Or is it Severely Apprehensive Respiratory Syndrome?
34 degrees Centigrade. I shook the thermometer by the neck. The mercury refused to budge. The glass container looked at me in the eye and said that it has seen bigger people quail before its eyes. So there. Looks like the thermo is broken. I decided to get a new one.
The reason for all this 'natak' (drama in hindi) is SARS, which is leaving a lot of sCars in the psyche of world people. This (Severely Apprehensive Respiratory [p]sycho) syndrome has travelled more in the minds of people than it has crossed boundaries. In fact it has crossed all boundaries of nonsense and insensibility.
The hysteria began with front page news reports, followed by full page ads to "educate" the public, and is yet to culminate, with 'stop' signs in public places such as libraries and doctors' offices and buildings, and 'that look' when one sneezes or coughs on the subway...
I got that feverish feeling at the height of the outbreak. It cost me my vacation [that's another story]. My mind raced back. What did the newspapers say? Symptoms will appear in ten days. Usually, my mind remembers what happened that moment! Remember what happened ten days ago?!
My agitated mind went into overdrive. It began flashing incidents of [a possible] Mr. Sars jumping from around the corner and flashing. Incident One: That fat lady with a bowler hat standing right behind me and coughing away literally propelling the bus. I saw her again in the subway getting off at one of the hospital stops.... Incident Two: A thin lady sneezing before her hand flew to her mouth... The times I forgot to wash my hands after going to the Chinese restaurant to get 'to go' dinner... The highlight? The day I went to Chapters and chanced upon this book about 'Taking care of loved ones before that final journey'. I looked around and saw another book titled 'Writing a WILL - for Dummies'. I ran to the drug store to get surgical masks.
Five stores later I found paper masks. Ten stores later I found a kiosk selling surgical masks for $2.50 each!!! That was the time when I experienced 'shortness of breath'. I gave up and got that thermo. A fancy one that can be inserted anywhere and will beep 'when ready'. No 'mercury rising' in this one. Just insensitive looking letters indicating a sensitive reading. Below normal.
Newspapers continue to flash maps and stats of places and deaths. Finally, everyone is reduced to a number. One death due to SARS. The number goes up. For the dead human being's loved ones, the person is reduced to a 0.
34 degrees Centigrade. I shook the thermometer by the neck. The mercury refused to budge. The glass container looked at me in the eye and said that it has seen bigger people quail before its eyes. So there. Looks like the thermo is broken. I decided to get a new one.
The reason for all this 'natak' (drama in hindi) is SARS, which is leaving a lot of sCars in the psyche of world people. This (Severely Apprehensive Respiratory [p]sycho) syndrome has travelled more in the minds of people than it has crossed boundaries. In fact it has crossed all boundaries of nonsense and insensibility.
The hysteria began with front page news reports, followed by full page ads to "educate" the public, and is yet to culminate, with 'stop' signs in public places such as libraries and doctors' offices and buildings, and 'that look' when one sneezes or coughs on the subway...
I got that feverish feeling at the height of the outbreak. It cost me my vacation [that's another story]. My mind raced back. What did the newspapers say? Symptoms will appear in ten days. Usually, my mind remembers what happened that moment! Remember what happened ten days ago?!
My agitated mind went into overdrive. It began flashing incidents of [a possible] Mr. Sars jumping from around the corner and flashing. Incident One: That fat lady with a bowler hat standing right behind me and coughing away literally propelling the bus. I saw her again in the subway getting off at one of the hospital stops.... Incident Two: A thin lady sneezing before her hand flew to her mouth... The times I forgot to wash my hands after going to the Chinese restaurant to get 'to go' dinner... The highlight? The day I went to Chapters and chanced upon this book about 'Taking care of loved ones before that final journey'. I looked around and saw another book titled 'Writing a WILL - for Dummies'. I ran to the drug store to get surgical masks.
Five stores later I found paper masks. Ten stores later I found a kiosk selling surgical masks for $2.50 each!!! That was the time when I experienced 'shortness of breath'. I gave up and got that thermo. A fancy one that can be inserted anywhere and will beep 'when ready'. No 'mercury rising' in this one. Just insensitive looking letters indicating a sensitive reading. Below normal.
Newspapers continue to flash maps and stats of places and deaths. Finally, everyone is reduced to a number. One death due to SARS. The number goes up. For the dead human being's loved ones, the person is reduced to a 0.
1 Comments:
would you happen to remember the author of the book, "writing a will for dummies"?
nice work, by the way!
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