Our campus is set in pristine surroundings – lush greenery all around, the surreal view of the Qutub from the 6th floor and Sanjay Van right across the street. It’s a blessing to have a campus that is so close to nature – quite literally. But one should not forget that nature just doesn’t comprise of harmless plants, innocuous flowers and trees bestowing shade and serenity. A part and parcel of it all is truckloads of creepy crawlies –zooming gnats, wasps, bees and dragon flies, smartly coloured bugs and beetles, lizards, rodents, ants and many more.
They are all very friendly, I am sure they are extroverts of the first order. They don’t shy away from invading your space – be it your room, the study table, the cupboard and sometimes, even your bed. They keep making you feel like you are the intruder in their world and you don’t belong here.
The bumblebees look very pretty only in pictures in children’s books. They are actually very violent creatures and they have proved so by attacking a couple of our batchmates all of whom happen to be very peaceful people. The bees have probably got into the habit of venting their frustration of the hive on us – something we can relate to and identify with ourselves. But that does not give them an alibi to continue turning faces of innocent people into red, swollen lumps. The beehive still stands – proud and resplendent, boasting of the brave sagas of its warriors.
The wasps and beetles may not bite, but they’re harmful nonetheless. They love hanging out on your bed. And they refuse to budge. You hate to hit them with the rolled up newspaper in your hand with fear of having to wash your bed sheet again. You try to flick it and it flies back on your pillow. The only way out is to switch the light off. But lo and behold, now, since the laptop screen is the only glowing object in your room, you actually mistake your F’s for P’s considering the document you are reading is infested with the pesky fliers.
The lizards are abundant and could well form an entire battalion. They keep staring at you from dingy walls and are waiting for their next treat which is always around the corner, quite literally. The worst thing about them is that they are coloured a translucent dull grey which is almost a white, very similar to the colour of the walls of the old hostel, so sometimes you are very close to a wall without even realising that the reptile is a mere foot from you till you see those beady black eyes.
So how does one cope up with living in harmony with the ‘wildlife’ on campus? My friends have tried everything – They are immune to HIT. It’s like cigarette smoke to them. They cross Krazzy Lines as if they were hopscotch marks. Allout works only on mosquitoes. And they are not scared of stomping feet either. So how come I am still standing tall? I think it’s a God Gift. I have bitter blood. It’s not like I don’t get bitten, but TOUCHWOOD, the probability is much lower. Got bitten recently on my eyelid – Suravi says it was more like a bug – lick, whatever that means. It swelled up, looked like a nasty burn and peeled off. I just hope this was the start and the end of my encounters with the miniscule mites.
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