The Terror Formula

The Terror Formula

“Nooooooo, Stop it. Don’t you spray this disgusting and suffocating liquid in the entire house,” I screamed at Mrs. Sharma, the lady of the house where I had been staying since almost ages. She had recently watched a television commercial that very well demonstrated the effectiveness of warding off cockroaches and mosquitoes using two separate liquids in red and black bottles. She had been so thoroughly convinced by the advertisement that she bought both the bottles almost instantly. I too had watched the commercial and was a little nervous. She started with the black bottle first and the pungent smelling liquid made me suffocate and vomit. I ran and flew away as fast as my tiny legs and small wings could carry me to the farthest corner of the house trying best not to inhale the harmful liquid. Mrs. Sharma ran after me but I was faster and succeeded quite easily.

On reaching to a safe place inside the slippery kitchen pipe, as I looked behind, I found several dead bodies from the mosquito community lying unclaimed on the floor. The liquid was undoubtedly very effective and the poor mosquitoes could not handle such strong toxic smell. I felt bad for them, but at present my prime concern was to save my own self from the noxious environment. Inside the pipe, I found some of my other friends as well and felt relaxed.

I belonged to the cockroach community and things had been moving very happily until Mrs. Sharma saw the new advertisement. What occurred to her after seeing the commercial was still unknown to me. The entire family of ours waited patiently till the spray lost its vigour, but I felt restless. There was tremendous curiosity within me. I wanted to know why we are so much ill-treated, when all that we require was some bare minimum food and shelter.

In the darkness of the pipe, I found sitting in one corner of the slippery pipe, a black tiny insect very different from me. I knew she was from the mosquito community, but came to learn from my other friends sitting there (through whispers) that she was the queen mosquito. Few of her other friends were humming around her with a ‘buzz’ noise but she kept mum.

“Hi! I am American Cockroach. What’s your name?” I said with the same feeling of pride as demonstrated by any American green card holder.

The mosquito looked at me in disgust and annoyance. “I am Aedes mosquito,” he replied along with a ‘do-not-disturb’ look. He seemed to be planning something very intensely and needed to concentrate in order to have a fool-proof plan. I started liking her. I felt she was doing something for the betterment of her society and community while I just ran away and was hiding in fear. This brought to me a sense of shame for myself.

After a few weeks I realized that this became a routine activity. Every Sunday Mrs. Sharma would spray the liquid and I would run away into the pipe and find the queen Aedes already resting there. In spite of being extremely minute in nature, she always gave me a power to think positively and bravely. Soon, our conversation increased to one liner and we became friends and I went a level higher and started loving her without even knowing the equations on the other side.

One Sunday, Mrs. Sharma was successful in killing my poor brother and felt victorious. That day was a very gloomy day for me. The same day, Aedes’s father was also killed and she was extremely furious. She didn’t cry rather decided to fight back. She decided to teach her sufferers a lesson instead of creating a melancholic atmosphere which I was doing. “I had lot more to learn from her,” I felt. Seeing her courage, my love and respect for her grew many times. Although she didn’t share any of her plans with me but her determination was visible through her voice and gestures. I had started reading her eyes which too conveyed that she had a hidden plot going on, at the back of her mind.

I thought, “Has Mrs. Sharma gone out of her minds? Why is she suddenly after our lives? Is she even aware of the truth that if all the insects are extinct from the planet, then within 50 years or so, all life on the earth would disappear. Hasn’t she read about the eco-system? Why is she behaving so cruelly with minute and poor creatures like us?”

Sunday was not a safe day for both of us. After wasting a few Sundays sitting idly inside the pipe, unlike me the queen Aedes thought of some other plan. She had decided to visit other places outside the periphery of the house on Sundays-like, waste-bins, drains, and other places where dirt and filth accumulated. I constantly watched her. I found her very impressive and intellectual. I had just started liking her and this insensitive female had no clue about it.

One day she came inside the pipe flying very happily. She was super-excited. She came to me and explained to me victoriously about how she had been successful in sucking the blood of Mrs. Sharma’s 7 year old boy, Shravan. She felt contended and hugged me. I was happy for her and thought her revenge was complete and she could now focus on my love for her. She made this her usual practice. Every weekend she went out to gather germs and infection and on some week day, she quietly took the opportunity to safely transfer them into human bodies. It took me some time to realize that her enmity was not only with Mrs. Sharma but for the entire human race, just in the same way Mrs. Sharma considered all the insect fraternity her enemies. Aedes had been involving her other friends and relatives too in this mission of hers and the entire community had been consistently gaining weight since then.

