Of Sound & Bites

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of flies. These are the ordinary houseflies. They are there everywhere you go. In the office bus, in the canteen, in the office itself. How much ever do the poor cleaning guys try, these irritating creatures always find a way inside. After the recent spate of heavy rains, while the flies have reduced, the mosquito population has suddenly mushroomed.

These insects have brought back memories of those golden years spent in Lucknow. The place where I used to live is as close to nature as can be. I used to live in Hostel 12, which resides in one corner of the institute. There is no building of any consequence beyond my hostel. My balcony used to overlook this huge grassland that extended up to the horizon. Being natural habitat for all sorts of insects, the grasslands used to be home to many wild & exotic specimens. No flies & mosquitoes though. This place was home to more rarer species. Insects came in all shapes and sizes. Of course to really get to know the variety of these insects one had to venture in the grasslands. However, few of them did venture into the protected confines of our hostel. Two of these insects will find special mention here owing to the highest pain quotient among all the insects.

Jhingur: This fellow is a ordinary looking bug. Its like a cockroach with only one colour- Muddy brown. These guys are most inconspicuous of creatures…..wait....only when they are quite. Ohhh but when they sing!!! God only can help you then. The shrill sound of a Jhingur is that sound that you generally hear in those rainy nights outside your home. Imagine two or more of these right inside your room. What a celebration would that be? Once this guy starts its sound, then you are completely helpless like mumbaikars were on that tuesday. The strange part is that no matter how hard you try, you cannot locate the source of sound. This particular sound comes from all parts of the room. A natural THREEDEE surround sound effect much better than any of those super customized Bose speaker systems you would ever hear. So what do you think is the solution from this nagging head curdling sound. Nothing! As they say, when you can’t beat them, run from them(OK I changed it a bit). So all I did was escape out, do something else. Do anything but stay inside there.

Unnamed Ant like insect: Lets call this insect Antike (combination of Ant & Like). Now, antike must be some wild form of our regular domesticated city ant. This is a bit long and more colourful. I suspect this fellow also has flying abilities though they would be limited. So what would you think is so painful about this specimen? Yeah, you guessed it right – it’s the sting. When an antike decides to sting, it just doesn’t sting once, but as many times as it can. Generally the stings go along a path- the second sting near the first, the third near the second and so on. Another peculiar thing about the sting is that somehow you do not detect the sting immediately. The pain starts only sometime after antike has finished its job & made a safe retreat. By the time you realize, your skin starts swelling. The swelling of course lasts for a week or two depending on the intensity of the sting.

So here were the two most pain giving & consequently most memorable insects from my stay in Lucknow. The antike was the most prolific among the stingers. The jhingur however wins hands down. After all if an insect can throw you out of your own room, it must be something staggering.