Fevers, Delirium and Fun
Not much later after the Bintan holiday, we all started falling prey to Mr Rhino one by one, until it left us all sick and immobile by the weekend! All of us specialized with different kinds of infection with I- sinus cold, Mrinal- killer dry cough, and Dhiren- cold fever. Mrinal and I having decided to rest and sleep through the weekend, lolled on the couch savouring the hot tasty soup made by Satty.
Post lunch, Mrinal and I took an afternoon nap only to feel worse by the evening and realizing that we cannot consult health centre doctor for the next 36 hrs. Restlessly idle and craving for company, we asked Dhiren to come over to our place to spend and celebrate our sickness together. Packing aloo parathas, sabji with hot rasam from Koufu, we had dinner at home disinterestedly just to finish the mundane daily rituals. After enough consideration and looking up on the internet, we decided on watching the spy thriller D day at night 10. Having nearly reached my sleeping time, I was dozing off short lengths in the first half - losing the gist of the movie, much to Mrinal and Dhiren’s annoyance, since they essentially had to narrate the whole story.
By midnight, Satty joined us after watching Dhoom 3 and we whiled away the time watching some random Bollywood classroom videos. With Mrinal-Dhiren and I being desperate attention seekers, Satty acted as our virtual thermometer to check our forehead-neck temperature to decide who was most “hot” and needed more care. Very soon Mrinal and I succumbed to our tiredness and hit the bed, whereas Dhiren continued watching movies with Satty, and thus proving to be the least sick of all.
After having slept with intermittent coughing, sneezing- nose block disturbing our sleep, we woke up late on a Sunday morning to find not much improvement in our health. Satty and Mrinal made breakfast and tea for us, while Dhiren and I lazed on the couch grumbling about not feeling well. It was commendable how Satty’s immune system was strong enough to resist and fight back all the infection that had potentially attacked her by being amongst us three. Indolence overpowered our appetite, with us “kindly” ordering Satty to do every small thing for us- Pratik accuses us of child Labour. After reaching heights of procrastination, we finally stepped out for lunch at 2 in the afternoon, where we were joined by Amar who was still recuperating from his two week old similar infection.
Pratik living at the other end of Singapore, self-invited himself to visit us patients and spend some good time together in the evening. Satty – Pratik belonging to the non-infected league, tantalized us with yummy chocolate ice-cream, I resisted it with determination while Dhiren gave in to it. After mediating the differences in opinions among people’s choice for restaurants, the decision finally rested on Mrinal who saved it as a surprise for us (I knew it though!). We reached Komalas only to be disappointed to see them serving very few, not our favourite south Indian meal options.
After placing our respective orders, we started chattering amongst ourselves excitedly, swaying to the music being played, being our own selves oblivious to the surroundings. Us breaking into riotous laughter after every sentence spoken, did prompt one of the waiters to enquire about us- if we were new to Singapore and where we belonged to. Far from being embarrassed, we enthusiastically continued our nonsensical talks and jokes, although Amar could not relate to most of it since he has missed out on many of the events/outings owing to his work pressure. Nothing can ever stop Pratik-Dhiren from the Andaaz Apna Apna jokes and their “mutual Understanding” one liners, incomprehensible to most of us in the first go. They continued picking on Satty for every word that she uttered, and she sportively chose to be mocked at. There was an outrageous repetition of jokes, until Mrinal imposed a limit of 5 times for one joke. The frequency match and comfort level was so amazing, that nobody shied from exposing their mindless self.
This was the first time I didn’t miss home while falling ill - having sick and non-sick people to take care, and had such an eventful sickness. Sometimes I wish time goes static, and nothing around me changes. Love you guys, thanks for making the good and not-so-good phases of my life equally exciting and fun-filled!
