The Backpacker

There is a saying in Hindi which translated means that on every grain is written the name of that person who will ultimately eat it or something to that effect. I have wondered if it was only grains they were referring to or has the meaning been upgraded to include sandwiches, KFC, McDonalds, Subways and pizzas. Oddly, I know the saying is true. Or how can anyone explain this situation I found myself in?

I live next to the Food Street in my city and anyone living here cannot complain the lack of choice of food. Forget the choice of Asian cuisine, here is the worlds platter for your picking. But yesterday someone gave me a cheese sandwich for breakfast. That was how it began.

I like cheese. I like cheese sandwich too. Easy to make and is very easy to be eaten when driving. Sticks to the bread and there are no crumbs to mess up the seats. So I reached work with a cheese sandwich inside me and still hungry. A while later a friend dropped by to say hi, carrying with him a box of food. Cheese sandwich. He readily offered me ‘home made cheese sandwich’ and who can no to it?

Thus arrived my second sandwich of the day. By then I was slightly heavy with cheese and was hoping to eat a proper meal of curry when I was called to attend a press conference.

Now, press conferences at 11.30 spell trouble. They neither have a decent breakfast nor a decent lunch. Instead they have ten varieties of miniscule sandwiches with cheese and other odds and ends. The sight of the ghastly food was nauseating and I was ready to throw up when a fellow journo handed me one and said, “The cheese is still warm.” Warm cheese is irresistible and it was only a small one so I sampled it. Just one. 

When I returned, it was past lunch time. No curry for me. By tea time I was ravenous. But tea-time is the wrong time to crave for curry. Also there is no parking space available at the neighborhood cafeteria between 1 pm and 4 pm anywhere leaving the gas station as the only option. As luck would have it, there were plenty of sandwiches and NO pies or doughnuts and with hunger gnawing, I grabbed a sandwich. Why do people always ‘grab’ sandwiches and why not ‘help themselves’ to one? I haven’t figured that out yet, but when I do, I am going to keep off sandwiches for a whole month. But for yesterday I know there were about five sandwiches in the world with my name written on them. And I had them all!

Now I want to know how many pizzas, KFCs, and Subways have my name on them!

Everyone has had fever. But fevers are fashionable too, depending upon when they make an appearance. It’s ok to have a fever when the temperature is extremely cold, during the rains, during the seasonal outburst of fever, change of temperature or even while sharing it with the rest of the world. No one would mind very much if you had fever during one of the categories, in fact you could even expect to get a little sympathy and leave from work.

 

But what of a fever that comes up by itself when the rest of the world is hale and hearty. One such fever made an appearance and I was the unfortunate recipient of the virus. It is not a very ‘becoming’ to have the fever when the temperature outside is about 50 degree centigrade. I mean can any self respecting virus survive the heat? Apparently this one did. It affected my head, my throat, my nose and whatever was left of the body. But, but, mind, this virus was a strange one. It did not allow for a ‘full-blown’ fever that comes with its own malady, but remained somewhere, hesitant to make a complete appearance, appearing at odd intervals. How can you keep track of a virus that does not follow a pattern? How do you know that whatever ailment you are experiencing is the result of that virus on a meandering path? 

 

And to boot, if someone came and touched my forehead in a burst of sympathy, it wasnt even lukewarm, forget the deliciously burning hot forehead that never failed to evoke passionate and positive responses! It is also embarrassing to admit to having a fever that is not even make your forehead warm! But while it did not allow the luxury of a burning forehead, it did, however, give me all the symptoms. Headaches, nose blocks, lethargy, loss of appetite (this I must protest), and sore throat.

I do hate these fever-imposters.