One day Raqeeb went shopping with his mother. As he was very fond of sweets, he asked his mother if he might buy some.
Mother: No, no, Raqeeb. You shouldn't buy any sweets from his shop. See, flies are sitting on them. If you eat those sweets you will fall ill.
Raqeeb: All right, Mother, let's walk across the road. Look, here is another shop. Shall we buy some from here?
Mother: Yes, it's a clean one. There are no flies. Oh, no. I have just seen a man sweeping the road by the shop. There is a lot of dust. You oughtn't eat anything if there is dust on it. Flies and dust carry hundreds of germs and they are enemies of our health.
Raqeeb: Please Mother, tell me more about these germs.
Mother: Listen very carefully. These germs are the smallest living things. They cannot be seen with the naked eye. You only see them through a microscope.
Raqeeb: How do the flies carry them?
Mother: You have seen flies sitting on dirty things. There are germs on these things and they stick to the flies' legs. When the flies sit and walk on our food the germs stick on it. And when we eat that the food the germs get into our bodies and make as ill.
Raqeeb: Oh, I see! So, we should never eat such sweets and food that are not properly covered.
Mother: Dust also carries germs. We can't see them, but the air is full of them, So, you must remember not to eat food is flies have been sitting on it or if there is dust on it.
Raqeeb: Right, I won't buy anything from these shops where things are not properly covered.
Mother: A great many diseases are caused by these germs. For instance, the germs of typhoid and several other diseases are carried by flies.
Raqeeb: But, Mother, I have read in my book that malaria is caused by a kind of mosquito and not by flies.
Mother: True, you are right. One can get malaria from a mosquito bite.
Raqeeb: Where do the mosquito live?
Mother: They live in stagnant water. Some people use Kerosene oil and D.D.T to kill the mosquitoes before they are big enough to fly away and bite healthy people.
Raqeeb: If everybody in Pakistan takes part in the fight against mosquitoes, we will soon get rid of malaria.
Mother: Yes, my son, I think so too. We should try to keep ourselves healthy as "HEALTH IS WEALTH" If we are not healthy, we won't be able to work hard, study and learn.....
