Er...

Clogged sinuses. Very annoying.

(Blows nose loudly. No use. Still completely blocked.)

One of the downsides of being me is the useless sinuses you end up with. Once every few weeks, my nose decides to withdraw from full duty and proceeds to cut my air supply in half. Rather considerate, that - leaving me half a nostril free each time. Still bloody annoying.

Still, after 10 years, you get used to it. I've got to be the only guy alive who carries two handkerchiefs - one for the nose, and the other for the sweat that's inevitable in Mumbai's humid climate...

What you don't get used to is those cases that occur once in a blue moon, when your sinuses go AWOL, and your nose effectively retires into private life. On days like this(or nights, more often - for some reason it really comes into its own after dark) the only recourse is to walk around with a hanky, blowing your nose at regular intervals and hoping that it will fix itself. Nose drops help, but you tend to develop a dependence on those - natural resolution of the problem becomes next to impossible.

What bugs me is that I get very irritable when these cases occur. When you're making pathetic attempts to fix your nasal equipment, your Anti-Irritation Shield^TM has a little too much to deal with. It's amazing how much irritating stuff we put up with every day without a second thought. Far more amazing is how people you're very comfortable with - close friends, family - do and say irritating stuff all day long. We just don't notice. Man, can we adapt!

I've always been irritated by people showing pointless/unjustified irritation/anger. This weird response is amplified by the aforementioned state of irritability on my part. I have this urge to snap at people. Thankfully, my iron self-control usually wins out, and I remove myself from potentially annoying situations without killing anyone...The only person I end up snapping at is my sister, but since she snaps at me day and night, for no greater crime than my existence, I see no reason to miss getting in an occasional jab in this thoroughly one-sided contest. *Sigh*, sibling rivalry...

There's a subset of this 'Get annoyed/angry for stupid reasons' group that deserves special mention. These are the insensitive idiots who get annoyed when you're blowing your nose or trying to clear your throat(this is because throat congestion is almost inevitable in the bad cases). The worst of these go so far as to say: "Why don't you just do it once and for all?" in a very condescending voice, like someone who has been doing you a great favour by tolerating you all this time. For these guys, come the Revolution, I shall roast them over a slow fire and say "Why don't you just burn up all at once?"

Enough with that rant. Back to more mundane matters. Pause for a moment while I blow my nose to symbolically end this section of the post, full of venom, bitterness and mucus as it is...

Mom and sis are still in Lucknow at my cousin's wedding. Dad got back at the beginning of the week. Sis and Mom are due on the 18th or so, and then they'll be off again to the reception in Bangalore a couple of days later. This time I was planning to go along for about 5 days, but since I haven't been able to study much with all these grad school applications going out, I've decided to opt out and cram maniacally...Huge disappointment for a lot of people who were expecting to see me there. Huge disappointment for me - I actually enjoy these gatherings, crowded though they are...

Time now to try steam inhalation - maybe that will help unclog my sinuses. On the other hand, there's a small problem with that idea.

Yep. That's right. I can't inhale anymore.