I kept coughing for a long time and Dad looked up from his newspaper.
"You have a really bad cough!" he said. Dad is really smart when stating the obvious. Mum brought in a tumbler of yet another home-made remedy. I gulped down the hot, black potion and waited. But like every other time, this remedy didn't actually help. It had pepper in it and I kept feeling that all the pepper had stuck to my throat.
"Take him to the doctor if his cough gets worse. I'm going out today," she said to Dad. It did get worse. My nose got blocked, too. I felt drowsy and grumpy. Not that I'm very amicable and pleasant the rest of the time, but yes, this cold drove me crazy.
In the evening, Dad took me to the doctor because I kept sniffi ng and grumbling, and he couldn't concentrate on the cricket match he was watching. I was a bit disappointed to fi nd the clinic closed. The pharmacy near the clinic has six varieties of fl avoured peppermints. When Dad buys medicines, I thought I'd force him to buy all the six peppermint packs. I sighed.
As we were walking, Dad asked, "Do you remember Dinesh telling us about one Dr Moorthy in the street next to ours?" I didn't remember anything of that sort. I have my doubts about the recommendations of Dinesh. He's a little weird. "He is supposed to be a good doctor. We'll go there! And what is more, we don't have to wait in a long queue!" Dad said brightly.
It seemed like a long time since I had known the smell and taste of food, so I walked on with a fierce resolution. Dr Moorthy did not have a clinic. There weren't any patients sitting on stiff plastic chairs waiting to see the doctor. In fact, I was the only person who had come to consult him.
I was so used to the image of a doctor sitting in a room with a stethoscope around his neck (like Lord Shiva) and a notepad in his hands, that I found it strange to see Dr Moorthy with a hosepipe in his hands, watering his plants and squinting his eyes as he looked for bugs on his plants. Dad walked up to him and spoke hesitantly, "Dr Moorthy…"
"Yes, that's me!" he said brightly. "My son has had a bad cold for a few days. Now he is coughing a lot too…" my Dad explained. The doctor threw the hosepipe down and washed his hands. He seemed really excited about having someone to examine. That made me wonder how often people came to him. I thought he'd ask us to come inside. But the doctor said, "Come, let us sit right here!"
