Unscheduled trip to Pune

 I am a mosquito on a mission. Ever since I was born, I felt an overwhelming urge to annoy the living daylights out of humans. Our lifespan is short compared to humans, but we can still do our best. If they're sleeping, I sing the song of my people in their ears. When they flail their arms about, I take blood out of their neck. When they bring the bat, I sidestep it and bite them where possible anyway. The blood is awesome, but their frustration and utter anger is more fun to watch. It's weird that they hate us (mosquitos) so much and yet give us some many beautiful homes to have our families. I guess they're not that great at thinking ahead. I have to escape when they have the "repellent" but half the time it doesn't work and I laugh at their naivety before biting them some more. When they light agarbattis, I wait for it to subside before entering the house. I'm not stupid.

So I was on my usual mission, but I'd found a new place.. a car. Usually, I prefer homes, and to torment the entire family, but I had to fly away from the poisonous fumes (Diwali crackers, etc) and so decided to cool myself off in the AC of a car. I didn't even bother to bite the driver, since I needed a break.

Suddenly the door wrenched open and two people sat inside in rapid succession at the back. They had big bags, and looked annoyed. One more guy sat at the front. It would seem they had to go to office on Diwali. The smoke from the celebrations were getting to me, so I was happy that some humans were suffering on this day (even if I had nothing to do with it).

I decided to make things worse for them by biting them and irritating them throughout the trip. Of course, this is a suicide mission. The car windows are closed, so I have very few escape points. But I could feel the excitement! This was the mission I was born for- irritate already irritated humans throughout the time it takes to go to Pune. It takes years (though they call it hours) and it'll be a long drawn battle of the best wits. I started buzzing around to give them the warning that the war has begun. They would be annoyed even before they met their manager. Bwahahahahaha!

At first they opened the windows. Foolish, foolish humans. Not only did I have no intention of going out, the wind outside made it impossible to fly out anyway. 

One of them (a female) joked that it would seem we were taking the mosquito to Pune and possibly reuniting it to it's family. The driver interjected and said, "no it's a Mumbai mosquito".

I was a little surprised. In my entire life as a tormentor of humans, nobody had ever thought about me and my life. Nobody cared about my life. They only got irritated and tried to kill me. It's not like these humans were concerned either, but that they even commented about it in passing gave me pause for thought.

Then, when I snapped out of my reverie, I was astounded by the sight before me. All the humans were... FAST ASLEEP. I was no threat to them! They didn't care. I took a sample bite from the female. She stayed as she was. I tried to take some blood from the guy in the front. He snored. The third guy was pretending to be asleep, but he just waved me away halfheartedly, like how they refuse the street sellers at a stop signal.

I was disgusted! They had just thrown in the towel. They didn't want to play. They didn't want to fight. They'd given up even before I started.

And suddenly... I too felt weary of this life. What was the point of annoying humans and risking my life? What was the meaning of life? Is this my purpose? What am I supposed to do after annoying humans? Just continue having children, annoy humans, risk my life and die? Is that what this world means to me? Is there no escape from this life? Is there no greater purpose? These humans lived for aeons, while we lived only for a few weeks to a few months of the human life span. They commit genocide of mosquitoes and just keep moving on. We are no threat to them, though sometimes we do get them infected with malaria, dengue etc. But we are just enough of a threat to irritate them without being a threat enough to scare them. It's like messing up your job as a fear monger. Our job description sucked.

I decided to stop biting them. I was seriously considering biting humans only when I genuinely needed blood henceforth. After all, plant nectar can also work for us a lot of times. The guy in the front snored once more as I was running through these thoughts. I decided to become a new mosquito.

As if a signal from a greater source (maybe the Lord Mosquito who rules over our fate), the driver of the car stopped it and opened the door near a mountain edge, saying he wanted to pee. Nobody really responded since they were all still sleeping. Clearly, he and I were at the same level as far as these Pune goers were concerned. I went out with him, and decided to move forward with my new life, in this new place. Also, I could get away from that snoring.

Thank you humans for co existing with me, for that short time in the car. I am not sure why I live in this world, but I will find the meaning on my own and move forward with my own strength.

Wish me luck. And Happy Diwali!