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Clearly, rodents disagree with the lament that Calcutta, now Kolkata, is a city in decline. After all, rats are proverbially fickle when it comes to sinking ships, but going by the sheer havoc they are causing in British India’s first capital, they are flocking to the city in great numbers. And like the two other world cities of the Anglosphere — London and New York — Kolkata, too, has little idea of how to deal with the rat problem.
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As the Jerries, Mickey Mice and Mushaks infest slums and burrow through concrete, dangerously undermining flyovers and bridges, and as they chew through the wires that form the casing for the digital highway, people may well ask: Are homo sapiens, with all their invention and innovation, losing their city to a “lower” mammal? Is the great invasion not from AI or aliens but, in fact, the humble creatures from the backyard?
The flummoxed authorities in West Bengal (as of now, there isn’t even a count of the rats in Kolkata and no action plan) can take some solace from the centre of high culture in the Occident. In Paris and beyond, a creature much smaller and, in terms of cognitive function, lower, has caused panic. Videos of bed bug infestation have surfaced from Metros, buses, trains, movie theatres and hotel rooms. The glamour of Paris Fashion Week has been overshadowed by the little critters, and the thought of creepy crawlies spreading across the world via the Paris Olympics next is already a worry.
It is perhaps the conceit of concrete, of art, architecture and technology, that makes humans believe that they are the “superior” species. As it turns out, the comforts and achievements brought about by mastering nature are, sometimes, just food and shelter for other creatures. The waste from eateries feeds the rats, and the pillows, mattresses, sheets and seats are just a high-speed train for bedbugs. Unlike humans, they are bound neither by borders nor zoning laws.
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