Worry for what?

I am feeling faint, I feel sick, maybe I have swine flu, lol :P read the status message of a friend just a few minutes ago.

Worry for what?

I am feeling faint, I feel sick, maybe I have swine flu, lol :P read the status message of a friend just a few minutes ago.

While I should commend this friend of mine for being so silly and braveu00a0 at a time when the whole city runs mad with swine flu panic, I also think we're taking it a tad too lightly. But then again, are we?

I remember my mother (the ever wise) always saying, "Eat well, and nothing can harm you."

Sometimes I wish it were that simple. A look at me and any one worth an opinion would swear that I am a good-eater and I am indeed! Is that why I don't fall sick too often (touch wood)?

But then, what about falling ill being apparently poisoned by food, hardly a week ago?

"Oh! That's just bad luck," my mother would say and I might just have to agree. Food experiences in India revolve largely on the notions of luck.

We actually grow eating it as much as many westerners might find that surprising.

Hygiene is re-defined in the country's many food-lanes.

If it smells OK, the food looks clean and the cook has a smile on his face, the food is safe any old grandmother would agree.

Our stomachs have been lined since the day we were born with layers of protective coating and most of the time, the old-oil from that last plate of pakodas, wouldn't elicit a single burp while it might just have poisoned a whole township in Seattle!

We're tough yes, we agree! Yet, we're also the same species who will run like wild animals to the nearest hospital the moment an epidemic is announced.

"Doctor! My eyes are red, do I have swine flu," a doctor friend was genuinely asked, earlier today. Remember Chikungunya? How we all thought we had it? Maybe panicking comes naturally to us, as a people plagued by epidemics and plagues for the last few centuries (any history book will give you all the details you want). So maybe, it's in our blood. But need we worry that much?

All I'm saying is, "We're Indians!" Fine! Be concerned and do keep track of what's happening to your body, but the next time you feel an itch in your nose, please do take a minute to consider that it is just an itch in your nose. All it might need is a good scratch, not a run to the nearest swine flu center.

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