Monday, April 28, 2014

Phony illness


‘Stay with me’, I whispered. ‘You can’t abandon me like this’. My voice was shaky and choked. ‘I need you now more than ever. There was no response from my dear friend. Only an uncomfortable silence. I googled to find out the root cause of the problem. There were so many illnesses which had similar symptoms. How on earth was I going to get a proper diagnosis? And there wasn’t much time. The heart beat was erratic. The pulse rate was even worse. Vital signs were unstable. All diagnostic tests reports were providing a grim picture. Could this be the end? I shuddered at the thought.

I was desperate to find a solution to this illness which threatened to disrupt my life beyond my comprehension. I started hallucinating. I would be ruined and would feel abandoned. I would be heart-broken. It would take me months to recover. Life would just not be the same. There was an ominous cough and a scream followed by a splutter. This just did not look good. I don’t know how much longer this would last. Not long, I figured. 

As Google flooded my screen with one irrelevant search result after another, on page 4, the solution hit me like a truck. I found the virus and what’s more, next to it was a list of advertisements from many Doctors who believed them to be one-stop solutions to all ailments. There was Dr Kaspersky who was being endorsed by a leading cricketer. There was Dr McAfee who has been in the business the longest. There was Dr Norton, who again claimed to know his patients inside out.   As I consulted with one of the experts, the root cause of the infection was detected. It was a virus that had affected the central nervous system and had started to cause multiple organ failure. The medication was prescribed and administered by myself. Now I had to wait, patient yet anxious. My thoughts wandered to all the good times I had shared with my friend. There were also some not-so-god times when I threw him repeatedly on the floor in anger for no fault of his. Would the medication work? Will I be able to save him?

In a few minutes, the heart rate stabilized as did the pulse rate. In an hour, I ran the diagnostic tests again. The results were heartening. The vital signs were back to being stable. I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I looked at my phone and smiled. Good to have you back my friend.


This is the story of our lives when our mobile smart phone falls ill :D Hope you enjoyed reading it.