My friend, Anopheles, the female mosquito with a sting, visited again, and I wished her a Happy New Year. She looked skeptical.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Sure of what?" I enquired.
"Of being happy, of course."
"Why not? Nirmala just gave us non-Ambanis a bonus on Income tax" I replied.
"Yes, but how many in this country earn that kind of money?" she wanted to know.
I was crestfallen. "Agree," I said. Drivers and maids still make about a lakh and a half a year. Rupees, not dollars. But look at the positives around the world."
"Are you serious? You mean Trump? Or Putin? Or Xi?"
That last one hit close to home. I hurriedly diverted her. "No, no, I mean things like sustainability issues, slow travel, and climate change -people engaging with it."
"What about pollution, disease, and killer viruses?" I had to admit she had her data in place.
I said, "Yeah, you win some, you lose some."
Anopheles then bowled a faster one. She said, "Wake up, or you'll lose the planet, and we, our blood supply." And added for effect, "even though it's not too healthy, what with cholesterol and so on in high doses.."
She left me in that state of being apologetic about our Race, as always, and flew off after a goodbye.
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