Mosquitoes

This is a short entry, but I just wanted to talk about the Mosquitoes here in the area. I didn’t talk about them on my blog the last time I was here, at least not in depth, so this time I think I will share with you what it is like.
This part of India does not have any reported cases of Malaria and other diseases that we should worry about contracting from the mosquito so that is a good thing. This trip however, there seems to be an abundance of them. There are several possible reasons for this; First - I didn’t arrive until January last time which is one of the driest months here in Kovalam so there are fewer during that time. The other possible reason; Talking to some of the people, they say that this year the government didn’t spray for the mosquito like they have in the past. I’m not going to talk about weather that is good or bad to spray, and what they use, and what it does for the environment, but just to say that possibly in years past the government has sprayed and this year they did not. This is something that I have been unable to confirm, so I just leave it as a possibility...
Each part of the world has a claim to fame about the size of an insect or something of nature that the rest of the world thinks is amazing. Such as the size of cockroaches in the dessert are far bigger than the ones say east of the Rocky Mountains. As one of my co-workers said about seeing one; after realizing she was looking at an insect and not a small animal, she gasped and screamed. The cockroach looked at her, stood up and screamed as well. Both completely terrified of each other!
Growing up in Southern Utah we had mosquitoes, not a huge problem, but at night when it was cool, they would come out. If you were lucky you would see one every now and then, and sometimes you were lucky enough to actually see it land on you and “WHAM”, you got it!!!
If the mosquitoes here actually existed in the US, they would need clearance from Air Traffic Control to fly around. With the exception that they fly in a different manner, you can sometimes confuse them with the common house fly. They don’t make that really high pitched buzz sound that I know, but something more along the lines of an Apache helicopter. Now keep in mind they are not all this big, there are baby ones out there, I’m just talking about the granddads, the ones you take cover from when you see them heading toward you, salivating, with that stare in their eye’s that say food!
Lucky for us, the days are usually to hot for them, so night is the only time you really need to take any action against them. That can be either a net over the bed, or bug spray and make sure you have at least a sheet over your body while you sleep. If for any reason, you slept with a foot or leg outside of the sheet, then the next morning you get to play the game of connect the dots, seeing how many places they got you during the night. My only reaction to them is the small read mark and that “itch” that usually goes away in about 12 hours. Daren on the other hand gets welts about the size of a 50 cent piece. There have been a few mornings I’m surprised he has been able to move based on the way his skin looks after several attacks. If anybody ever comes to India for a time, and during their stay they become ill and suffer from what would look like anemia, they shouldn’t worry. After several days of being away from here and their body has the chance to recover from the blood loss, they will feel as good as new. Some of these mosquitoes could put vampires to shame!
One morning during practice there was one lucky mosquito that I’m sure thought he had found the best buffet on earth. Of course he would have never had the chance to visit Las Vegas, now would he? We practice on the roof top of a hotel which is basically the 4th floor. The place we practice is covered with a roof and does have screens around it to keep many things out, such as birds and bugs. Because we are at least 40 feet from the ground mosquitoes are usually not a problem for us in the morning there during practice, but every once in a while one makes it up there. In the mornings, you have within 3 hours, about 150 people sweating and of all things holding still - perfect for the mosquito!
I’m not sure it if was because I was in the middle of my yoga practice and very aware of my body and what was going on or because of the sheer size of the mosquitoes, but while I was in trikonasana, breathing, feeling good about my bandas, I watched a mosquito land on my leg. Then believe this or not, I could actually FEEL the mosquito stick his needle in me! It felt just like when you go and have a shot from the doctor. Of course at that point in time I lost my yoga concentration and focused on one thing, and one thing only, that was to kill this insect that was sucking the life blood out of me. This is a very un-yoga thought, but it did happen. Its amazing how fast your mind can work when you stop and think about how fast things can happen and how much faster your mind can process information. During that split second that my hand was moving toward my leg at lightning speed with every intention to kill the vampire, my mind had that chance to contemplate what is going to happen once I actually hit this blood sucker. Based on its size, I had the image in my head that immediately after my hand make contact with him, that blood, mine and I’m sure several other students, would not only be smeared up my entire leg, as my hand was headed in an upward direction to make contact, but that it most likely would splash over onto the lady next to me! God only knows how much of her would be covered by the time this killing ended. So, keeping in mind, that during this whole thought process my hand was moving at full speed toward the object of my frustration, I decided to slow my hand down and not actually kill the insect, but scare it away from me. Not only was this solution going to be much cleaner for me and my neighbor, but it was also a better thought considering I was in the middle of my yoga practice.
I must admit that after this revelation I got a case of the giggles because of the visual I had. This lasted for most of the practice. After seeing the hole that it left in my leg, all I can say is I’m quite sure that Dracula would have been proud of his spawn!