My winter sickness and The major role puffed rice played in it!

Winter holidays are the times of celebration for people living in the ‘city of joy’. It is filled with ‘poush parvan’,Christmas,new year… While being popping from parties to parties and savouring every bit of tasty morsels how heart breaking it is if our body rebels and we have to take bed rest for a few days? By the time we are all hale and hearty all the parties would have been over and it will be time to start our daily routine again.

With all those heavy winter garments, boots, socks (and let’s not forget skipped baths either), hot and spicy foods in our bellies it becomes very difficult for our bodies to keep the whole mechanism going without getting crashed once or twice. Think of it as the crashing of the RAM or motherboard of our computer when it gets too hot. (Happened to me multiple of times! And let me tell you it was a hassle to replace those.)

Recently I underwent this type of situation where unknowingly to me my darling body became too hot inside and it crashed. Like fully, totally, utterly incapable of performing anything except breathing. 

One fine morning after the Christmas day, I woke and started throwing up almost instantly. I know gross, but that’s what really happened to me. I could not keep anything inside my stomach. Not even saline water. I absolutely hated hated that feeling. It felt as if my body is betraying me in the worst possible way. And I still had invitation to another few parties happening around New Year and of course the whole celebration of ‘Poush Parvon’ in front of me. How can I fall sick during this time. I almost waited the whole year to savour those sweets, made during this festival. 

Now I’ll share with you the technique which I used to get better in a few days, without visiting a doctor. I’m sure every one of you are familiar with ‘puffed rice’. As my sickness started in the morning (around 8;30 A.M, I know, I know, I’m a very late riser) After puking my guts out I went back under the blanket and tried to sleep for a bit which however would not come. So, I saw some Netflix series in my laptop and passed a few hours. First advice ‘let your body empty itself out. Don’t take any meds to stop it’ Well I did that.

Then when you FEEL hunger eat some puffed rice submerged in saline water( I poured a half bowl of water gave 3 teaspoon of sugar and one teaspoon of salt and stirred then well then I dropped a bit of puffed rice in it like people eat cereal with milk) Then eat it , only a bit. Let your stomach rest. It is best if you don’t eat anything for the rest of the day. But if you are intolerant of hunger like me, take one or two ‘rosgulla’. Believe me they will never make you sick. You can take a cup of tea with light biscuits in place of that. (I would recommend ‘Marie’ biscuits as they are the simplest ones among the sea of those.)Then go to sleep. That’s it.

After you wake up in the evening take a cup of tea with one or two same biscuits and then stay away from food for at least 4 hours. I know by now you probably have started feeling hungry. So let’s skip to dinner plans. I ate boiled white rice mashed with boiled ‘plantain’ (kacha kola) with only a small sprinkle of salt. Plantains are great for an upset stomach.

The next day if you are feeling slightly better than before, you can go for some simple foods.(nothing spicy or hot however is allowed!) thankfully my body did a full recovery in two days and I could attend all those fabulous parties and of course eat those sweets in a few days.

DISCLAIMER: This is totally my personal experience and anyone who is really feeling very very sick should immediately consult a doctor. In fact I recommend that you do. I’m no doctor I just shared my experience so that any poor soul (who is afraid of doctors, like me) would be benefited from it.