‘All in the Mind’

Bijoy Gupta entertains, as usual. Siba Prasad Maitra is at the centre.

Bijoy Gupta is a wise man today. It has taken him one-and-half months to conclude that nothing is wrong with him, that he is absolutely hale and hearty and that all the ailments he was suffering from were imaginary.
“I have resumed all my bad habits,” he boasted all morning. “I am back to smoking like a chimney, drinking like a fish... I don’t take any medicine now. I have thrown away all the tablets and capsules doctors had prescribed and see how fit and fine I am!”
Indeed, Gupta looked fit as a fiddle. But he now believes that after his viral attack last month, all doctors were taking him for a ride by prescribing expensive medicines and suggesting unnecessary tests, thereby creating a fear psychosis in him.
“The fact is nothing was wrong with me in the first place,” he told a highly amused audience this morning. “Their medicines made me ill. They were convincing me that I had some serious disease and I believed them. After all, it’s all in the mind.”
Since last month, Gupta’s main complaint has been that he felt out of sorts, did not sleep well and was getting weaker by the day. He had stopped coming to the Garden and was off the phone for a while. Now that he has wizened up, he was back to cracking jokes and fooling about with Shekhawat.
The same cannot be said of Siba Prasad Maitra though. He too had turned up after a long time and looked quite pulled down and worried. Turns out that he has been under considerable stress of late, resulting in fluctuating BP levels, particularly during the evenings.
Let us hope and pray that he recovers soon and is back to being his jovial self.

Lt Col Angad Singh (rtd):
Sickness is mostly in the mind. If this is removed a majority of problems would be sorted out. Think healthy, be healthy, live healthy. Gupta has come to this conclusion after a long and expensive treatment. Now that he is fit, Shekhawat should come out on equal terms with Gupta so as to face him squarely like a bravo tiger. Keep laughing and enjoy your fitness!