The Attack of Common Cold & Some Medicine Mantras

Never thought I'd write this .. medicine? From an engineer?? Well this one is not so much about my mantra on medicine but it has more to do with the failure of some trusted and validated mantras in my case.
There is one disease which has always scared the s**t out of me it's not cancer, its not any tumor its not even AIDS.. it's called Common Cold(CC). As far as I can remember through the convoluted lanes of my memory, I have always dreaded it and today it's no different. It's 6:30 in the morning and I am still awake. Stayed up all night not for work or party but for this wretched cold! This time around though, I was determined to get rid of it . So I tried.

The first mantra: Hot Tea. They say it works miraculously . Let me tell you here that I have had tea just once before in my life and I had puked then.However, with grit, determination and the fear of CC , I set out to have tea.With over flowing enthusiasm, I asked for not one but two cups of tea. I swear it tastes horrible and I thought of spitting out the first sip but I could see the viruses of CC waiting to dig their fangs in my skin. So I mustered all my courage and gulped it all down.
I waited but nothing happened, the cold was only getting worse, the nose started running and so did I .. CC was going to attack full force.

The second mantra: Vicks! I remember how mom used to apply vicks on my nose and chest and often provided me relief. My nose was now choking up so I made the SOS call for Vicks to a close friend who had been subjected to extreme persecution from me (which accompanies every time CC approaches, perhaps for self defence, but trust me the CC virus is deadly and fears no mortal, so my behavior didnt quite bother it) and I must thank my poor friend here for bearing it. So I applied the Vicks, almost everywhere that I could ( and trust me I am regretting that now), the CC did balk a bit but came back with a war cry to hit me harder; my nose completely blocked and head heavy. Another mantra down the drain.

The third mantra: Peppermint oil. It's said to be an instant reliever - the saviour of tortured souls, the one with the reputation of slaying the CC viruses like a lawn mower wipes off the grass.So my friend said- "Try this , it never fails- my mom recommends it" So from my mom's recommendation I moved to her mom's recommendation, I had already made plans that if it worked, I would boast about it to my mom and get a chance to put forth a recommendation which was better than hers. Peppermint oil is supposed to be put on one's pillow so that one can keep inhaling the aroma and poison the CC viruses. I applied it to the pillow, to my nose, to my shirt, trousers but refrained from going any further as I had learnt it the hard way in the Vicks experience, and waited for the result. Nothing.. absolutely zilch! I started believing that moms no longer had foolproof mantras.

The fourth mantra: Inhalus Ultimatus. Thats what I call it, my dad's mantra, I had forgotten about it but my friend reminded me of it. It involves heating water and adding Vicks to it and then covering the head with a towel and inhaling the vapors. So I played against CC for one last time.Kept myself under the towel for eternity, lost all the blackheads on my face but the gallant CC refused to budge.In a nutshell - FLOP.

The Final mantra: This one is original, the last resort, I discovered it today.When nothing works, flee the battlefield. So I gave up , bowed to the mighty CC and decided not to try to sleep.Instead I stayed up the night to write down my experience. Surprisingly, CC has slowed down its attack. I guess, if you respect the more powerful, you are likely to get some mercy. I got it,at least enough to let me breathe!
So my mantra for those who dread CC just as badly as I do-Surrender.

P.S: Another friend recommended his mantra: stand upside down on your head, the mucus in your nose runs out of the ears to beat CC.I dont know if I can give this one a try, but it's a mantra nevertheless.