A fever and its effects.

When you are so familiar with almost every kind of illness, you wouldn’t panic at all when something new pops up. You will be like “I have seen most of this. Let us see what happens, next”. But imagine a person who hasn’t been attacked even by a common cold for past 3-4 years. And when he is attacked by “viral fever”, all of a sudden, the situation turns out of control mainly because of the sudden ‘panic’ that sets in his mind. As we know most of the illness is related to how we treat them with your mind. If you panic, the illness gets an upper hand and it takes its worse form.

Ok, now coming to the point, the person I was referring to is my husband. Last Friday when he told about a cold coming up, I thought that it would be gone with some anti-cold tablets and paracetamol. But it didn’t. It upgraded itself into severe fever, chesty cough in the night which almost blocked his breathing not to mention the running nose. But the main problem was the panic he faced. He couldn’t simply accept that he was having fever.

As it was Friday evening, I couldn’t take him to the doctor till Monday. Here ‘doctor-on-call’ is only for emergency, and that means you must be nearly dying to qualify for it. First you have to call your GP and they will transfer you to the ‘doctor on call’ and you have to convince them that you are dying. And they will decide whether you are ‘really’ dying or not. And then they will call the doctor at home and tell him/her about your symptoms. And if he is willing to come, they will call you back and give you the permission to come to ‘doctor-on-call’. This is the procedure. I know it sounds crazy to prove that you are dying to get emergency treatment. But that is how the funny medical system here works.

So, we had to wait till Monday to see our GP. Now I had Saturday and Sunday to visit the pharmacist and do some ‘self-treatment’ to my husband. Also he suddenly started asking for the most impossible things like ‘kanji’(rice-porridge), pappadam, chukku-pepper-coffee, vicks etc. It was impossible at the moment because, we didn’t have any of these at home then. Also I had no idea from where to get whole pepper and chukku (dried ginger) and pappadam. He didn’t want ground pepper and fresh ginger.

Now Saturday I began my hunting for these odd objects at 1 pm. To my utter horror, TESCO re-assembled all their products on that day, after 3 years!!! . I was completely lost in that huge super-market. After 3 hrs of patient hunting, I found whole black pepper, cloves and dried-ginger-powder in the thai-spices aisle. After that I went to Boots(pharmacy) and got all the vicks, anti-cold tablets and paracetamol. [Here there is a restriction on paracetamol, that at a time you can buy only one pack].

When I came back at 6 pm, I had to make chukku-coffee, basmati rice kanji, dried coconut (the only kind available here) -chammanthi (chutney). With Lemsip (lemon-paracetamol drink) every 4 hrs, chukku-coffee every hour, fresh kanji-chutney three times- i was running all around, not to tell about the constant coaxing to make him eat tablets/food.

This was my very first experience with a feverish person. At home, when amma had fever, she would take food and tablets without any complaint. We just have to give her-that’s all. No complaints like “This kanji doesn’t have enough water. I wont eat this”. And I never expected husbands/men to be this cranky, when feverish. I was exhausted too much by Sunday evening. Constant running up and down every half an hr for coffee and kanji made my back pain horrible. Monday we went to our GP and my husband was given antibiotics.

Now with all these medicines he turned on his crankiest form.

“I don’t want to eat tablets."

"I don’t want to eat."

"I want kanji with more water and less rice."

"I won’t drink Lemsip, its bitter."

"You put too much ginger and less sugar on coffee”.

Now what will I do when a grown-up man behaves like this??

Some how… I can only say somehow, by Thursday his fever subsided and now only traces of his crankiness are left.

And I learned one big lesson. To be sick is very simple when compared to the effort, patience and stamina needed to look after a sick person when he is cranky!

Does everyone behave like this, when sick?

This play list has some old malayalam film songs which are my favourite! enjoy....

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Another tabloid story!

First of all, all tabloid-haters, please close this blog....

And those, who still are curious to know about what lies in here.....

Yesterday I bought Irish News of the World newspaper because of just one single news which was the headline, about an Indian....

This is for all who are interested in 'Bollywood News'- Indian, non-Indian, expat or otherwise...

After celebrity big brother known as CBB here, Indians' very own Shilpa Shetty rose to stardom, in UK and Ireland...

In the Filmfare Awards Function (June 2007) in Yorkshire, she was awarded for her 'lady like behaviour' in CBB. (what a unique award!)

and now....she has made headlines again in British and Irish tabloids.....

unfortunately for this....

note: I am not endorsing 'News of the world'. Apparently Hindu also followed it.


a Flashback....

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7sqAIPR50c]

A Passport size photo story.

Two weeks back with the Glasgow bomb scare and the Indian doctors in custody, we went very much into panic mode. Mainly because we had plans to visit London next month for one week. Apart from the money already spent on hotel accommodation and air tickets we had another issue too. Our visit visas were in process and I almost expected them to get rejected. May be due to my pessimism, our visa applications were duly rejected the next day. But the reason was different. My passport size photo didn’t have the white background that they insist for visa applications.



grey background photo, which got rejected.


Didn’t I read the guidelines for visa application? Being an organized Virgo, how would I ever miss it? I did. But to be frank, when I remembered my last ‘experience’ with passport size photo, I kind of ignored it. It’s not so easy to get a ‘passable’ passport size photo here. What we have here mostly are those Kodak booths, with a square inch dark space inside which more or less work like vending machines. The only difference is that after putting the money into machine, we have to sit still for some seconds, when the machine takes photo. Now if you are not familiar with them (like me) you will end up spending 6 euros or more for taking pictures of your T shirt or hands or part of your tummy.

