If you have been on a traffic light in any Indian city, you have seen the peddlers hawking this bug-buzzing-bat.
One of the major benefits of bats (the upside-down-mammal type, not the hold-it-up-when-you-get-a-century type) is that they keep insect pests in check. Seeing one of these always reminds me of the only Batman that is better than Nolan’s i.e. Mungeri Lal’s. For those of us who were of voting age when MMS silently stepped into the PM chair, “Batman Batman Chimgadad Batman” was a much more memorable knight than the Dark one.
The keet-naashak-bat bat deals so well with a completely Indian problem within completely Indian constraints, that it was easy for me to think it was an indigenous invention. I was disappointed to learn that while it is not firang, it is not Indian either. The patent for this was awarded to Taiwanese inventor Tsao-i Shih in 1996 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-killing_device#Electric_flyswatter).
Worse still it is, to learn that Mungeri Lal is actually an American. The character is loosely based on Walter Mitty, the one recently brought to film.
Oh well, at least, we will always have Chess!
