The Vaccination Eclipse
All my
childhood, I had been fascinated by solar eclipses. For a long time,
it was the mystery about these days that got me excited. Also, the ‘don’ts’ associated
with it – don’t go out, don’t look at the sun, don’t eat, don’t this, don’t
that. Of course, children are more curious about the ‘don’ts’ than the ‘do's'. It
must have been in high school that I got to understand the phenomenon of the solar
eclipse, or in other words, the science behind it. This got me even more
excited and eagerly waiting for further eclipses. I still remember trying to
catch the eclipse on a wall and all that.
It was
with similar excitement and curiosity that I awaited my first dose of
Covid-19 vaccination. Like in the case of eclipses, this particular vaccine
also carries a fair share of mystery with it – it is all a hoax, this is China
trying to conquer the world, the government is going to track us, you will die
soon, and so on. Well, I’m not one to comment on these allegations. However, I
tried to understand the science behind vaccines.
All of
you might have heard of mock drills. Some of you might have even witnessed or
been a part of one or two. Like the ones where they assume that a building is
on fire and raise an alarm and the fire force gets into action and all that? Vaccination
is a similar process taking place inside our bodies. The vaccine triggers a false
alarm that makes the defense department of the body get into action to fight
an intruder – the virus. The soldiers go running here and there in search of
their weapons. You know, they have been sitting idle for quite a long time! It’ll
probably be utter chaos. Soon enough, they’ll be ready with a strategy to go to
war with the enemy.
“Load
your guns.”
“Fir…”
“Wait,
that was a false alarm.”
“But
stay on alert.”
It is
this hustle and bustle of the soldiers in our body that supposedly results in
fever and tiredness after the vaccination.
Quite
interesting, right? Well, our body is in fact a package of such wonders.
Last
Monday, I got my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. I had been counting my
days to it, as there was a prescribed wait period after testing positive. After
getting vaccinated in the morning, I waited anxiously for my soldiers to get
into action. At around six in the evening, I heard a rhythmic marching from a
distance. They were getting ready. Abhi, Appu, and I were in our routine book
reading session (routine might be an exaggeration, as we have had only three
sessions so far). At one point, I started mixing up characters from two
different books and this signaled that the military force was almost getting
into action.
It was
a hell of a (mock) war after that. I was down with a high fever. Fortunately, I
got to sleep through most of it. The next morning, though the pseudo-war
was over, the dust hadn’t settled. I was quite tired all through the day.
However, when I woke up today (the second) morning, it felt very calm – the kind
of calm you feel when you wake up to a bright morning after two days of heavy
rain.
Kudos
to my soldiers!
I’m eagerly
waiting for the next eclipse.
***
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Favorite line - "At around six in the evening, I heard a rhythmic marching from a distance"
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading it!!
Thanks Puvi! :)
DeleteYou too have an interesting 'Covid-story' to narrate I guess. Looking forward to it!
I will be initiating this mock drill soon. Thanks for giving a heads-up!
ReplyDelete