the observer

ARE YOU SICK?

“How frequently do you get sick? Or do you get sick at all?”
Many of us have hardly ever answered this question, nor have we thought about it.

Just read through and see if this does mean anything.

Many people get headaches, fever, infections, pain and a lot more things in our day-to day life. If you are one of them, please do go through the text carefully, even otherwise.

I don’t want to say that people fake illness but I do feel that you get sick at times because you want to. Or I may put it this way that if you miss appointments, office or anything important, it is simply because you would want to miss them.

1. How many times have you been down with fever or headaches in the recent past?
2. Did you miss anything important because of that and did you do ‘anything’ to not miss them? (A paracetamol (crocin) does not do much harm in this case)
3. Did you find it to be a major disease, something to the extent of being bed-ridden and highly dependent on others?
4. Would you have done the same thing if it occurred in a period when your loved one is hospitalized?

Ask yourself these questions for all those diseases that don’t disable you and you may find, quite surprisingly, that you are not sick at all. It is not over yet. If you still believe that a fever can get you down, think again of those millions who fight fatal diseases and enjoy every new day with the same zest for life (there was this article yesterday on a body-builder who won state level championship fighting HIV-AIDS). How better placed are you when you look at them.

There is one more thing I must say before I wind up this post. The purpose of me writing this is not to advise anyone. I don’t believe this serves that purpose either.
I have observed that people tend to cultivate this as a habit ‘-to feel ill’, which develops into laziness and results in low productivity due to the reluctance to work.
And I feel that such a mentality (of not prioritizing work over illness) is one of the main reasons why India is still a part of the developing nations in spite of having the most treasured human resources.

If you find this argument convincing, always remember to PRIORITIZE WORK OVER ILNESS WHENEVER IT CAN BE and I am sure, it will help you develop a lot as an individual first, as a citizen next.

THE OBSERVER
25-12-2007