What’s a personal mantra or philosophy you live by?
The summer afternoon sky was beginning to change its shade as the evening approached. At various places people were having a thought about a cup of tea or coffee.
Samar sat on the dining table. Staring outside the open door of the balcony. A hand approached and kept a cup of warm water with a green tea bag in it on the table, and later the hand appeared again to keep a small plate with two digestive biscuits.
Samar kept staring outside, he could not believe this had happened to him. Just the other day he was frantically searching for his health insurance, he had never quite felt something like it.
Samar lived by the philosophy of life, eat the right kind of food, exercise, get adequate rest and health will stand like the mountain that doesn’t know what it is to break. He woke up early and set to work, he did more than enough and sometimes more than what was needed. Afterall the machinery called body was working in top condition, there wasn’t a need to stop except for the night’s sleep.
Samar lived with his elder sister and he preferred to prepare his own meals and snacks according to the diet chart that he had spent quite a lot of time preparing. He went to the drastic step of refusing to eat at all at a party, lunch, dinner etc. unless the foot items suited his limit of excess. The exercise routine was non-comprisable, once during morning, and once during evening in the office gym.
On a Sunday, a holiday, Samar was alone at home watching an action movie and the warmth of the Summer pushed him to reach out for something cold. Samar had lemonade in mind but as he opened the freezer to take some ice, his eyes noticed a cup of ice-cream, cookies and cream flavour, very tempting and comfortably cold.
Samar roughly calculated that the cup of ice cream had around 200 calories and in his mind, he thought of an effective plan to deal with the extra calories. Hence, Samar enjoyed the cup of ice cream while watching the movie. What followed was a nightmare, with stomach aching, bloating and the occasional flatulence. Even the antacid was taking its time to have the slightest effect. Samar thought from experience that this would pass and it would be alright, but it didn’t and the whole afternoon Samar could neither stay awake or sleep, he kept rolling on his bed, walking around the apartment.
Samar had not felt this bad in a long time, he opened the cupboard to look for his file containing health insurance and just then he felt something erupting within and he rushed to the washroom to let out of his mouth what his body could no longer contain. Although not complete, there was noticeable relief, now Samar could sit at one place in peace and even lie down.
The next day the weakness made Samar take an off from his office and he sat thinking about many things, maybe the ice cream was expired, maybe the body could not tolerate anymore what was not part of its usual schedule. In the end he made a few changes with a hope for a better future.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
