Mosquitoes

Appa has warned the children about mosquitoes, but they are not impressed. They’re afraid of bats and snakes, not mosquitoes. After Appa has finished speaking, the children ask him to say ‘mosquito’ again.

The children enjoy asking Appa to say ‘mosquito’; he pronounces it ‘moss-quito’, which makes them laugh. Already the children have a different accent when they speak English. But no matter how much English they learn, they will always call their father ‘Appa’.


Bats and Snakes

Now, Appa stands in the veranda, the indigo sky behind him, he is about to enter the house. The children are restless beside him; he urges them to go indoors, away from the mosquitoes.

Appa doesn’t know that the children have just escaped from the bats, or so they feel. The children have a special zigzag way of running, which, they believe, not only protects them from bats, but also from snakes. Once again, this evening, the children feel that the bats would have flown into their ears, and then would have remained stuck forever within their heads if they hadn’t managed to escape in time. How and why the children have come to believe that bats want to fly into their ears is a mystery that even the children cannot fully explain. If Appa were to question them regarding this matter, they would say that they just know these things about bats.

For one thing, Appa tells the children that he cannot understand how such large bats could squeeze themselves into their ears. And why would they even want to? After all, bats prefer caves. Now what about snakes, Appa wonders, have the children ever seen snakes? No. The children shake their heads, they’ve never seen any snakes. But that doesn’t prevent them from believing that there are millions of snakes living in their garden. Millions and millions, the children say, but we know how to trick them and even if they follow us, we can run faster.

‘You know, Appa,’ the youngest adds, ‘the snakes really do follow us. I know that they are giant snakes because I can hear them, and they sound like giant snakes.’

And then he shows Appa his special style of running.


The Other Country

The children have arrived in Poona with a New Orleans accent and a modern, relatively advanced vocabulary that is alien to their classmates. Their syntax is different too. It will always remain so. Their teachers are appalled by this accent and suspicious of their vocabulary. Where did they learn to speak like that?

The other country, where the children have been living, has become one of their own and will always remain so. The children find it natural to have multiple countries.


White Blood Cells

When the children fall and run home with bleeding elbows and knees, Appa says, ‘don’t cry. Now, now, stop crying. Your white blood cells will help you. Your white blood cells will start working now. Stop crying. Now go and wash it out with soap.’ And that really makes the children quiet. Stunned. They try to imagine their white blood cells as they peer at their bright red knees.

The eldest remembers Appa’s anatomy book. How the blood flows one way and then another. Red, blue, red: so, the arteries and veins are coloured. Appa has explained the function of the heart and the lungs to the children and has told them how the blood must flow unhampered. Always.


Flies

The eldest remembers a time when she thought flies were harmless, friendly creatures. That was when she was four and the youngest was still a baby. She remembers watching a fly sitting beside a sliced tomato in the kitchen, how a few green seeds were floating in the watery juice. She remembers watching the fly rub its fine, filament hands, and then, how it rubbed its face. She watched and watched, and even started to speak with the fly until Appa rushed up to her and scolded her for playing with a fly. ‘Flies are dangerous’, he informed her. ‘Flies are full of diseases, and they will make you very sick’, he warned. Never again did the eldest look kindly upon a fly.


How Appa Deals with Flies

No one can beat Appa at killing flies. Four, five, six flies dead within seconds. No chance for them to escape Appa’s powerful swipes with the fly swatter. Appa is always fast in everything that he does. Nonetheless, the children rarely see him move as quickly as he does when he’s killing flies.

Appa could be a brilliant tennis player if he wanted to. The children enjoy watching him as he sprints across the room. They’re impressed with the way he leaps and twirls – suddenly jumping high, then swooping down low when no one expects it. Often Appa smashes a fly dead in mid-air then catches it on the fly swatter before it falls to the floor. Back and forth he goes and then around the table where the children are sitting quietly waiting for their dinner.

The fly swatter is a whizzing blur surrounding them. The children are too tired to help Appa. Besides he has told them not to move – and furthermore, as the eldest says, Appa is the best at killing flies. She is certain that the flies are terrified of Appa and his strength, and of course his fierce determination. The eldest is convinced that sometimes one stern look from Appa is enough to disorient the flies and send them into a bewildered state of weakness and paralysis – which makes it even easier for him to kill them.

The flies have no enemy greater than Appa. The eldest says that flies are not sufficiently afraid of children. The youngest nods in agreement.


