In sickness and in health

Oh it feels so good to be well again! I've had a terrible fever for a whole week. I know it doesn't sound all that long, but it's the longest I've ever been sick. Isn't it weird how when you recover you forget what it felt to be ill? I know I was restless and burning up, and my whole body ached and I was in a delirious state a lot of the time, but now I think about it I feel it wasn't as bad as it might have been. I suppose people truly can bear anything, and it's even worth being sick just to experience that glorious feeling of recovery and feeling hungry again.

There is one thing I don't and won't ever miss - having medicines. I simply cannot have them, I can't. When I was young I was given a horrible pink pill which I promptly threw up and ever since I've been mortally scared of tablets. I tried to get over my phobia, and I did take pills without spitting them out for a while in between, but now I'm back to detesting them and trying everything to avoid taking them. All through the past week I tried convincing people that medicines just worsened my health, but no one would listen. But it was true! I bet if I hadn't had to take those ghastly pills I would have recovered in a couple of days instead of a whole week.

I have just one prayer to make : that some study will support me and find that pills of all kinds are ruinous. Or that someone will make chewable tablets which taste sweet (since I cannot swallow them and they are simply too bitter and awful to eat any other way). Or that I never ever fall ill again. I wonder if there's an actual phobia named for tablets and pills. If they have one for something as weird as long words, surely they'd have one for something as God-awful as medicines? I'm not against all kinds of medicines : syrups are fine, and tiny pills. It's only those huge tablets - all yellow and pink and even white - which refuse to go down your throat and, if by some miracle they do, make your stomach feel queasy and queer that are so hateful. I think I will loathe them forever.

But there are other things besides medicines in this world. There are flowers, and books, and music, and puzzles! I've just discovered how much fun it is to do puzzles, especially ones about books and authors, when you feel too much bored to do anything else. I'd advise any recovering convalescent to get their hands on a good puzzle book in order to ward away their legitimate feelings of self-pity, restlessness and boredom; it sure worked for me. And now I'm going to do something that also helps - watch a nice movie while munching on whatever I can find!

Halloween Party

My final exams are finally over, and my sweet school has decided to throw us hard-working, studious students (ha, that's a laugh) a party as a stress-buster. And not just any party. A honest-to-good Halloween party, six weeks too late. The flyer they handed out said (it's copied word-for-word):

'It's a Halloween Bash.

Get ready for the Monster Mash.

Eat, dance and scare up a fight(um, what?),

Being spooky is a must on this night!'

Dress code : Scary

Is it any surprise that I can't find a single person, besides myself, who wants to go? I don't even know why I want to go : I suspect all the studying (cough, cough) has addled my brain. But at least this flyer was better than the last one for the overnight camp, which invited us to "energise our spirits with flavoured milk". The people who come up with these things are obviously bored teachers with a lot of time and too much imagination on their hands. A Christmas party would have been more appropriate this time of the year. I even have a cute Santa hat I bought at the Christmas carnival last year. At least, I hope it's around and my pet tigers haven't eaten it.

Anyway, back to the Halloween party; the dress code is seriously annoying me. What the hell is 'scary' supposed to mean? I wanted to go in a jeans and top and claim to be 'me - a vision of doom' or something. But I bet everyone would just split their sides laughing at that, besides which, it's completely unoriginal. I'm seriously considering not sleeping the entire night before -to get interesting dark circles - and applying loads and loads of powder and red lipstick, and turning up as a vampire. I have one of those plastic headband-thingies with red horns stuck on top so I can pretend to be the Devil if everyone else has the same idea.

I guarantee you there'll be twenty vampires, thirty devils and fifty bored people in jeans turning up as 'themselves' out of a party of hundred. So, back to the idea board. Can I wrap myself up from head to toe with bandages like a mummy? Nah, too much trouble. Can I get a loose black robe and a pointy-hat and come as a witch? Interesting, but where do you find pointy-hats nowadays? Besides, all the above options are so predictable. Maybe I can get a sober grey quakerish gown from somewhere, pull my hair in a bun, and go as a governess. The trouble with being in India is that society hasn't really woken up to costume parties and such stuff here. Now if I wanted a hugely over-priced, garishly designed pavadai from RMKV I'd have no trouble at all.

I'm going on a campaign tomorrow - to persuade (or force, if I need to) my friends to come for the party. Sure, we'll probably (definitely, more like it) have more fun at home, but it's our last Social Night ever in school! And it might be worth it just to see everyone else's costumes. And it's a distraction from the millions of tests we have scheduled after that.

Update : I’m not going to the Social Night myself. Wait – before you think I’m just chickening out because nobody else is up for it, that’s not entirely true (partially, maybe). I just recollected that I have art class tomorrow clashing with the party and it’s been ages since I’ve attended. This will be my last year of the class before I head off for college, so it’s a no-brainer. Hopefully the next party/event/social night in school will be a lot better, one we’ll all actually go to.