A Home-made Mosquito Repellent

Note: The views, opinions and content mentioned in the blog are solely mine and are not of those of my current or previous employers'.

With the recent heavy rain in most of the Southern states of India, there has been a rise in the number of mosquitoes and diseases carried by them, Dengue in particular, is on the rise (read here). It becomes important for us to protect ourselves from mosquito bites to avoid transmission of the diseases. Even if the mosquitoes are not carrying any disease causing organisms, no one enjoys a bite from them. There are several methods that we use to protect ourselves in India, most popular are as follows:

- Mosquito Repellent Coils
- Mosquito Repellent Diffusers- liquids and mats
- Mosquito Repellent Creams, sprays, patches and roll-on
- In some parts of the country- Mosquito nets (not too effective in my experience)

Most of these methods (except for use of mosquito nets) are quite unsafe and it involves inhalation of a lot of chemicals directly or indirectly. Some people also use Mosquito Repellent plants as well. I think this can be safe as well and if it was possible, I would have grown these at home. Unfortunately, I cannot :-(. I am not sure how effective these are but if you are interested, you can read about 12 such plants here.

Now, I have an "indoorsy" garden just outside my front door and the mosquitoes are usually waiting eagerly in the garden, for us to open our doors to them and they really love our blood. I was using (until this morning) liquid or mat diffusers and they actually worked for me but I always felt uncomfortable at the thought of inhaling invisible fumes of a concoction of chemicals which could harm us in a long run.

Recently, I saw a video on a simple home made mosquito repellent circulating on WhatsApp and thought of trying it out at home. I prepared it today. It is quite easy. All you need is:

- A few pellets of camphor
- Neem Oil

Neem Oil- Brand information and other methods of identification redacted

To prepare the repellent, crush the camphor pellets to a powder- finer, the better. However, I left it a bit chunky. Mix this powder very well with the neem oil. I used about 25 ml of oil and crushed about 5 pellets of camphor.

This mixture can be used in 3 ways:

- Light a lamp using the oil.
- Apply it directly on your skin
- Fill the mixture in an empty liquid diffuser bottle and plug it on.

I used the diffuser method. It has been 3 hours since I turned it on (7pm to 10pm) prior to writing this blog and so far I have not had a mosquito bite. I am not sure if it is because there have been no mosquitoes, or if the repellent is really working. I have to test it out some other time as well and also during different times during the day. I will keep you posted if you are interested in knowing- just drop a comment and I will let you know.

Liquid Diffuser with Camphor-Neem Oil mixture

P.S:
Neem is known to have natural pest repellent qualities. There is a lot of material on the internet to read on this topic.
As per some online content that I read, mainly coming from US, Camphor vapours are likely safe to inhale in small quantities in adults and may have minor side effects. It should not be swallowed whatsoever. Some people are allergic to camphor while applied on skin, so, best to do a small patch test before using it. Please do consult a doctor for the use of camphor, if there are babies, pregnant or lactating mothers around you or if you are one.
Most Indians use camphor as a part of religious worship and are used to it and I have not really known/heard of any one being harmed by its use- but one never knows. In my opinion, this would still be safer than the highly concentrated chemicals (including DDT which our gardener sprays in our garden). Many of the popular vaporubs available in the market also use camphor. Hope you found this useful.

The Magic of the Lost Temple by Sudha Murthy

As you already know that I got this book from Sapna bookstore in my recent book haul (read about the haul here). I wanted to read something light and nothing better than a children's book for it. Now, if you remember my previous review about Sudha Murthy's book (click here to read the review), I had mentioned that I hope that the next book of hers that I read would be different. Thankfully, this book was. The book's target readership is children and hence, written in a very simple language and has some interesting illustrations as as well.

The story revolves around Nooni, a 12 year old who goes to her village in Somanahalli to spend her summer holidays with her grandparents. The book paints a vivid picture of the slow paced village life, constantly comparing it against Bangalore. Nooni's grandma and grandpa narrate to her two different versions of a story of a stepwell related to an ancient ruler Somanayaka. The stories are both intriguing. Nooni makes a bunch of friends in Somanahalli and enjoys the village life a lot by going swimming in the river, picnicking and hiking to nearby places. On one such hikes, she stumbles upon something that feels like the stepwell described in the stories of Somanayaka and that sets the ball rolling for all the forthcoming activities in the village.

