Image made using photo by Major Tom Agency on Unsplash

Nana: Young lady, what do you think you’re doing?

Nina: Saving your life of course, Nana.

Nana: Are you, now? Looks to me like you are messing with my things. Why are you hovering near my bedside table?

<BANG><THUD><CRASH> <SMASH>

Nina: Ooops!

Nana: WHAT DID YOU DO?

Nina: Calm down, Nana. It’s just a couple of pots.

Nana: Oh no, my lucky bamboo, you horrid child.

Nina: Lucky bamboo! It’s a death machine.

Nana: Deranged child, you call yourself an environmentalist, and you are out to destroy plants.

Nina: Nana, the lucky bamboo is a breeding spot for the deadliest insect in the world.

Nana: You’re mad! Stark, staring bonkers. My bedside table is not the depths of an African jungle or the Amazon forest, you know. Tsetse flies and such other deadly insects don’t hang out in cities.

Nina: Sure, but we do have mosquitoes.

Nana: Mosquitoes! That’s it. I knew you were nuts. And now you’ve broken not only my pot of lucky bamboo, but my money plant too.

Nina: Yes Nana, the mosquito. It is responsible for 700000 human deaths annually, through diseases like malaria, dengue, zika virus and such.

Nana: Okay, but why are you breaking my plant pots?

Nina: Relax, Nana. I wasn’t trying to break them. You startled me, that’s all. The stagnant water you keep in these plant pots is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The BMCs latest sting operation shows that these are some of the major causes of dengue in cities. So I was just going to take these plants out to the garden and plant them there.

Nana: Can they survive there?

Nina: I have no idea, but let’s find out.

Nana: Oh, alright then. Carry on. But clean up the ruddy mess you’ve made here.

Nina: Sure Nana.

Nana: Urmm... and thanks for saving my life. I have survived a year and a half or corona. It would be embarrassing to succumb to a mosquito bite, at this point.

This post is a part of the #NinaAndNana series I co-host with Lavanya Srinivasan. Her posts can be found here.