The Demonizing Cold (acchoooo… Excuse me..)!

Whats life without cold! It has become an integral part part of my life that if I DON'T catch a cold atleast two times a week, it means something is terribly wrong with me and I need to consult a doctor… Thanks to my classical music classes and my guru, for the major part of my life, I had abstained from cold stuff…And now, all of a sudden in the last few years, if I expect my body to put up a brave fight against the virus… poor thing, its helpless…


Last couple of years came the usual hanging out with friends, hundreds of coffee day trips and ice cream parlours etc.. And after each of these events, it could be proclaimed beyond doubt that I will land up coughing and sneezing, the next day… And Cetrizine came to my rescue most of the time… Pop one cetrizine and the cold is gone..! Though I claim that I don’t take alcohol...the quantity of Benadryl(cough syrup which contains alcoholic content too...) consumed in my life time is enough to send any big time boozer to a dizzy state… well… that’s an exaggeration.. :)

My mom always prefers natural stuff to allopathy… hence thanks to my grandma and mom, I have been fed with enough shoots, barks and leaves… well now that I am well equipped to handle these situations...I can survive without any hassle even if I am stranded in a forest..!! The traditional 'kashaayam' which my grandma makes is very effective.. But its kinda bitter and hence she adds lots of sugar to it and somehow used to make me drink it 3 times a day! And her statement- 'All that is good for the tastebuds is not good for health' is so true most of the times..All our pizzas, bhel puri's icecreams etc… But comeon… we don’t belong to mountain community to eat such stuff all the time… I can hear people say.. "Prevention is better than cure" .. but it jus doesnt happen that way always.. does it.. missing all the fun in life.. so its better to search for a cure, in this case.. ;)

Even when I came to bangalore, I was so worried as to what would substitue all the pampering I was subjected to… And along with my luggage, mom (advised my grandma) packed 6 - 8 medium sized boxes, containing stuff ranging from pepper(which is known to control cough.. Believe me..its so effective..!! ), panan kalkandu (which is also an effective remedy for cold..) , turmeric (which I have always had with milk, which is supposed to be good for the throat.. Especially when it comes to singing..)and lots of other things which I don’t even remember the names of… Since my fav 'Cetrizine' has come under the banned drug category(the papers say...) it is the godsend 'Samahan' which is what I majorly consume nowadays..(Its some ayurvedic powder which contains an extract of 14 herbs which can be added to water/milk and consumed… that’s whats written on the packet!! ) Pretty effective…

And to put an end to this by boosting my immunity level to cold, I decided to take homeopathy medicines(for 5 months..), which is kind of permanent cure..But the major headache being that there are different 'powders' and sugar balls to be taken religiously 6 times in a day! :-O …(early morning, before going to bed, half hour before lunch and after lunch… half hour before dinner and after dinner..!)
Give me a break! I thought initially.. Sometimes I even forget to have my lunch/dinner.. Then comes this half an hour before and after thingie.. But to gain something, u need to sacrifice something else.. In this case sacrifice my irresponsible behaviour and have meds on time! Well.. Reminders in phone work pretty well.. ;)

Lifes a lot better now, and strong piscean intuitions tell me that permanent freedom is jus a few months away.. :)