An eventful weekend at the bear household.

Sorry for being away for some time. You see, our cousin was here, and we were busy playing sisters (which included some fighting, some jealousy, some sulking, and lots and lots of love and time together, collecting rocks, going on runs, nature walks, styling Barbies, playing doctor, sending rockets to Mars, watching movies, reading together, sharing shampoo and creams, making soap, and many such really important activities) for a whole fortnight!

But in all of that, we seemed to have picked up something, probably just the flu, since it is in the air. On Saturday night, we had a fever and a headache, then a runny nose and even more fever, rising to 104F, and then dropping off, even vomiting out our dinner at one point, worrying Mamma and Baba bear enough to make a midnight call to our paediatrician Dr.Joshi, a really stern man who the bear family likes because he is a man of science (and dismisses woo and 'alternate' medicine with the contempt it deserves) who goes only by evidence and experience rather than anecdotes and hearsay. Anyway, he advised 8ml of CalPol every 4 hours, and after a small meltdown when Mamma had to hold our hand and Baba had to remind us that fear is indeed our friend, we ingested that horrible, slimy, dirty pink liquid-gel thingy, drank what seemed like a litre of water, and then insisted on playing Uno. At half-past midnight. (Baba bear would like to remind the readers that this was one of the rarest of rare times, perhaps only the third such incident, when we kept the family awake at night).

There was just one problem with that. Saniya Didi (our help) sleeps in our room and the Uno set was there!

So, we decided to play Uno with imaginary cards. Somehow, we kept winning all the time. We think Mamma and Baba bears are a bit soft in their heads because they could easily have made up better cards, an idea that came to us when we realised all cards are invisible and the game is just pretend. Maybe it's their age. Anyway, long story short, we fell asleep while playing as Mamma bear cuddled us in her soft arms.

Suddenly, as if we lacked reasons to panic last night, Mamma bear's arms and chest started developing hives that became very large and itchy and red, which on further investigation, turned out to be an allergy from the camphor used to stow away our spare duvet, which was pulled out from the nether world by Baba bear when we vomited in bed earlier in the night.

There was a rush to find Allegra and then some Sudocrem, which soothed the allergy a bit, enough for the family to retire to their respective beds once again, but it was now an additional cause for worry. The next day, we made Mamma bear a rainbow heart card to wish her to get well soon. And we made her coffee too, as well as our Bournvita. All by ourselves.

A home-visit RT-PCR test was conducted (which was extremely uncomfortable though not painful) while Baba and Mamma bear held on to us (and gifted us a Cadbury's milk chocolate at the end of it), and we await the result perhaps tonight or tomorrow morning.

Later the next day, a doctor was consulted for Mamma bear and medicines prescribed, lotions procured, and as we all sat home, with our race cancelled (the only Sunday since November 2021 we haven't raced), classes called off, screens shut down, and all activity limited to our bed wondering what we could do for fun (Baba bear's suggestion that we all read our own books or write something was shot down quickly) when our next-door neighbours came back from an extended family vacation and we could suddenly hear them (and especially, Tara, our best friend) even from behind closed doors.

A plan was devised: We would (Tara and I) each stand in our balconies, be plied with drinks and food, and sunning ourselves on this beautiful, cool day in this hill town of Pune, chat to our hearts' content.

And so it came to pass that we find ourselves sitting in the soft sunlight of this beautiful city exchanging stories with our friend across the building. And later, we look forward to playing chess with Baba, reading 'A World of Winnie-the-Pooh', writing about our dream vacation (hint: it's a cruise, which we were told means travelling on a large boat with swimming pools and restaurants and tennis courts on the boat), practising the piano, and maybe (if Mamma allows) watching a documentary on turtles.

Life is so good!