Reminiscences 05 - Monsoon Monsters Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

As any child I loved playing in the rain.

Those were the days when television was not even heard of. Leave alone, computers, mobile phones or iPads. A child with lots of energy! How long can he be kept indoors?

With the onset of monsoon, there comes flu. Every year, halfway through the rainy season, I used to contact flu with high fever. The medicines are homemade: top-most is Tulsi kashayam. Inhaling steam is another. If the fever lasts for more than two or three days, Ayurveda medicines like Amruthaarishtam with Dashamoolarishtam and Gorochanaadi gulika (tablet) will be given three times a day. Father had given strict directions that children shall have no 'English' medicines. English medicines meant allopathic medicines.

Flu was good, but this meant that I would miss school for a week.

Being in sick-bed was good because everyone, including my parents, sister and brothers vie with each other to be good to me. The younger brother would, very hesitantly, give me the pink marble 'goli' and the older brother would give his priced set of colour-pencils. Sister would hand me secretly the eclairs she had bought specially for me, on her way back from school. Secretly because, flu patients have been prescribed special food: all the tree meals shall be rice kanji, with a papad, a little pickle and occasional rasam. No food cooked with oil, no eggs, no fish, no nothing. And after dinner, she would read me my favourite stories until sleep comes and closes my eyes forcefully. Those few days Father would call me 'Kinnaa' instead of ‘Unnee'. In short, I would be the most important person in the family.

Being unwell also meant that my beautiful five-year old classmate (please allow me to withhold her name) would visit me everyday.