India used to have four seasons: Dengue, Malaria, Jaundice, and the Flu. Earlier there used to be periods of lull in-between and the transition was gradual.
India used to have four seasons: Dengue, Malaria, Jaundice, and the Flu. Earlier there used to be periods of lull in-between and the transition was gradual. Now, with all these meat and alcohol bans, my tarnished body feels deprived and in this impoverished state finds it harder to cope and falls ill at the slightest blow of wind.
While most of those illnesses can be easily combatted with medicine and patience, one of those requires the special healing touch of a woman to bring a man around. The flu may seem like an ordinary cold and cough with fever to the average lady but in men, it is a monster of an entirely different magnitude. The destruction and disabling nature of the disease is so immense that it is not enough to call it a flu. It is thus christened the man-flu. I am writing it for a hyphen but very soon you will see it will just gel into one solid word.
The manflu is not just a flu. Sure the symptoms are the same but the impact is a lot stronger. In a study I read, and I can’t provide any citations as I don’t recall seeing any accompanying the piece, it clearly stated that the manflu is clearly a thing since women have the hormones to combat it slightly better. As a result, men feel more crippled by it. This is not to be mistaken with the general male tendency to whimper and complain incessantly to the point of exaggeration. Although, even I have to admit, the difference can be hard to tell.
Whether legit or merely the antics of a sick man, either way it falls into the hands of a woman to handle as she is the only one to have to deal with it. Many a girl has confessed that so difficult can the task of appeasing an ill boy be that they had secretly wished to contract the flu themselves in order to escape some of the onslaught. Trouble is, even if they do fall prey, they will still be expected to take care of the man as, as explained above, we are always the sicker party. The best part about the manflu is that it allows us certain privileges like being moody, inconsistent, cranky, generally gloomy, and extremely needy. But again, don’t merely go by these symptoms as with certain men it might be impossible to tell when they are truly sick and when they are well, you know.
All said and done, we admit that we can be hard to handle but women are no walk in the park either. They are a code unto themselves, one that perhaps not even the great Turing could have deciphered. So every now and then, when we fall sick, let us have our moment. Indulge us, allow us our temperamental tantrums. You can start by acknowledging that manflu is a thing. Even my computer gets it, she has already stopped auto-correcting it.
The writer is a lover of wine, song and everything fine
