mosquito magnet!

my wife and i never let go of an opportunity to pat ourselves on our back when we see one of our kids do something which we believe is a trait they have inherited from the 'self-back-patter'! nor do we miss an opportunity to rib the other party whenever there is some embarrassing or awkward trait noticed in our kids and are convinced that we ourselves had nothing to do with that particular trait. and we all know where that came from and all that!

well here's a bizarre one where both my wife and i have the same view, one of those extremely rare moments :-)

my daughter is a 'mosquito magnet', just like i am!

before she was born, if there was one solitary mosquito which was in the mood for some human blood sampling it would unfailingly find its way to some exposed part of my anatomy and proceed to go on a binge on my vital body fluid! the said mosquito would choose to ignore the presence of an entire brood of family members present in the vicinity at the same instant. i used to console myself by claiming that i was a 'pure blood' which even the discerning mosquitoes vetted! ('pure blood' of what species, don't ask me!)

and now i've noticed that our daughter is a better mosquito magnet than i can ever aspire to be. the solitary mosquito now makes a bee-line (shouldn't that be 'mosquito-line'?) for her. that explains the ever-present tube of mosquito repellent in our household.

till recently i thought there must have been something unique about me which makes us more attractive to the animal kingdom. (nonetheless, i would have preferred doves and cats and other representatives of the animal kingdom expressing their allegiance to a royal personage than just some measly mosquitoes!)

now medical science throws some light on this mystery. scientists believe that genetics account for about 85% of our susceptibility to mosquito bites. people with concentration of steroids or cholesterol on their skin surface; people who produce excess of certain acids like uric acid; these are the people mosquitoes like best :-)

researchers are still trying to pinpoint what compounds and odours people exude that might be attractive to mosquitoes.

so next time the mosquitoes prefer you over the others in your company - blame your genes!

p.s. here's an interesting fact - mosquitoes have been around for more than 170 million years. basically tells us that they are not going to disappear in a hurry :-)

a question of answers

i realised there were a few unanswered questions in some of my earlier postings. in this posting i try to answer them to the best of my ability!

in the posting about 'the ultimate why' i had posed a few questions - what is the ultimate answer for all our whys? is there one single answer that answers all our whys?

ok, here's my take on this.

i believe that all our 'whys' lead to one final answer.

why do we do everything that we do?

we do everything that we do because we want to be happy, to achieve fulfilment and to feel complete.

even if we believe we are doing some actions like charity or some sacrifice for somebody else's benefit, if we look within ourselves closely enough, we have to admit that we are doing it because we derive some sense of fulfilment or satisfaction in these actions.

in fact, i would go to the extent of saying that there is not a single activity, word or thought that we undertake other than for fulfilling our own desires and for our own happiness.

do you agree?

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and i was also told that there was a missing link in my posting about the 'evidence of reincarnation'.

in this posting i wanted to present the case of my kids as evidence of reincarnation. but i think the idea didn't come through clearly.the point i was trying to make was that 2 kids in the same family can be so different. now, the only logical reason to explain this huge difference is the personality package that they seem to have 'inherited' or brought along with them.

some of you might argue and say that the differences can be explained as genetic. but then my counter would be - what defined their unique genetic structure which in turn defined their unique personalities with its specific traits? are these traits truly 'carried forward' from some previous life or are these only just some accidental combinations of certain proteins in their dna strands?

i don't know about you, but i can't accept the theory that i am what i am because of some random 'accident'!

what do you think?

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