One for the Superstitious

In a phone conversation I had with a friend last week, I had announced, prematurely, that I may have outgrown my asthma. That very night, I dreamt of someone choking me and then I woke up coughing profusely. A few hours later the coughs became more severe and were accompanied by deep wheezing and by noon, I was getting more and more breathless.

This is the fourth time in as many years that I’ve fallen ill after telling someone that I’ve never felt better. For someone who is superstitious, this is probably a good enough rate to warrant a jinx status, but fortunately I’m not.

I noticed that I tend to fall ill around this time of the year. According to my doctor, he sees more people in the last few months of the year — November-December are the wettest months here and when people tend to be cooped up in their homes and offices, it makes it easier for viruses to spread.

The end of the year is also the time I catch up with old friends so this pattern of calling people up telling them how good I’ve been only to fall sick a few days later is not a just case of bad luck . :)