It’s official….. since last night I am down with fever. Feels wretched actually!!!I hate falling sick but then I already gave you hell of crap about the immunity thing so I am not going to repeat the whole sob story again. This is the second time within four months that I am down. Maybe it is quite a natural frequency for some people but not me. Before September I did not fall sick for almost two and half years. So this frequency is too much to handle. Specially with Ma not being here I feel it more. This is not the first time that I am down with fever when Ma has gone.

Lying below the blankets and waiting for the chill to pass….. I remember this time when I was a little kid….. I always used to get fever when Ma was not around me. We had gone to Kolkatta for holidays. We were to make a detour and first go to Puri in Orrissa and then go to Kolkatta and then go to Darjeeling and then attend my maternal uncle’s wedding in Kolkatta. The trip was adventurous even by my parents standards. We went to Puri….. it was fun!!! Then at Kolkatta we heard that Darjeeling was in the grips of some kind of epidemic. Dad refused to go but uncles and aunts decided that since we had come so far I should be left behind and they should proceed as planned. So I was left with my paternal grandparents and uncles and aunts (we lived in a joint family setup). Me being the youngest of the whole lot I was pampered (a little more than usual) by my aunts who saw to it that in the absence of my mom I was well fed and etc etc. But I got fever and it was a bad attack. It had me howling and crying. My grandmother kept vigil all night and told me stories all night. (I loved stories!!!) My maternal uncles were summoned and they tried to pacify me and within the fever my aunts (both maternal and paternal) took turns and saw that I was OK but fever did not subside until Ma came and then miraculously the fever went off. My aunts always teased my Ma that she had to become a kangaroo and carry me wherever she went.

I was a little older when Dad had to have an elective surgery and was admitted to the hospital. Obviously Ma went too. I was in school then. I remained with my two older sisters who were both college going then. Everything went well when I got fever. It was sometime in the month of December-January and Pune was very cold then…. almost 4 degrees. The fever as usual went very high and I was burning up. Cookie (my Alsatian dog) who was very cold used to cuddle up with me. Since I was warm he just wouldn’t leave me.

I don’t ever remember seeing a dog who would sleep like a human being on his back. Cookie used to think that he was human just looked different. He behaved just like us. I still remember the bulk of the big five feet Alsatian sleeping on his back and even snoring. Cookie usually did that…. but that time since Ma was not there, he took it his responsibility to look after me and it was cold…. so cookie lay full length beside me and my sis and bro-in-law (they were not married then) put cold compress on my forehead. In their enthusiasm to make me OK they were overdoing it….. I did not like it….. so I woke the sleeping Cookie and in our secret language I told him to show some attitude and he showed his fangs and they left me alone. Believe me when an Alsatian shows his fangs….. he looks dangerous and definitely looks like he means business and cookie was my brother….. it was his duty to protect me…… so my over enthusiastic bro-in-law and sister lay off…. well subsequently ma came home and I was OK. All through that time Cookie never left my side not because he loved me….. well he did that but more because it was cold and I was the warm element.

Another time Ma was supposed to have a surgery for a bladder prolapse (elective surgery again). Ma was admitted to the hospital. I was in college then and we were supposed to go to Mahabaleshwar for picnic. I was left at the mercy of my sisters. So while Dad stayed with Ma in the hospital, sisters carried food to and fro. It so happened that I got fever and Bodidi forbid me to go to college and to take a paracetamol when the fever came. I stayed at home with Cookie while she and Chodidi went to the hospital to deliver Ma and Pa’s lunch.

The fever used to come and I used pop a paracetamol…… I wanted to get well soon because I had to go to Mahabaleshwar….. all were counting on me. Ma on the other hand was worried when I did not turn up at the hospital to see her. Her BP was already high and so Pa and sisters told her that I had tutorials and had to study so I did not come. Back at home the fever came and I kept popping so much that I had popped 14 tablets till Bodidi came back. When she asked me what happened to the medicines….. I told her I had misplaced it. That day evening I got a bad bout of fever which kept going high and sisters panicked and neighbours were summoned and so was Karnik uncle. First it was injection and then he I asked him if I could go for picnic the next day…. He looked at me sternly and asked me how many I had taken……I did look sheepishly at him so he got the hint. Well the next day my sisters declared that I was too difficult to be left alone and it was best that I stayed with my kangaroo mother so I was packed up in sweaters and mufflers and then taken to meet ma….. who till then had worked up a frenzy when I did not turn up. One look at me and ma asked my bro-in-law to go home with my sis and get me a change of clothing. Well I stayed with Ma in the hospital all through her stay in the hospital and went home with her.

What can I say…… I am a kangaroo baby!!!! even now!!!! That’s what Ma said yesterday when I told her that I got fever……. Well maybe my immunity also has to do something…. it is low!!!! But on cold days like this when I am alone and have to fend myself I miss Ma and Cookie……. Well Cookie is not there anymore but Ma is and I wish she were here with her endless cups of tea or coffee and milk and horlicks walking up to me from the kitchen. When she is around, I run away from food and now even when I crave for a cup of tea I have to go and get it myself…… however sick I am……. Price of independence!!! take responsibility for yourself!!! That’s one aspect of marriage.

Are the people who haven’t yet eaten the shadi ka laddoo listening ???? You cant be a baby kangaroo anymore!!!! boooohoooooo!!!!!!