In Sickness And In Health

The past few weeks have been challenging, to say the least. With the exception of me, the entire household fell sick, one after the other. Many forms of illnesses have been perpetrating Dohaites these days and quite a few colleagues and friends have also been under their influence.

But in all honesty, this happens every year, right after the long winter break. Residents who had gone abroad during this period return to Doha from all over the world, bearing a mélange of gifts, viruses including.

It has also been unusually cold these past few weeks. The thermostat may be hovering in the 60’and 70’s, but harsh, bone chilling winds have been sweeping throughout the city. It also manages to seep through the cracks in the windows and doors (construction here leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least); no matter how many newspapers we stuff into them.

So we residents of the Middle East, who are accustomed to bringing out our sweaters, comforters, space heaters and fur lined abaya’s (some even consider this a good time to break out the thermals and anoraks) when the temperature drops to the 80’s, are in a predicament which has left our sun drenched systems unbalanced. But, we find comfort in the fact that in just a few short weeks the temperatures will return to hot, hotter and scorching – up to tissaa wa arbaaeen (49 C / 120 F) and no, this is not a typo.

Of course the kids stayed home from school and K did not go to work. I also missed a few classes since I have been playing the part of Florence Nightingale. My job description had been modified to include dispenser of a variety of medicines – both allopathic and home made, shoulder provider (to moan on), dispenser of clean and disposer of snotty tissues, and maintaining the continuous flow of chicken soup.

Coughing and lightheadedness persists, but everyone is now out of the house and have gone back to their respective schedules

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to check myself into rehab for the next few days.