Washing Hands

Appa always washes his hands very carefully after killing flies, although he avoids touching them. In fact, Appa washes his hands more frequently than anyone else in the world. The children begin to wash their hands frequently as well, especially the eldest.


The Children Would Like to Be Friends with the Monkeys

Actually, the children would like to be friends with the monkeys, but the monkeys have different ideas. The problem is that the monkeys do not really care for the children. The monkeys like to tease the children, and the children like to tease the monkeys. It’s an endless game. The children think the monkeys throw gulmohar leaves and flowers to them out of kindness, but the monkeys don’t see it that way.


Rabies

Appa has told the children about rabies. He has told them to stay away from monkeys. He has warned them many times. But no one has told the monkeys to stay away from the children. If Appa knew that sometimes the children eat gulmohar leaves thrown down to them by monkeys in the trees, then he might even faint, the children believe, and afterwards he would give them more injections.


Dr. Work’s Leopard

The children are delighted because they have also been invited along with Appa and Ma to a dinner party at Dr. Work’s house. Their friend Amrit, Dr. Work’s daughter who is around the same age as the eldest, will also be there. The children remember visiting the Works at their home when they were all in their other country. They had such a wonderful time together. Amrit and the eldest spent a lot of time searching for fairy dust and Peter Pan. The youngest helped too.

All the children have a fervent wish to be able to fly which unfortunately has never been fulfilled. ‘We just have to keep searching for fairy dust’, the eldest says. Amrit and the youngest agree although it is very tiring work to sift through rocks and sand, sticks and leaves while searching for fairy dust. On top of that they have been running uphill and down for quite a while now. The eldest wants to know where Peter Pan really, really lives. Amrit and the youngest say it’s a secret. No one knows.

Dr. Work from California has returned to Poona; he keeps a leopard in his house. These are the days when ‘Pune’ is still ‘Poona’ and still very, very green. The leopard is tame but nonetheless wild. Mrs. Work rescued it after hunters killed its mother; the leopard was a baby then, but now it’s grown up.

Dr. Work’s house is very large, and the garden seems spacious enough for a leopard. But the eldest thinks that the leopard might prefer its very own private jungle. The children have never been so close to a leopard before. It’s scary and exciting they think as they look at each other and at the leopard.

It is a wonderful dinner party. There are a few other children with their parents. The children wonder whether the leopard likes dinner parties or any other sort of parties. Mrs. Work says that the leopard has already eaten. The eldest wonders how often the leopard likes to eat.

The children don’t believe the leopard is tame.

‘I tell you it has a leopard’s heart and a leopard’s mind. It knows that it’s still a real leopard and it wants to be real leopard. It will never be tame’, the eldest tells the other children.

The younger ones are quiet. Amrit smiles. They’re supposed to finish their dinner, but they can’t. They simply stare at the leopard pacing in front of them. The children stare at the leopard, but the leopard doesn’t stare back at the children. It’s probably good that he’s not so interested in us, the eldest thinks.

Everyone’s parents are eating in another room, a room without a leopard.

Appa is talking about viruses with Dr. Work again. The mothers don’t want to hear about diseases while they’re eating. They want to talk about flowers; let’s discuss something pleasant, they say. The eldest can hear everything. The rooms are open and spacious. But the leopard doesn’t explore the other rooms. Maybe he’s afraid that Dr. Work will scold him, the eldest thinks to herself. Although Dr. Work is a very fun-loving, kind man, still the eldest reasons he probably has to be firm with the leopard.

Appa and Dr. Work have worked together for quite a few years, long before the children were born. They are passionate about viruses – and hunting them down, the children know. That’s what they call research.

Many years will pass before the children realize what pioneers they were: Dr. Work and Appa. ‘What amazing discoveries they made! Ground-breaking is an understatement!’, the children will tell each other when they are grown up and reading about Appa’s projects with Dr. Work. ‘They really did the impossible! Or what was considered impossible in those days.’ But Appa and Dr. Work will no longer be around to comment.

The leopard paces in its own area which is quite large, and it has a huge window to look out of. The leopard stays close to the window. Continuously pacing. The leopard never tires.

‘It needs lots of space’, the eldest says. The youngest agrees. ‘Maybe it wants to go hunting. Look it’s already dark outside. Leopards like to stay awake all night. They’re not like dogs, you know.’

