What will become of us?

MOS the mosquito was depressedDr Odomos his older brothercumshrink buzzed into the roomldquoWhatrsquos the prob yo bro whatrsquos pissing you off talk to merdquoldquoGrrrrrrhellip feeling left out yo bro Odo feeling redundant Am languishing man no ones out on the streets no one to bug no one to bite Irsquom getting seriously lsquopakaoedrsquo How much can one buzz around in onersquos own house and now our building is sealed canrsquot even zip into the Misquittasrsquo flat next doorrdquo Mos complainedldquoThis lockdown isnrsquot unlocking anytime soon Why donrsquot you work out read some books on your new kindle like Harper Leersquos lsquoTo Kill a Mosquitorsquo or Williamrsquos Shakespearersquos lsquoMachar Ado About Nothingrsquo or Alvin Tofflerrsquos lsquoThird Waversquo You young people donrsquot read anymore everything about you is tech tech and more tech What game are you playing nowrdquolsquoItrsquos a cool game called AedesAnopheles21 BTW itrsquos not that Irsquom bored bro Irsquom madhellipactually Irsquom scaredrdquoldquoWhy dude whatrsquos annoying you Why so scaredrdquoMos took a pauseldquoYou know how Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and Grunge came along in 1991 and closed down Hair MetalrdquoldquoYezzzzzrdquo Dr Odomos opinedldquoI kinda feel this virus whatever you call it they keep renaming each mutation Coronavirus Black Mucus now damn Delta KappaLambadahellip have taken away the glory from malaria and all sicknesses and diseasesrdquoldquoItrsquos Lambda Lambada is a dance step from the rsquo90srdquo Dr Odomos correctedldquoYeah whatever bro donrsquot get literal Irsquom saying this Covid19 has put us out of business I mean does anyone talk about us anymore are we called a pandemic has the city ever locked down becoz of us is there a shortage of hospital beds becoz of malaria There was a time when catching Dengue made people nervous Today wersquore passe yesterdayrsquos news Irsquom buzzing around peoplersquos heads and theyrsquore unconcerned they donrsquot bother getting a mosquito coil yesterday I sat on this one guyrsquos arm sucking the blood out of him like Dracula and he didnrsquot budge This morning I overheard this dialogue in the elevatormdashA guy says ldquoMy mom has a lung infectionrdquoThe lady answers ldquoAh thank god she doesnrsquot have Covid19rdquo No onersquos terrified of us bro Wersquove lost cache wersquove lost traction Wersquove lost uhm bite pardon the pun At this rate wersquoll become an endangered species very soon wersquoll be extinctmdashlike The Dodo the Kaziranga Rhino Theyrsquoll soon refer to us as lsquoThe Mumbai Mosquitorsquomdashso infamous in the 2000s but now nowhere to be seen Doesnrsquot it concern you no one wears a mask for us therersquos no vaccine being developed for us when there are more than five cases of dengue in a building the BMC doesnrsquot seal it I want people to be dengue positive I want them to begin an app called CMos Man wersquove created Zika West Nile Chikungunya but all flopshellipI feel like we are lsquoRadhersquo while Covid19 is lsquoDabaangrsquo Irsquom happy to be a bad sequel a weak follow up Irsquom happy to be part of a franchisehellipI just donrsquot want to be redundant like polio chicken pox or SARS I fear indifferencerdquoDr Odomos looked at his patient cum brother ldquoMos you have to calm down Our brother is working on developing a new TV series on Mosquito Netflix called Bloodsuckers set in a dystopian future this will bring us back in voguerdquoMos cheered upldquoTell me the storylinerdquo he smiledldquoOkay the show is about a band of superhero mosquitoes who bravely face the super villain called PegasusrdquoldquoWhatrsquos the OTT series calledrdquo Mos enquiredldquoKachua ChhapndashThe Agarbatti Returnsrdquo Dr Odomos concludedRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom