To Whiff or not to Whiff

Unlike others, I envy Voldemort not for his powers, but his lack of a nose, and consequently no Sinusitis.

                        

Yes, I have sinus problems. It’s not exactly an exclusive privilege, since every other person seems to have it. Wikipedia says roughly ninety percent of adults experience these problems at some point in their lives.

So getting sympathy really is out of the question. Same goes for a separate bathroom, or a seat in an Indian college

This however, doesn’t change the undeniable fact that it sucks to have sinus problems - and this has been the case for the last decade or so. Ours is a life of silent suffering. I bet even Dumbledore cannot come up with a spell to cure it.

Effectively, it means one out of my five senses is useless half the year. This has some amusing consequences.

Pros:

• My nose is immune to the sea of armpits that flows through the Metro and Local trains
• Waging war on Sinusitis encourages habits that are generally healthy - like drinking lots of water, steam, yoga
• Reduced impulse to kill smokers, especially that idiot whose puffed out smoke locks onto my face as a target

Cons:

• While buying a deodorant, eight out of ten times I don’t know what fragrance I’m buying. I infer what I can from the sophisticated names on the bottle.
• Food is ordinary. This is the absolute worst. Though the resulting limited appetite is more of a pro, highly responsible for my rugged lean body. Well not so much lean, as not-fat.
• My snores are loud enough to scare nearby birds away.
• If you feel Darth Vader’s presence around you, it’s probably because I’m breathing nearby

A few weeks ago, I went to a respected ENT specialist, who took a CT scan and prescribed a bunch of meds after remarking on how bad it looks. It’s been a couple of weeks, and my nose has risen from the dead.

Even hostel mess food is tasting a hundred times better. I now understand how smell makes up 90% of the taste, and my tummy is reeling under the sudden increased activity. My mom was delighted to hear that I could smell the Vadas she was cooking from two rooms away.

Of course, the flip side is that my invincibility against the undesirable smells is no more, and I have occasional nausea like a normal person while commuting. But the pros outweigh the cons. I can run 2.5 times more, and exclaim from time to time - is this what a normal nose feels like? Who knows what other superpowers have been concealed all this time?

I know that the war is from over, and this is a rare respite.

“It was important, Dumbledore said, to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated” - JK Rowling

Funny how the same is true for Sinusitis. Bring it.