The book has amazing descriptions of food and had my mouth watering several times. In addition, the village life is very tempting and made me want to pack my bags and visit Somanahalli. I would have loved to go with Nooni and friends on the picnic by the river. However, I really did not enjoy the comparisons between Bangalore and the village. The village life has been glorified a lot and the city life has been shown as a negative.  Both have their own positives and negatives and I would have really preferred if the writer focussed mainly on the village life.

Some of the writing which describes Nooni's thoughts actually sound like those of an old person and not that of a child. For example, Nooni does not understand what a native fruit is, but, in another place she says that people in Bangalore are more interested in eating at weddings. Somehow, the former comes across as a child's thought but the latter of that of an old person, in my opinion. These are some other such examples which are a little awkward and does not seem to originate from the same person's brain. The book does get a little preachy in parts- I guess it is intended to be, considering, the target readers to be children. Otherwise, the book is a great read for kids and adults alike. It was a page turner and unputdownable. I hope to read similar stories from Sudha Murthy going forward.  I enjoyed reading this book thoroughly and highly recommend it for a children's movie too. The book has also touched up on some social issues such as lack of toilets etc.

Overall, a good read and I would rate it 4/5.

The Empty House

I bought the book at Sapna Bookstore during my Christmas vacation last year (again!). I wanted a light book to read as I was travelling to Hubli to attend a wedding. I love reading books on train and thought this would be a great read on the train.

Now, I really picked this book up without reading much on the back cover. The front cover indicated Ruskin Bond- The Empty House and Ruskin Bond was good enough for me to pick book up. However, once I started reading, I realised that this book is a compilation of stories by Ruskin Bond. Except one, all stories have been written by various writers.

The theme of the stories is 'Spooky' and comprises of supernatural thrillers. The Empty House happens to be one of the stories in the book. Probably Ruskin Bond or the publisher thought that this is the best story in the book and decided to put the name on the cover. Though the story was good, it was not the best according to me. My favourite in the book was that of Ruskin Bond's called Gone Fishing about a loyal servant waiting for his master's return who had Gone Fishing years back and the master does return and How!!! Read to enjoy. It was a simple story yet had a superb twist in the tale- Loved it. There were other good stories too of which I liked- The White Wolf of Hartz Mountain and Mrs. Raeburn's Waxworks. Though the compilation is good, none of them could equal Gone Fishing for me.

If I have to rate the book, it will be 4/5 as some stories did not thrill me enough for a supernatural thriller compilation. However, I strongly recommend that you read the book as a big part of it is still quite good.

Book Haul from Sapna Book Store

I went to meet a friend visiting from Hyderabad on Gandhi Jayanti, for lunch. Following lunch, we had a milkshake at the Drunken Monkey and just went to Sapna Bookstore for just a glimpse...thought we would peep in and out without any plans/intentions of buying books. However, we both ended up buying books and I also bought some stationery to make myself feel good.

It is now time to unveil my book purchases.

I observed an Instagramer consistently post pictures of Agatha Christie's books. When I saw the ABC murder, I recalled that the Instagramer had posted a picture of the book with the same front cover. The cover was so inviting, I couldn't help myself and decided to get it. I sometimes, do judge books by their cover. I have read many of Agatha Christie's books in high school. I somehow do not recall if I have read the ABC murders so that gave me one more reason to buy the book. I do not mind re-reading such books.

I wanted to read a fictional story from Sudha Murthy and not a compilation of anecdotes from her life. Though the book- The Magic of the Lost Temple is intended to be a children's book, I do not mind reading it. I love reading children's books to date and read them from time to time.

I have been hearing a lot about Twinkle Khanna as a writer and how witty and hilarious she is, especially in The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, that I had decided to buy the book long back but it was never in sight or on top of my mind whenever I shopped. At Sapna, it was staring at me and did not allow me to forget buying it.

This is it- a small little update from my recent purchase.