Last time, when I tried, I spent more than 12 euros to get my upper body photographed without my head anywhere near it. No. It was not my mistake. The person who used the booth previously was apparently very much taller than me and made the adjustments according to his/her height. And with my special (!) rapport that I have with machines, I sat there and just pressed the first button I saw. The machine suddenly went on flashing and clicking with a 'plop' before my mind could register that it is taking photo. I sat there blinking at its sudden response and looking for the button to stop. The result was two photos of mine looking here and there for the stop button, two photos of mine looking stunned at the fast responding camera, and two photos of faceless me with a part of chin ,neck and arms, when I finally found the stop button.

Twelve euros spent without even a single photo of my full face caused a family feud. I tried to tell my husband that it was not my fault that I was short. And his logic that I should have adjusted the machine didn’t seem like any valid reason to me. So, I didn’t want to go to that dark-booth again. Honestly it really had an eerie atmosphere to it. I might have thought that UK embassy may show some leniency with my grey background photo! Well, they didn't.


Any way when the visa application was rejected with this reason mentioned, there wasn’t any other way left but to take a white-background photo. But I was adamant, that even if I can’t go to London, I won’t get into that booth again. [I think I have that phobia of closed dark spaces!]. So we asked a Fuji shop owner whether they took passport size photos. They did, but only with Polaroid cameras –the same one which were in those booths. But this time, a human being snapped the picture rather than the machine itself. That was the biggest relief for me!

This shop had a main entrance door which was painted white on half of one side with a stool in front of it. When she asked me to sit down there, suddenly I realized how I missed the photo studios in India. They had make-up room with combs, talcum powder and even bindis. They had two or three reflectors and big flashes. Here, there was nothing… not even a decent flash! They didn’t even have a closed room. The photo was taken in the one and only room- reception -in front of a white painted door. Now I had only one prayer. God! Please let my face be visible in that photo! Back in India, I used to criticize every photo taken in the studio and complained that it was horrible and the cameraman made me look bad. Now I just wanted my face to be present in the photo!

God heard my prayer and my face was there in the photo, as well as the white back ground. I don’t have copies of this photo because of its Polaroid nature. But it served the purpose. Our visa got approved and we are ready to visit London next month!


white background polaroid photo, which got approved.

Next time, when I go to India, a photo with white background is in my wish-list!

'PET' peeve?

Internet was not accessible to me for past 80 hrs...
But weekend newspapers kept me busy....and I found some 'very interesting advertisements' that made me think... think... think... and then finally sleep!

Here are they...


For all dog lovers - please donate!




For all petlovers - an urge to adopt a pet from pet-rescue centre!


And NOW...................


.........

........

......

....

..

.


For all "barking dog HATERS"????




For all "stray cat HATERS"?????

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Going back-in time!

“May be I am like a frog inside a well, but what the heck, my life is still inside the well. “

So, here I am back again getting excited like a kid, when I find things which I don’t expect here - to be specific - in Ireland.

Last weekend as usual I managed to drag my hubby into Penny’s (Primark-the budget end clothing line in UK, Ireland and Spain) inspite of his tiring attempts to lure me away from the clutches of the store. (huh.. that sentence sounds more terrible than the original incident!)

My aim was just to browse, especially to take a longing look at the items for sale (that catches my attention), under 5 euro-just like any other normal female.

And then suddenly I saw this thing – of course on sale - there. And I am sure that at the next instant I heard my jaw dropping to the floor! I squealed to my hubby “Do you see what I am seeing? Can you believe it is ‘that’… is it available here?” And my hubby as skeptic as he is, answered “It is not what you think it is. It is something else”. But no, I was sure… it is THAT…I didn’t know its name – at least I didn’t know what it was called in Ireland(Europe) so I checked the tag…it read “beach mat”…

Now, the beach mat is not at all uncommon here, especially in summer season. But what made me squeal with excitement was the way it looked and the material with which it was made.


Because it was the same kind of traditional straw mat available in Kerala, India, which we call “paaya” or “pulpaaya” (grass mat) in Malayalam. From where I come, “paaya” is used for almost anything… to dry spices, to dry mangoes/bitter gourd/lemon prior to making pickles, to sit, to sleep, as temporary bed for both babies and grownups, in fact it can be used for anything. There is a saying that if new-born babies are made to sleep in “paaya” in floor (instead of beds or cots), their bodies grow strong! (I don’t know if it is correct or not). But it is so much close to our culture… in olden days we used special “pulpaaya” for special guests…

So, now you can get a vague idea about why I squealed. I never expected to see a “paaya” outside Kerala! I touched it first - the same feeling- I smelled it, trying to get the smell of the straw I used to get in “paaya”-no, it doesn’t smell, like that! I squeezed it—hmm…the feeling of touching something soooo familiar! But there was just one difference. This straw mat was made in such a way that you can carry it just like a small hand bag. Our own Kerala “paaya” didn’t have that facility. We could fold it only vertically, making it very difficult to pack. In fact the traditional “paaya” would never fit into a suitcase.




This was the second time, I am seeing traditional Kerala stuff in here. The first time was when I saw a broom made of dry coconut leaves – displayed as showpiece!
Note: In Kerala, we use it just to sweep and after that it rests in the darkest and the farthest corner of the store-room or kitchen. And just imagine my disbelief when I saw it as a show-piece in furniture shops!
I bought the so-called “beach mat” which is used in our place for everything except in beaches! What an irony! And yesterday I slept in “paaya” – feeling the texture- again trying to get the familiar but, non-existent smell of straw in it.