Darn! The blood test was negative...

The quest to have a concrete definitive answer sometimes goes too far. Especially in the field of medicine where doctors generally recommend a bunch of tests in order to "eliminate possibilities". But what happens if all the tests come out to be negative and you still have the problem? Your body definitely isn't communicating to the doctor via the tests but it is surely needs help! Unfortunately, going by my personal experience over the last couple of months, doctors seem to understand just one language - test reports. So if your body isn't speaking that language then be ready to undergo more tests because until reports give a positive diagnosis, the doctors don't really know what's going on.

The old pump house magic

Every morning at 5am, the old pump house across the park slowly came to life. It was almost magic in the wee hours of the morning where the plumber ("the magician" - Sharad bhayia) somehow brought the old machine to life. A couple of attempts were always needed and of course the machine complained everyday. There was almost a pattern to the magic - press the button followed by a loud noise of a motor as if it was almost going to come apart (though not a bang but a distinct shriek), then as if with a shift in gear and change of minds (accompanied by a full throttled shriek) the machine came to life. Once in a while when it was too tired to wake up that early, the magician had to pour some water on it and try again. There was no way that old machine could be left on its own because all of us depended on our daily water supply for it. The full throttled noise reassured everyone in the apartment compound that everything was going to be normal that day and it was time for people to get up and begin their day. A silent dawn meant trouble and so one day when the machine gave up in its attempt to start the day, all the people descended down in the park to offer their advice and help the magician. This was going to be a long day and sitting across the park, I just hoped that the old machine would have enough grease to come back to life once again and play that magic tune at 5 in the morning...