For the last 7 weeks, I've been the target of several minor viruses. They've entered my body through the air, pushed me to exhaustion, forced me to sleep much longer, pummeled my head with a dull ache and sometimes, injected my entire body with low fever. I knock down something for the fever and pain, and carry on with my day. But I am not complaining. Infact, what I really feel is gratitude for being spared the excruciating new illness that's hit the Delhi region this quarter-Chikungunia.
Chikungunia, which means 'all bent up', strikes you secretly, till it explodes in your joints. You get a mild fever, maybe a rash and then, an unbearable pain in your joints. Old injuries are resurrected, and body parts you didn't even know about compete for attention. Like most North Indians, I knew about this disease as something brought about by the bite of a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, after it's bitten someone infected with the virus in the first place. It was something that people in the South of India usually suffered from! Delhi, in the North, is relatively dry and Chikungunia seemed distant. In the last month, every time I've gone out, even to a little bar with only a few peoples, some or the other says they're just about recovering from this miserable sickness. The media reports there is a rise, although it is not being called an epidemic. On November 1st of this year, for example, the Hindustan Times-one of India's leading newspapers- reported a possible thousand cases of Chikungunia in the previous 20 days in Delhi alone!
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