Mosquito Was Not Me

I anticipated a dandy Losar with my family and quietly fell asleep waiting for a coming dawn. Like any Bhutanese I had reasons to feel happy; a gathering of feast and junket towards Dochula and a night out with newly found date to celebrate the Valentine's Day. Happy as a child anxious to pedal his first tricycle in the morning I waited for the great coming day.

In the morning the mood was not less to feel the glimpse of the most awaited event. The sky was clear and neighborhood kids ready for the escapade of the day. Without wasting much time I got into bathtub preparing for my best self. As crystal as the water was my mind without any insensate feelings of hatred towards life until I saw a mosquito resting on my arm. The catastrophe of global warming had invited the guest before its time.

Its long proboscis started to penetrate my skin as I watched its work. The winged insect was small in its structure and probably hungry for days. I did not mind taking away few milliliters of blood from almost 5 liters in my body. It had come seeking the food and I became the chosen one. I would not deny small act of kindness especially on the special day. And I stayed quiet as it started sucking my blood.

Slowly the mosquito was changing its size. The white body was bulging out and it turned its color to red. Few moments passed, I felt the painful sensation in my skin. The mosquito did not stop sucking my blood. The size grew bigger and the pain became intense. I saw the insatiable desire to suck more than it deserved. I saw it gnarling at me with lots of hatred and belligerence. Its size became double to what it originally had. There was lots of greed in it that I wanted it to leave me soon. Water was getting cold and it never showed the signs to leave my skin. It changed the position, penetrated more and continued imbibing blood like a vampire. I had never seen as greedy as my bathing mate. It should have accepted my kindness and taken the blood to its limit. But the mosquito was mistaking my kindness to a weak and powerless stock of food. As the pain was afflicting in me I started to hate the mosquito. It betrayed my benignity and I felt its plot to ambush me on Losar was a longtime planned. The mosquito had the ugly idea to visit on a special day when I would not harm anyone.

I understood its strategy and plan. I was angry against the mosquito to cheat me on this day. If I did not act fast there would be many mosquitoes on every Losar to feast on humans. It would be a new avatar with flood of mosquitoes everyday on our lives. I felt lordliness over the devouring insect and I wanted to get rid of it. Both of us were greedy. Mosquito was greedy to take more than it could carry. I was greedy to lose little more than I offered. Strange but decision was on my hand.

Just then I remembered the verse of D.H. Lawrence from The Mosquito, "Am I not mosquito enough to out-mosquito you?" I slapped hard on my skin and saw the mosquito splashed to dead.