Winter Blues

Kiran Arora

Harbans Kaur

Winter comes with its own baggage of issues every year. Apart from the woolens, all kinds of cough syrup, the hot water bottle, Iodex and paracetemols need to be brought out. From sneezing and wheezing to body aches and chest congestion, everybody becomes prone to some ailment or the other. Mallika Kagzi was down with food poisoning and Razia Khan had an equally severe bout of stomach upset. Weak but able, both were back for the exercises today. Likewise Yusuf Rassiwala has started attending, but deliberately comes late. He is allergic to pathogens hanging in the air during cold winter mornings.
The worst affected among us are Kiran Arora and Harbans Kaur. This is no weather to suffer from orthopedic problems and both seem to be going through an immensely agonizing phase. According to Srichand Arora, no amount of tests and medication has brought his wife any succor for her arthritic knee. She even resorted to a prohibitively expensive ayurvedic treatment recently, but far from deriving any relief, her pain has only aggravated in the winter.

Ludhiana luddoos from Harbans Kaur (in absentia)

“Now she is back to square one,” he said today, while breaking out of the exercises to accompany her for yet another blood test. “There is a MRI scan lined up during the day.”
Harbans Kaur is sailing on the same boat with an equally crippling knee condition. Still, she had been coming to the Garden (till winter set in), limping and often, having to hire an autorickshaw. Last month she went to her hometown, Ludhiana for a second medical opinion and was advised surgery in March. But as luck would have it, her husband who was accompanying her at the doctor’s, fell off a stool and sustained grievous injuries. For such things to happen to the elderly in cold weather conditions can be very, very cruel.
Yet, Harbans Kaur made sure this morning to send through her friend, Monthi Serrao, a box of Ludhiana luddoos for us in the Garden. She is back home with her husband, but is unable to venture out in this weather. While thanking her for being so caring and loving, we can only hope and pray that she is out of misery and is able to be on her feet as before. We miss her.
Jagmohan Papneja:
The two ladies may perhaps check with Other Song Homeopathy Clinic in Andheri (West), which has been treating knee joints and arthritis cases with success. In a seminar I attended, several people expressed satisfaction and found relief upon undergoing treatment at the clinic. Mr Mittal, a daily visitor to the Garden, is one such. He is doing well.
Anonymous:
I wish and pray for their quick recovery.