Lands in Dubai, what a welcome.
Next day morning wakes up coughing and colding.
Well, shall blame it on change of weather, not on my poor immunity level.
Kept away from the kids and waited for an auto treatment, I mean ignorance.
What if it is a signal indicating end not too far.
I do not mind but not in a foreign land because the closure can be very complicated, curses will not allow me to rest in peace.
I kept watching funny videos and reading jokes. Believes in laughter is the best medicine. It was a very short lived treatment, the laughter ended up in coughs.
Finally I took the advices of my dear ones for their good, to meet the doctor.
” Do you smoke ?”
” Stopped long ago”
Could see a slight disappointment on the doctor’s face, he will not be able to charge me for his advise to “stop smoking” as part of his treatment.
Tablets, syrup, 1 hour before food twice a day, another one after food once , it’s a complete set of antibiotics.
You should be thankful to me for sparing you from the medicine names and details because I did not read them. If you ask me to name 5 medicines, I may not know except Polo, Dolo etc. You can call it height of ignorance.
You may be wondering why am I making such a big deal of a cough and cold, when people around us are suffering from more serious diseases. I generally do not talk of my illness with anyone, I have always dealt with it privately but then you cannot hide your cough.
You travel to be with your grand children to spend as much time as possible with them, when we are already running out of time, then this cough and cold cannot be taken as anything as positive as everything happens for the good.
With the last tablet swallowed yesterday night, I am fit enough to communicate with you by month end blog post.
Unlike my.previous months blog experience, this month’s highlight was cough.
One of the laughter treatment which I use comes from malayalam serial like the following :
Two thieves, wearing eye Mask , enters a doctor’s clinic, which had its shutter down. One of them says, let’s do our job and get out of here fast when the other says no hurry he will be back only in the evening.
Meanwhile one of them picks a doctor’s coat hanging on a rack and wears it.
He tells his partner I always wanted to be a doctor, at least let me act like one and he sits on the doctor’s chair and bangs on the table and says ” next patient”. To their shock and surprise a guy walks in.
They panic and try desperately to cover up when the new comer asks who is the doctor. The guy in the coat, with a mask covering his eyes, says he is the doctor.
” why are you covering your eyes with a mask”
“Oh sorry, it is a mask. It should be covering my nose and mouth”. And he pulls it down to his mouth.
” why do you have holes in the mask”
” This is to breath in and the other hole is to breat out”.
There are lots of exchanges, when the patient asks these guys what is this drilling machine for, they say it is used for key hole surgery , what is the saw for, it is used for open heart surgery and lots of hilarious exchanges.
When the patient says he has fever and cold, then the thief asks him what did you have when the last time he fell ill
He said he had Dolo.
One of thief says the one with a hole ?
That’s Polo, Dolo is without a hole.
The thief tells the other guy write it down, and start singing , with a hole is polo,without is dolo , with a hole is polo,without is dolo, with a hole is polo,without is dolo, while walking to the table
The patient asks what are you singing
The thief says we are composing a medicine. It will make things easy for us to recognize the medicine for general cold and fever.
The three actors raised these silly jokes to a very high level by their sheer performance and timing.
The impact it had on me surfaced when I went to a medical shop to buy some tablets when I saw polo and dolo on the shelf and I ordered a packet each, polo with hole and dolo without.
*******
Viewing this is optional, liking it is not guranteed
Rajmenon's Blog 
What a delightful and humorous account of your recent experience with a cough and cold in Dubai! I loved the way you wove together your story with witty observations and a dash of sarcasm. The way you poked fun at your own immunity level and the doctor’s potential disappointment at not being able to advise you to quit smoking had me chuckling.
The joke about the two thieves posing as doctors was absolutely hilarious, and I appreciated how you highlighted the comedic timing and performance of the actors. The punchline about “with a hole is Polo, without is Dolo” was brilliant!
Your anecdote about buying Polo and Dolo tablets after being influenced by the joke was the perfect ending to the story. It’s clear that laughter and humor played a significant role in helping you cope with your illness.
I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling better after completing your medication. Your blog post is a great reminder that even in challenging times, we can find joy and humor in the absurdities of life. Keep spreading the laughter!
Thank you, Chandra
Vidya Shenoy
Laugh , laugh and laugh more :
More than 30 years ago, Norman Cousins — a successful journalist and editor of Saturday Review — suddenly fell seriously ill.
He was diagnosed with collagen disease, a rare autoimmune disorder that attacks the body’s own connective tissue. His condition deteriorated rapidly: he could barely move, turn his head, or even open his jaw to eat.
When Norman asked about his chances of recovery, the doctor told him something chilling:
“Only one in five hundred patients survives this.”
That night, Norman made a life-changing decision.
If traditional medicine couldn’t save him, he would fight for his life himself.
He remembered reading that negative emotions like fear and despair weaken the endocrine system, while positive emotions can activate the body’s healing mechanisms. And then it struck him:
👉 If negative emotions can make us sick, maybe positive emotions — especially laughter — can help us heal.
Norman moved out of the hospital into a hotel room. With the support of his doctor, he filled the room with a projector, comedy films, and humorous books.
And then the experiment began.
The first time he forced himself to laugh for ten minutes, something incredible happened — the pain vanished long enough for him to sleep peacefully for two hours without medication.
For the next days, weeks, and months, laughter became his daily therapy. He watched funny movies, listened to jokes, read comedies, and laughed for hours every day. Doctors monitored his blood before and after these “laughter sessions” — and the results were clear: inflammation levels dropped after every session.
Gradually, Norman began to move his fingers again.
Then his arms.
Then he could sit up.
Step by step, he regained mobility and strength. Eventually, he returned to work — something the doctors thought would be impossible.
Years later, Norman met one of the doctors who had told him he wouldn’t survive. The doctor was stunned. Norman shook his hand with such strength that the man winced. That handshake said more than words ever could.
In 1976, he published Anatomy of an Illness — a groundbreaking book where he shared his journey and argued that positive emotions can be a powerful force in healing. He later became a lecturer at UCLA Medical School, inspiring future doctors to awaken the healing spirit inside every patient.
✨ His story reminds us:
Laughter isn’t just good for the soul — it can be good medicine, too.