Actually, the children would like to be friends with the leopard, but they don’t know how they could ever manage to do that. How can one manage to be friends with such a wild animal – even if it lives with the Work family? The children have to admit to themselves that ultimately even the monkeys don’t want to be friends with them, so how can they gain the trust of a leopard? How can they understand the feelings of a leopard? For one thing they are afraid of the leopard.

Appa, on the other hand, is not afraid of the leopard; he’s not worried that the children are eating dinner with a leopard. Dr. Work’s leopard is certainly clean, free of viruses and bacteria.


A Silvery Metal Star

Swallowing a metal star results in the eldest having to eat eight bananas all at once. That is Appa’s solution when he is informed at his office. The eldest doesn’t know how she manages to eat eight bananas all at once. It must be fear, fear that drives her on to fulfil Appa’s orders; she knows that Appa must be terribly annoyed with her for doing such a silly thing. How their mother obtains eight bananas is another mystery. Perhaps,
Mrs. Rao, who has ample supplies of everything, simply gave them to her. An emergency is an emergency, and there’s no time to waste.


Dr. Rao and the Cockroaches

Appa tells the children that Dr. Rao is an entomologist.

‘Oh! What is that?!’ the children ask.

‘An entomologist is someone who studies insects’,

Appa explains.

‘Oh!’ the eldest says again, ‘Oh!’

Actually, she’s not sure what to say. To herself she thinks, ‘now why would anyone want to do that? Study insects?!’ But she doesn’t say that. She knows that Appa always has clever explanations for everything. The youngest finds it hilarious to imagine Dr. Rao studying insects.

‘Well, I do like butterflies and dragonflies’, the eldest says, trying not to dismiss all insects. ‘Bees are important but they’re too dangerous’, the eldest adds.

‘Worms are funny’, the youngest says.

‘I don’t know,’ the eldest replies, ‘maybe some of them are funny like the green inchworms in New Orleans. Remember the green inchworms?’ They all remember the green inchworms.

‘Dr. Rao is very skilful,’ Appa continues, ‘he knows how to give injections to cockroaches.’ Now the children find Dr. Rao’s activities truly bizarre. They make faces showing their shock and disgust. The only injections the children receive are vaccinations, they don’t know of any other type of injections, so, naturally they think the cockroaches are receiving vaccinations too. The children imagine hundreds of cockroaches in Dr. Rao’s office crawling all over the floor and on to his desk as they wait patiently to receive an injection from him. The children simply cannot understand why such a nice, friendly man like Dr. Rao who loves parties and ice-cream just as much as they do would want to spend so much time in close proximity to cockroaches. The children suppose that Appa is unable to give injections to cockroaches.

‘Just as well,’ the eldest thinks, ‘what a horrible chore that must be.’

The children are happy and relieved that Appa doesn’t spend time with cockroaches.

‘At least Appa is always looking for viruses,’ the eldest says to the youngest, ‘that’s more exciting because viruses are invisible.’ The youngest agrees.

The children know that vaccinations are meant to help people, and that ultimately no matter how unpleasant it is to receive an injection, vaccinations prevent one from getting the disease. Appa has explained this to them on several occasions.

The children think Dr. Rao is a very kind man for wanting to help cockroaches with their cockroach diseases. Well, they always knew he was very kind, but it seems to them that his kindness has no limits since it even extends to cockroaches.

They wonder if the cockroaches seek him out or if he goes looking for cockroaches that need help. Maybe he has to persuade them to get injections.

They imagine that Mrs. Rao like most people would not want the cockroaches or any other insects to visit Dr. Rao in their home.

‘Mrs. Rao is very normal’, the eldest says.

The youngest nods and says, ‘Maybe she doesn’t know that Dr. Rao spends so much time with cockroaches’.

‘Now why would cockroaches need vaccinations? Do they really have so many cockroach diseases?’ The eldest wonders and looks at the youngest who merely shrugs, equally mystified.

The children are relieved that Ma keeps their house so clean that no cockroaches, let alone any other insect, would dare to enter. Of course, there are flies sometimes but Appa knows how to get rid of them.

Mrs. Rao also keeps the Rao family home immaculate, so the children wonder where Dr. Rao finds his cockroaches.

‘Maybe somewhere out in the jungle’, the youngest says. The eldest agrees. The jungle is far away but it does exist.

The children are too shy and embarrassed to ask Dr. Rao about the cockroaches. They instinctively sense that there must be something more to it than what Appa has told them and rightly believe it would be too complicated for them to understand.