I was a veteran at biting and stinging by the end of 72 hours. My strike rate had gone up and I could infect as many as a hundred and more folks in a day. I had just returned with my swarm of boys that day. The night had been exceptionally busy. We had taken up a crusade in the new complex where the residents had piled onto the grounds for a night of revelry. Some of us had perished, some injured and some defeated. But all in all the night was a success. We were relaxing by the dark wet patch when I was challenged. I was feeling on top of the swamp as I had infected a record number of humans that night. I was here there everywhere!
“Andromela, don’t think that I don’t appreciate your success, but I still think you are far from being the best amongst the best.” Spoke the Young Turk, Antopodes.
I felt stung first time in my life. Yet keeping my cool outwardly. No point in getting anxious when I knew that he was simply jealous. The creator had robbed him of his sting since childhood. Yet my curiosity got better of me and I asked, “What makes you say that?”
“You can only be called the best if you enter a place that I tell you and infect the humans in that house and return back to us.”
Not the one to be put down, I accepted the challenge blindly. Evening 8pm was fixed as the time when I would be introduced to my challenge. I decided to catch a wink before the task was due. The swarm set out well in time to reach the destination. Antopodes was leading. He took us far out over to the other side of the swamp. Not our regular route. I wondered when this fellow had been to explore the unseen parts of the swamp. Anyway the air here was cooler and thinner. It was easier to fly and we soon came upon a set of newly built houses. As we buzzed through I saw that the houses had large open windows covered with the infernal nets and good light and air. The drain was well covered and the pipes were invisible. Thriving and surviving in these conditions would be so difficult. But I could not call it off without hurting my ego and pride. So I hummed my way to the house that Antopodes had marked as a challenge.
And what a challenge it was. The Windows seemed to be sealed with no opening. The entry was tricky as I saw that it was a three door circus. There was an iron front door concealing a solid wood door which in turn was hiding a door with a fine quality net. And the three were never opened together. The net door was firmly closed before the wooden and the front door opened. The drain pipes were covered with fine net also. I was stumped for the first time to make an entry into the mosquito proof fortress. I was more determined than ever to prove my expertise and establish my supremacy by breaking and entering this particular place. So I decided to stake out at the place and look for the best possible opening.
After waiting for endless minutes and hours, I figured out that the best way to get in would be to find a carrier. I decided to wait at the entry door. Soon it became apparent that not much activity happened here. And no material was taken inside the house without checking for flies and mosquitoes. No vendor was allowed inside the main wooden door. All the vegetables and newspapers were checked using a strange weapon that I had not yet encountered. It was oval shaped and had a net on it with a handle. I heard the maid calling it a racquet. I wondered if there was any similarity to crickets of our world. The maid moved it over the stuff that entered the house and also the people who came in. I saw the flies dropping limp and almost dead when this weapon was moved over all things.
I went back to the swarm of friends who were waiting a safe distance away to discuss what I had seen. All of us agreed that the challenge was beyond any difficulties that any one of us had ever faced. I was told not to risk it in my condition. You see I was ready to lay more eggs! But my ego was pricked and I could not back out from the sting operation. It was a matter of pride. So after much discussion, I realized that the only way to get in was to launch myself on the maid who seemed to be the only one coming in and out. She was the only one not being checked by the racket. We finalized the entry exit route through the maid and I set off for the battle.
I waited for the maid to appear again and quickly launched myself on her hair when she opened the door. I was finally inside the fortress. To be honest, I was scared as I was carried inside on her person. What if somebody came with that racket? But nothing happened. I managed to escape into the dark corner of the house. I waited till my humming came back to normal and decided to find my victim. There was no point in taking back the blood from the maid. That was easy enough and no good to establish my supremacy. I need to take blood from the head of the house. From my hiding post I realized that there was a huge woman moving from one room to the other, who seemed to be giving orders. Everyone around her seemed to be obeying her. So I decided to target her.
I waited for the correct opportunity and soon saw the woman heading towards my hiding place. I was scared for a minute and wondered whether she had sensed my presence and decided to kill me. The entire swamp was before my eyes -- my mother, my loyal swarm of friends and my guru! I had not even said good bye. I shut my eyes and gathered my antennae close to me waiting for the end to descend upon me. But a few trembling seconds elapsed and nothing happened. I was convinced that the lord of the swamp was protecting me.
It was a now or never situation. I had to sting now. I gathered all my courage, spread out my antenna as long as I could and landed on the ample surface on which the woman was sitting. She cried as I stung and drew the blood. Oh! The sweet taste of blood that has never been sampled by our kind of folks. I was euphoric and heady with success. In my sense of glory I forgot to fly away immediately and barely missed the hand that would have crushed me. As I took off to me safe hiding place the hand caught my left antenna at the back. It pained a lot. But I needed to lie low and not make a whisper of a humming so that I would be safe. Within seconds the house was full of smoke. Those guys had started lighting the coils in each corner and had started spraying some liquid in dark corners. The combined smell took its toll and I fainted.
I opened my eyes slowly and looked around. Was I dead? There was no sound around me. Where was I? The place looked familiar. I was in the same hiding place. That means I must be alive. Now all I needed to do was get out of this place. I inched out of the place slowly looking for the maid. I decided to switch the place of hiding to rest in her thick, dirty smelly hair. Much better than the corner that had no dirt or grime. My broken antenna was slowing me down. I could not see the maid around. In fact there was no human presence. My escape route had vanished leaving me aghast. I had given up hope when I sensed the door opening and to my great relief the maid walked in. But she was armed with a racket. I slid back onto the smooth brown corner that I was in. The maid moved around the entire house and was about to point the racket to my resting place, when the woman shouted at her to stay away from the mandir. God bless my soul! Here was my one and only chance to escape. I gathered all the strength that was left in me and landed on her hair. She proceeded to scout the nooks and corners looking for me. Then she swept the whole place and finally collected all the dirt to be thrown out of the house. I did not have to wait long for her to open all doors. The second she opened the front door, I took off and flew all the way to meet my friends. I dared not look back. The mission was accomplished. I was successful in meeting the challenge thrown at me.
The Sting Operation was finally through!
