Managed to catch a cold. Got up this morning to sore throat, cough, body ache and a slight running temperature. It seems a combination of Virus, dust and pollution probably took their toll on and control over my body. Soon I had this odd feeling of my throat getting sore and starting to itch more. By noontime I could sense coming down with something. Post lunch I sneezed couple of times as my nostrils started to get warmer and wetter, as my breathing was beginning to get heavier, giving it a burning sensation. The spine, knees and slowly my entire body started aching badly.
Sipped a "Kadda Chai" (strong tea) boiled with a liberal dosage of ginger slices and black pepper. It certainly was soothing to my aching throat and shrugged off my jaded nerves. But the relief was temporary as the symptoms came back again, a la a drunk uncle who you don't want to be at your family function, yet you can't stop him from coming.Fortunately I didn't have a whole lot of items in my to do list. Feeling weak and tired took an afternoon siesta. By evening I was feeling lousy and drank stronger tea. My voice sounds like our legendary singer Saigal". My wife told me sarcastically - "To me it sounds more like the course croak of a Bull Frog on a rainy summer night".
After a frugal lunch of hot Chinese soup, it felt a lot better. Hot and spicy food feel so soothingly titillating to my numbed taste bud.
Read somewhere that Viruses hate Alcohol. However, didn't try any. Continued to lie on bed like a horizontal version of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the legendary medieval time preacher in Odisha and Bengal during the Bhakti movement.
Common cold can be very irritating. Medical science which has grown leaps and bounds, is yet to discover a cure for it. Only it's duration can be minimized with plenty of fluids and rest. If you take medicine it will last a week.
Took this opportunity to catch up with news back home in United States tuning in to CNN The local Odia channels, gave me more headaches than the cold virus. During the Odia news the screen flashes in English BREAKING NEWS. They can very well transliterate it as BHANGA KHABARA (broken news), from the way the Odia anchors and newsreaders speak in needless accented Broken Odia. I have seen "Breaking news" like DURDANTA APARADHI CHAKULI GIRAF (Notorious criminal named CHAKULI has been arrested). And more, NAKALI GUTHKA COMPANY UPARE POLICE RA CHADHAU (police raid on fake chewing tobacco company).
As if not enough, came across a few more terms or phrases. CHUTIA BANEILA (Chutia Banaya) - Made an ass of me. MAHANGA PADILA (Mehnga Pada) - Prove costly.
KANA KHECHUDI PAKUCHI (Kya Khichdi Pakta hai) - What's cooking? May Lord Jagannath save my mother tongue. Either it is enriching itself by liberally accepting the influx from other languages. Or, it's destined towards oblivion, which seems like the most likely outcome.
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