It feels good to be back in Bangalore, and back at my workplace. The organization works on community health, especially the Right to Health. Bangalore has been rainy, and when there are rains in this part of the world, there are mosquitoes. So it happened that an all-staff meeting was organized in the training room, where each staff member would share about their current project with others. This room has open windows, facing the lovely garden of Holy Cross Convent. While it lets us enjoy the beautiful sight of the garden, it allows “bugs” to get into the room as well. The bugs that were of particular concern that morning were mosquitoes. Mosquitoes tend not to bite me for some strange reason. But I noticed a few hovering around each staff member, some of which had landed around bare ankles and were taking what they needed.
At one point, some staff members were visibly annoyed by them, and so mosquito-coils were brought in. These are cakes shaped in the form of spirals, burnt at one end, and the smoke released contains a chemical which repels mosquitoes. A few coils were lit and kept under the table near our feet. As expected, the mosquitoes were driven away quite quickly. But soon, there was another problem which seemed to be more annoying, particularly to a colleague sitting next to me. It was the smoke coming out from the coils, which was making its way straight for her face from underneath the table. After 5 minutes, I offered to take that nuisance-maker from near her feet and put it elsewhere, for which she showed great gratitude. Others followed suit and returned the coils to the maintenance staff. The situation, I thought, was quite interesting.
On a parallel note, my sister had arranged for a clay bowl to be fixed outside our house for stray animals to drink water from. This was done a few weeks ago. When I returned from work yesterday, I happened to notice the contents of the bowl more closely before entering the gate. It was teeming with life! Some of it I could identify as mosquito larvae, and some were just plain weird.I asked my sister to come down to show her the secondary results of her intervention. Briefly I discussed the methods she could use to ensure that no larvae would grow there, considering that mosquitoes spreading malaria and dengue would grow in such waters.This could be done without jeopardizing her noble intention of providing water for stray animals.
neat! me line your surreal thoughts! and yes, welcome to Bangalore!!