Sunday, August 31, 2008

Desperate Remedies!

Falling ill is like opening up your life to public scrutiny. The enquiries about your well-being, the phone calls when you are fast asleep, the various suggestions as to the possible remedies, so on and so forth.

Couple of days ago, in the night, I started feeling weird in my throat and had a choice between strepsils and Coldarin. I took Coldarin praying that the darn thing should end by morning. But by then, it became a full-blown throat infection accompanied by ominous signs of approaching fever. The various remedies suggested since then:

1. Half a teaspoon of honey [which probably increased the fever]

2. gargling with dispirin [made me throw up my breakfast]

3. milk with a generous dosage of turmeric [not much of an impact other than changing the milk to a thick yellow]

4. crocin [generously donated by my head of the department, which only knocked me off]

5. good old strepsils [I liked the taste though I honestly wonder whether it made any significant impact on the condition of my throat]

6. Some flu medicine [reduced the fever which returned with increased intensity]

7. Plain chocolate mixed in hot milk [this is the one remedy I liked and wouldn't mind having more of it!]

8. Finally antibiotics [which seem to be working currently but have transformed me into a zombie!]


Of course the best remedy of all was the consistent phone calls from mom and sister. If I have to fall ill to feel so much of love and affection in a world where relationships are business transactions, so be it.