A week or seven days?

In the heavily polluted atmosphere of Bangalore, sneezing is almost a daily routine. From the gentle to the booming ones, which make you jump out of your skin, sneezing comes in all levels of the decibel scale, causing irritation and embarrassment. But it is when our noses take, or should I say mistake, these sneezes as a pistol shot signal to start running, that we get into trouble.

You guessed right. I am talking of what was commonly called in pre-Covid times as the common cold; common because it hardly spares anyone. If there was or is anyone who has never had a cold, he must be either a superman or God. Incidentally, this brings to mind a story of Tenali Rama, read when I was young.

As the story goes, when Tenali Rama prayed to the Goddess Mahakali, she appeared before him with her thousand heads. On seeing her Tenali Rama laughed out loud. “Why are you laughing at me?” asked the Goddess angrily. “Forgive me, my Mother”, said Rama, “I couldn’t help laughing when I thought how you will manage if you caught a cold, when I am finding it difficult with just one nose.” Mollified with his sense of humour, the goddess blessed him with wit, wisdom and wealth.

The cold germ, like the present day corona virus, can catch you totally unawares. A thorough drenching in an unexpected thunderstorm, may not affect you. On the other hand, you might have gone to bed, fit as a fiddle, yet wake up in the middle of the night with a tickle in your nose or a lump in your throat. Soon the sneezes come cascading one after another, eyes start to water, and with tissues and hankies turning soggy with the constant wiping of a leaky nose, you are in competition with Rudolph, for the red nose, of course!

A popular saying goes that a cold will leave you in a week with treatment and in seven days if left alone.

Unfortunately, no one allows you to leave it alone. Suggestions come thick and fast whether at home or work: Gargle with warm salt water; no, no, only warm water will do; inhale steam, drink a concoction of thulasi and ginger; drink milk with haldi and palm candy.

You try everything in desperation and the only result is that you are left exhausted both with the treatment and the malady. Once I took an ‘action’ capsule in the hope of getting well soon and the cold just froze leaving me gasping for days on end.

It takes ages to get the inexhaustible supply of phlegm out of your system/ And finally when you think you are rid of it, you find that that you have managed to pass it on to the members of the family and you experience the whole cycle vicariously.

“Excuse me. Ah…Ah,, Ahtishoo! Ahtishoooo!”

“Looks like you are catching a cold”

“Catching a cold? You are mistaken. Why on earth would I be wanting to do such a stupid thing? It is this cold which is catching me!” Sigh...