The Medicine Chest

I have an aversion to medicines. Just the sight of medicines makes me gloomy and the thought of being dependent on them can cause me a severe depression. No wonder then, that as soon as sickness passes our home,  irrespective of who is sick, I am pretty messed up myself. The bad news is that no matter what we eat and how we scrub, sickness is a sure shot visitor once in a while.

The victim of its most recent vist was none other than little Yog. As he lay in bed, burning with fever for three straight days, our room resembled a mini hospital.  Steamers, thermometers, allopathic medicines, homeo remedies,  nasal drops and wipes were on each table top and shelf. Three days, I couldn’t care less to clean up and hide the medicine monsters back inside. As his fever lifted today and the spark returned in his eyes, I managed to sit down and assess the situation at home. However, before tucking back the monsters in their chest, I had critical errands to attend in office. Leaving Yog in the safe custody of his grandmother, I rushed to office.

When I returned home for lunch, I was in for a pleasant surprise.  Yog was not only completely rid of fever, he was playing happily with his new found toys – medicine bottles! The swoosh sound of the white homeo balls shaking in the bottle and the round childproof cap of the Crocin bottle were keeping him absolutely engrossed. He would shake the homeo bottle to make some music and then rotate the Crocin cap, round n round, round n round. He would laugh in between, clap his hands in joy and go back to rotating the cap. The minute we would ask him to return the bottles, he would catch both of them in either hand and run away from us. So much so, that as I dragged him into bed for his afternoon nap, the bottles were hiding with him under his blanket. If I tried to squeeze them out of his grip, he would scream and howl and refuse to sleep. In the hope that he would catch some sleep, I let him hold on to his new best friends as I patted him to sleep. I can still remember the smile of contentment on his face as he held on to both bottles with dear life and closed his eyes for his nap.

The monsters for me, had in a few hours transformed into Yogs best friends. Life can surely be full of surprises some times.