Swapnil Acharya

It’s late Monday evening and I’m down with this unbearable boil on my chin. It’s sucking the life out of me. Painkillers tend to give some relieve only till the nightmare begins all over again

after the effect is over. I’ve been taking penicillin but can’t feel any improvement. There’s no way I could feel any comfort, and its time for it to be squeezed. I’ve often in my life been through similar terrible times, and I hate pain of any kind for their tormenting nature. I wish I didn’t have to encounter pain. But every once in a while I cut my forehead, got typhoid or had a sprain. There’s no way I could run away, and I must tell you pain hurts. I recently tried the Google search with different keywords on pain, wounds and injuries and was simply horrified to get the results. There were many more serious, excruciating and gruesome cases in this world. I was perfectly pink compared to those people. Of course my boil was just nothing - a trivial matter.

Hundreds of people die everyday just because they cannot suffer anymore and give up on life. Patients with amputations or encephalitis live every single moment like in hell. Or just consider a natural phenomenon like the labour pain. Would men even want to think about that degree of pain?

Then why must I cry for a sore throat? Why bring the house down for two trips to the bathroom? Why over-publicise my little boil? I’m perfectly fine compared to all those critical sufferers. I felt like I must learn to beat my pain. I must win over it. That’s what I did next. I kept on repeating to myself, “I’m not sick” and yes it worked. I kept myself busy watching TV or reading books. I stopped looking at the mirror to check if it had grown any bigger. “I’m healthy” that’s the way I labelled myself. Six days later the wound broke open and the pain was over.

The point is to feel and live like you’re healthy. There are many other people in this world who are sicker and more desperate than you. We just love ourselves too much and so don’t realise that we are not the only ones who fall sick. There is very little point and no logic in declaring our little disorders as big matters of concern. Why is it difficult to accept that we are perfectly fit and fine? If you learn to fight the pain, you’ll feel better, a lot better.