How did villagers keep clear of them, I asked. Her village in eastern UP, she said, had ponds, open tanks and drains everywhere "� "no wonder, then, that it was known for the size and sheer numbers of its mosquitoes!" Villagers were forced to come up with all sorts of strategies to keep them away, but they weren't always successful. "Usually, in my home, we kept smouldering cow dung cakes or incense outside the door in the evening when the mosquitoes came out," she said, "the smoke was irritating, but it was quite effective in repelling mosquitoes...provided you stayed indoors!" No wonder, then, that people in the village often came down with malaria: "my grandfather died of it," she said. Other than smoking out the mosquitoes, villagers also made sure to cover themselves in the evening. "Even when the heat was killing, we'd all learnt the hard way that bare skin would invariably be covered with bites," she said.
The next day, when she came to work, she looked more animated than usual. "I got so nostalgic about my village, that when I went home, I asked my mother if she remembered any old ways to repel mosquitoes," she said. Her mother said that their village was along the GT Road, which was flanked by eucalyptus trees on both sides. Villagers prized a plant with a strong lemony aroma that always grew wild near eucalyptus trees. "The juice of its leaves could be applied directly to the skin, and was a very effective mosquito repellent," she said.
Also, villagers often planted marigolds along the periphery of their huts. "Not only did their orange blooms add cheer, they also kept away mosquitoes and other bugs," she said, "in the evening, I went to the temple and brought back a marigold garland. Even though my husband and kids laughed at me, I crushed the petals against my skin "� and see...no bites today!"
A couple of days later, she came up with yet another easy repellent to make at home: "I mentioned our conversation to my Bihari neighbour, and she said that crushed tulsi (basil) leaves also worked quite well to keep the mosquitoes away," she reported. Camphor, she said, was also supposed to work well as a repellent, but she'd never used it.
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"Though we're armed with many easy and cheap remedies to get rid of mosquitoes this season, I don't understand one thing "� why do mosquitoes bite some people and not others?" she said, "my husband never gets bitten, whereas I suffer even if there's one mosquito in the room!" If scientists could answer her question, I thought, we might finally come close to winning the war against mosquitoes. Till then, I guess, my house would remain overflowing with DEET-free repellents, badges and all manner of village cures...thanks to my maid and her new-found nostalgia for the village of her youth.