Anopheles Makes a Surprise Visit

Anopheles and Me

For those who have lost the plot ..err, haven't been following the plot, Anopheles is a female mosquito who drops in on me to have a chat once in a while. We have had conversations on every topic in the world- theirs and ours. I had not seen her in a while, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear her buzz into my room.

"What is a war?" she asked without a preamble.
"Well, it is a situation in which we kill each other." I tried.
"But why do you kill each other?" she wasn't satisfied, as I was afraid she wouldn't.

"Some of us want to expand our kingdoms" I said, thinking of Alexander the Great.
"Are large kingdoms necessary for a king to be happy?"she innocently asked.
"I can't say, I never had one" I told her.

"So what's your poison?" she queried.
"Mine, I guess, is the ego. Without the achievements to accompany the desire, I want people to tell me I am great. This is a failing of the human race, not mine alone." I rationalised.
"And that makes you happy?"
"Temporarily, yes. But not for too long. I want a new toy after a while, because the old one ceases to tickle."I tried explaining.

"Could this ego, as you call it, also be the cause of some of the wars that I hear you keep having regularly?"she persisted.
I thought about Bush and his random wars on terror, Iraq versus Kuwait, Iran-Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, and all the others.
"I suppose so, at least many of the wars were ego-based," I had to conclude.
"But tell me, why are you in a war-like mood today?"I tried levity, in a bid to lighten the conversation.
"Because my kid whom I raised so lovingly, fought with me over a trivial issue and flew away from home,"she confided.

"Oh, my," I thought. Their world is not so different after all. And tried consoling her with some soothing words that helped her calm down. She promised to wait a day or two hoping he would return, and bid goodbye.

First Rain?

It's probably the first rain of the 'official' monsoons of 2014. I was kind of surprised at the regularity of the first rain in Nagpur while I lived there. It arrived unfailingly on the 10th or 11th June. So it was in Indore yesterday. There was a strong cool breeze around 5.30 pm, an indication of things to come.  It took a while for the rain to arrive, but it did at about 7.30.

Mood changes probably closely follow the weather, so I am expecting an uplifting month. As the senior MBA (PGDM) students come back on campus, the activity level and the energy levels are up. Classes will be on in full swing. Faculty will have a somewhat tight schedule, compared to the two months gone by which were somewhat relaxed. We will need to put on our thinking caps and device new means of torture- assignments, exams, quizzes, I mean. All good-natured torture, you understand, designed to enhance learning.

We kicked off the academic year with a workshop on new teaching methods, with a few simulation-based package vendors showcasing their wares. A good, innovative start.