One day I came to know that Shravan was suffering from high fever and terrible head-ache. Doctors declared the symptoms to be of dengue- a disease caused due to mosquito bite- to be precise ‘Aedes mosquito’ bite. I had never known of this type of disease. Now, everything was crystal clear. I got to understand the planning the queen had been doing all this while to avenge the death of her family members. I had been blinded by her love and her humming melodious tunes were all I wanted to hear from her. But, this incidence shook me. The poor boy was paying for no fault of his. I did not like this principle of ‘Tit-for-Tit’, the sole reason being it involved the sufferings of innocent people.

I realized that the queen had been very clever and had done all the research work prior using her technique to transmit the disease. The plan of implanting the disease had been so intricately done that even the doctors have failed to invent any suitable medicine to cure it immediately. Another conspiracy which the Adeas family played was that they made it a point to bite in the day hours when people would be a little more carefree and would not doubt their mal-intensions. Also under the queen’s supervision, it was decided to lay the eggs in the clean stored water, so that some of the new born larvae get the opportunity to take birth inside the houses and the severity of the attack could be enhanced. It appeared that the Adeas were openly rebelling and none could stop them. They were even not scared of losing their life, just like a terrorist who would rather sacrifice their lives in the name of harmony and betterment. They were millions of them and losing some thousands would not alter their existence at all, but if each of these 1000 could spread their disease to at least 100 humans, the target would be well-achieved.

On the other hand dengue had caused the little Shravan to be weak and frail as his platelets drastically kept going down. Mrs. Sharma now became all the more conscious. All the servants were instructed to see, that not a single insect enter into the house. This prevented mine entry too. I felt that the step taken by Aedes was not appropriate. She was going far too violent and needed to stop immediately. She had been trapped in the vicious cycle of hatred. She had been so busy in harming the human race that she could not notice love anywhere. She had made killing and troubling humans as her goal and how long would that continue was known to no one. I felt an unknown fight for an unknown cause had made her mad.

I felt, she need not be so inconsiderate and cruel, so I went to the dust bin area to have a talk with her. But, I was late. I came to know that my love-Aedes had been killed by Mrs Sharma, this morning when he conspired to bite Mr. Sharma. I was grieved at his death but was relaxed thinking the war between the insects and human would end, but little did I know about the well laid future plans of Aedes. I was surprised to see that the formula of spreading the disease had been taught to the entire community of hers. Apart of these, several other formulas had been made to memorize too which included chickungunia, malaria, yellow fever and others.

I was in a mess not knowing what to do. My conscience was not allowing me to support my fellow insects, but then my show of even a little concern for the poor humans, would blame me to be a traitor. I watched the ongoing fights for days and nights with equal harm being done to both the sides. I knew these would bring benefits to none but by the time it would be understood, things would be too late. The doctors focused on making highly effective drug to cure the diseases; the manufacturers of the mosquito repellent are constantly trying hard to develop more powerful and strong repellent, but I was sure mosquitoes would definitely come out with some new discovery very soon. The appropriate climate and the suitable environment are unknowingly provided by human themselves. Thus with minimum investment a large task to avenge will be achieved.

One day I heard that Shravan’s condition was deteriorating. So, I went inside the house very quietly only to find the little Shravan shivering in fever. I felt sorry for him. He was not at all involved with any mal-intentions. Seeing me, so close to him, all the members were on high alert. “Ooopps, I am in trouble” I told to myself.

The last thing which I saw was Mrs. Sharma standing in front of me with a huge red bottle of spray, I had seen in the advertisement to kill cockroaches. Behind me there were several other people with several other plans and several other weapons to kill me in case the spray turned ineffective. I didn’t know the exact means which cause me to die and I was not interested in that either. I wanted to know the reason for my death, having done no harm to anyone. My body was kicked out of the house in the most humiliating manner ever imagined. Amongst my own community too, I was considered to be an outcaste and no one bothered even to turn around and look at me to have even a last glimpse. They all felt I had gone to provide sympathy to their enemy and whatever happened to me was the most apt thing in this world. I could also not know the reason for my hatred. It pained me more than my death to realize that I was the most unwanted on this earth.

I left the world with a feeling of utter confusion; the same confusion which a secular person feels during riots; the same confusion which the neutral people of Indian origin Pakistanis’ feel; the same confusion which the neutral Kashmiris’ who has nothing to do with terrorism feel during terror attacks. Probably in the world beyond death, where I would be transported in a few moments, I could formulate the exact number of deaths required for any given species to establish harmony in this earth and precisely how long would this death-game last for!