Dear Readers,

There is a disease that is spreading fast – it’s acute (something that becomes very bad very quickly), contagious, and has serious side-effects which although are not fatal but can still leave your heart racing. It is called Foot-in-Mouth disease. One can fall victim to the disease by simply opening their mouth. And a person knows that they have caught the disease if their cheeks are flushed and inflamed, their voice becomes croaky, and when one suddenly gets the feeling that they should have kept their mouth closed.

Sometimes people catch the disease when they open their mouth to express their unwanted opinions when they shouldn’t, and sometimes they just can’t help it, like it happened to me once.

One day my husband and I had to go to the hospital in Melbourne for something and the receptionist asked us to spell our name (some believe that Indian names are a bit of a tongue twister). My husband quickly spelled his name like – V for Victor, I for India, etc. I was under immense pressure to perform equally well. So, when my turn came, I took a deep breath and said, “Its Priyanka. P for Pea/Pee (I leave it to your imagination), R for …, wait, what did I say? Suddenly the room was filled with uncontrolled laughter. I did not have the nerves to look at who all were laughing but the sound was coming from everywhere. The queue behind me was in complete disarray as they found it hard to maintain their places. I quickly wrote my name down on a piece of paper and threw it across the glass towards the receptionist and ran to sit in a different room. My face was flushed andinflamed, I felt light-headed, and I wanted to take back everything that I had blurted out before and fill my mouth with a giant shoe instead. I had all the symptoms of the classic Foot in Mouth disease.

The good news is that it is completely curable, all you need is good education, common sense, and the wisdom to know when to keep your mouth closed. May you never fall victim to it.

Enjoy the edition

Priyanka