A few months ago I received a call from my ever-complaining best friend. As usual when I saw the number I braced myself with a few words of comfort to her. Her list of complaints were endless -i have severe toothache, headache, argument with someone etc. After her share of grumble( and my share of silent laughter at her irritation) she was asking about my (then) 10 months old son. I mentioned in a casual conversation that he had caught cold. After some "tch tch" the free flow of advice began - don't give him bath(but it is summer I felt), don't give him curd ( oh, I knew that), add a drop of eucalyptus oil on the pillow and let him inhale it while he sleeps ( will he not get disturbed? he is too tiny for these things). Always make him wear socks ( poor thing is already sweating). Give him syrup etc. etc.
I calmly agreed, kept the phone and did only one thing. It was quite sunny outside in the afternoon and I took him to the balcony and let him stand and watch. After 10 mts I took him back home. Then came back again and stood for a while. Would give him warm water to drink and always cleaned his nose when it seemed runny. He recovered and his cold vanished. Two days later she asked me about cold and I said that it was gone. After a few days her one and a half year old got cold. She couldn't help but ask me how to tackle with it!! When I joked about eucalyptus oil, she asked with doubt if I had used it!!! I said "no". Then I told her that this is what she had exactly suggested me.
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The real secret remedy of staying hydrated and exposure to sun came out and after we kept the receiver back I just wondered - how people in the previous generation were considering the most natural sources to be the most effective medicine and how we cocooned in artificial nurturing a hope to make our kid stronger are only making them weaker. That how in order to help others, we give free advices which we are not even confident of following. How we react even for very small situations which our elders did not do. In other words, we are making our simple life simply complicated!!
