Fridays are very funny. I never feel like working on Friday. I think most of us spend time in cafeteria than at work. Everybody was sipping the coffee and I noticed that someone is missing. I asked where is kirti. Pramod said she is on leave. Ritesh took over and said she has a bad cold and her nose is flowing like a perennial river. I sympathized and said “cold is horrible. And it doesn’t end like that. Sneezing and after that cough, fever. Oh my god! Minimum 7 days of torture. Poor kirti! Can’t control her urge for ice creams”. Deepa added saying, now-a-days climate is not good. I think our bodies are weak. Someone added saying I take bath only with hot water otherwise I get cold. One more comment – my mother has asthma, she can’t breathe without inhaler. One more – my kid has a bad throat, wheezing. Poor chap! I can feel his pain and I couldn’t sleep the entire night.
Madhu added saying “I suggested her to take antibiotic. You never know right. It can turn into a viral attack”. Hmm…. time to go back to work….
****
Somehow with much difficulty, I dragged myself till 6 and packed up to go home. It was a memorable evening. We went out to a restaurant and had a romantic candle light dinner. Reached home at 11 and fell asleep. Tak..tak…tak…. someone is knocking the door. I think it was about 1am and I woke up with half eyes opened and my wife is sleeping unaware of the sounds. I opened the door and saw a samosa hanging there …@#$%.
For a moment I froze and horrified. It said hi! I wanted to shout but my voice is dead.
It wished again. I closed my eyes and my heart was beating 200 times a minute. I was shivering top to bottom. After a minute I opened my eyes and looked closely, it has two small holes to it. Little closer… it is not samosa but a nose. Can’t believe my eyes and I just collapsed in the chair. Couple of mins later it spoke to me. “Hi buddy! I am a human nose. I represent the respiratory system. I want to let you know about our team. Sorry to disturb you at midnight but spare me few mins of your sleep”.
With much difficulty, I said ok (what else I can do at that moment). It projected some slides on a dark sky.
· Nostrils inhale the air into nasal cavity.
· From nasal cavity, the air moves down to pharynx (common passage for food and air, like an intersection point for mouth and nose, Because of this we can breath through mouth also. Believe it or not it is possible to eat through nose).
· Epiglottis (act like a gate into lungs) opens the gate to pass the air into trachea (wind pipe) after crossing larynx(sound box).
· Trachea splits into 2 pipes called bronchus and each one of them leads the passage to lungs.
· In the lungs air moves into smaller tubes called bronchioles.
· Finally the air reaches alveoli. Alveoli are like a small bag which co-ordinates with blood stream to exchange O2 with CO2. Human lungs will have 300-400 million such airbags exchanging gases. Alveoli are the only part doing respiration, rest of the parts are just passages for air.
It asked me a question btw. Breathing is a pull system or a push system? I am still speechless. The answer is it is a pull system. Air inhaled into the lungs by the contraction of diaphragm (a muscle below the lung cavity. Remember syringe. How its knob pulls the air into it) and exhalation happens when it relaxes. Hmm I never know this!! It went on to the next slide.
· Nose has hair. It stops and catches the dust particles and prevents them from entering into our body. God help those who get them shaved in the beauty parlors.
· Air flows into nasal cavity. Here it gets heated and moistened. This heating process kills the germs, viruses, bacteria to a large extent. Moistening process maintain the temperature until it goes into lungs. You know why you experience the irritation in the nose when you don’t drink water. Lack of sufficient fluid in the body causes infection in the nasal cavity.
· Nasal cavity and nasal passages are prone to virus/ bacteria attack when they are weak. Cold is an act of cleaning the infection with water by our immune system. If you take tablets to suppress the cold, it just stops the cleaning process temporarily but the problem remains. And you get cold again.
· Here is the best. Sneezing… the most embarrassing thing right. It is an act to through away the dust/phlegm out of nasal passages. Never divert the sneeze through mouth or suppress it within.
· After nasal cavity, the respiratory tubes produce mucus, a sticky material which catches the dust and germs which crossed the nasal cavity. What a purification system! Isn’t it? The phlegm that you spit out through mouth and through nose is a collection of mucus produced in the bronchial tubes and lungs.
· Throat infection happens when the germs cross the nasal tubes and enter into pharynx. Obvious why doesn’t it itch when there is an attack.
· You people complain about coughing. How else the phlegm produced in the lungs go out without coughing. I am trying to throw it away, but you suppress it with chemicals.
· I do block nose. I don’t want the infection to go down to the lungs. I know the protection comes down if you breathe through mouth, but we have no choice.
· My colleagues’ lungs and bronchioles don’t want you to smoke. We get choked and filled with lot of ash and dirt. But you don’t care. We cough more and become weak.
· Whenever you eat those sweets, the immunity system goes down and my friend throat gets infected. Why don’t you care for us?
· When you eat ice cream or drink chilled water, the temperature in the throat comes down. We try hard to keep temperature but how much can we do. Obviously we get infected.
· You use deodorants, perfumes, and inhale lot of chemicals, pollution, and carbon monoxide. I can clean it provided I get time. Do you want me to protect you from freaky foods or from harmful chemicals? I pile them up and the infection grows into asthma. You make us helpless buddy.
· I want some sort of physical activity to be active and to be up to my full capacity. It increases blood circulation to us and keeps us strong. It also gives me a force to push all toxins out of lungs. But……. You know what you do.
· Today I hear about AC’s to purify the air. Can’t understand how?
· You keep on eating throughout the day. We end up supplying oxygen to the stomach 24X7. When will we take care of ourselves? I get time only early in the morning. That’s the time the stomach is free. That is why I cough up. The moment you get up again coffee, tea….. Give us a break man!
· Kids don’t know what to eat. What’s wrong with you man. Don’t you have a responsibility to tell what is right and what is wrong?
· You complain on winter, rainy season, summer. I can take care of any atmosphere provided I have that energy. But you don’t have time for me.
· Cold water bath gives me lot of energy to push the phlegm out. But you take hot water bath because you don’t like me cleaning the nasal passages.
My dear friend! I am not complaining on you. But this is a feedback from me and my fellow colleagues. Take care of us and we will take care of you. Bye…..
****
I am so touched and waving my hand. Ouch!!! Slap on my face. Guess what could have happened…..
Anyway woke up as usual in the morning at 10AM. Had coffee and sat down watching a masala movie! I know for a fact that life will change if I change. But……
No comments:
Post a Comment