Ill

 Why does one always fall ill after every major event? Well, look at me. I was absolutely okay during that arduous journey. Now, back in Pune, with brothers within a "call" distance, why am I down? 

Yes, I have got a slight fever, a rather bad cough-n-cold, and the tummy is growling a bit, too. Was I up to any excesses during the yatra? None, whatsoever. Unlike others who were literally wolfing down stuff, I ate minimally which anyways I always do. 

May be, it is the very cold wind on the banks of Alaknanda during the  "tarpan vidhi" at Badrinath.  After a head bath with boiling hot waters from the hot springs followed by the splashing of the gushing Alaknanda in full swing, may be, all the phlegm hiding in every possible alveoli chooses to come out, I suppose.

Well, that is the logical, the rational explanation.  Personally I think/feel that the phenomenon is more psychological. Let me see if I can explain myself. Well, for one thing, while busy with the 'act', be it a difficult travel, a ceremony at home, a prep for a decisive exam, one is on the alert mode. Everything is ordered, structured, in THE perfect mode. Post completion, there is chaos as the need for that perfect control is temporarily suspended. Right now, around me, for example, is a clutter of clothes, knick-knacks taken out of the travel bag, and yet to reach their usual destined place. May be, that lull after all that commotion is the switch on for all the tensions, hidden even from one's own self, reflected the (psycho)somatic way.

Yet another possible reason could be that the completion creates a vaccum. Till that point, one was preoccupied with the minutest detail, and in an almost obsessive way so that nothing should, as far as is possible, go wrong. Now, suddenly, there is NOTHING to care for, to worry over/about. Hence the illness? Remember, the day the exam got over, what with a week of the last minute check-up for writing two papers per day, one just could not sleep a wink, though throughout the week, you had been telling yourself that you would sleep endlessly after the exam?

I think, the body, the mind, the soul need a much deserved rest after the hectic activity. Rather like the restful death after life's long  journey is done!

So, bye for the time being! I think, I shall rest awhile.

Pratima@Every end is a new beginning.