Buddha and the Mosquito
An auspicious (I hope) tale from Sarnath, India.
I got bitten by a mosquito at Sarnath in India, where the Buddha gave his first teaching. Not exactly on the same spot, but in the vicinity, at a nearby Tibetan University where after our wondrous Sarnath stupa walk around, we sat down on the grass for a picnic lunch. That’s where I felt something nipping at my ankles. Too late to reach for a friend’s mozzie repellent, too late to reel back time and start the sequence all over again…
Why so much fuss about a mozzie bite? Because a few days later when I came down with a fever and terrible aches and pains, I thought I might have dengue fever. As my fever wasn’t too high, the hotel doc ruled out dengue, gave me some pain killers and sent me on my way. Luckily I’d completed my teaching committments of our 16 day writing journey Story Hunters but still had three days extra sight seeing with two other members of the group. I did spend the five hour drive to Agra lying on the back seat of our SUV and the next 24 hours ensconced in the most comfortable Grand Mercure bed I’ve ever laid down in.
But I rallied for our visit to the Taj Mahal (how could I not?) and dragged my aching joints around our other must-do sights: the abandoned city of Fakepur Sikri and after another 5 hour drive, the Amber Fort at Jaipur. The final drive to Delhi airport (another 5 hours) was a fascinating non-stop conversation with my driver and I was finally on a plane with a spare seat beside me heading for Sydney.
I didn’t feel so bad; quite tired, no fever, a mild rash, a few joint pains: nothing too drastic, but I took myself off to my doc for tests to find out if I did indeed have the dengue fever which my friends who lived and worked in SE Asia swore I must have.
Luckily I followed up and insisted on speaking to another doc re the results. Were they ever going to call me? She said I was negative for dengue, but she could request a test for chikungunya. Hadn’t the first doc requested it I spluttered? No, apparently not. Now, most people have never hear of the horrid ChikV, but I had. Some time back my friend and colleague, writer Laura Jean Mckay had gotten it in Bali and had a terrible time with it. She’d even mentioned it recently at the book launch for her new volume of short stories, Gunflower.
Three days later the first doc called back. Yep, you guessed it— positive for Chikungunya.
I felt relieved of course to know there was a tangible explanation for my symptoms and perhaps now I could get some help and guidance as to what to do. Well, good luck with that!
The name chikungunya derives from a word in the Kimakonde (Africa) language, meaning “to become contorted”. The main symptom is joint pain, ie. poly arthritis (meaning in many places), that can last up to two weeks, two months, two years or forever! Laura Jean’s lasted two years.
The doc’s advice: hydration, bed rest, panadol. Stronger pain killers if needed, would you like some Endone?!
I messaged Laura Jean. She sent her sympathies and a list of things to do including tumeric drinks and magnesium salt baths twice a day!
The magnesium salt baths sound great, only trouble is I don’t have a proper bath or a big enough hot water system to fill it. Magnesium cream I can do and this Tassie wonder cream called Kunzea helps take the edge off. I’ve also been recommended to do intravenous Vit C, ultra sound, electrical magnetic radio-wave techniques and a few other things too strange to mention.
But now it’s the holiday break and clinics are closed — the New Year will bring some hope maybe, for my mild symptoms have morphed into being not so mild, and I am beginning to understand the contorted aspect to the illness — the strange positions you have to twist your body into to do the things you suddenly can’t do. Wrists, hands, fingers, neck muscles, knees and ankles reminding me every time I move them, not to take them for granted.
Perhaps this is the teaching the Sarnath mozzie gifted to me.
A kind of follow up from the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha taught in Sarnath so many centuries before, with a modern twist.
‘Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.’
Although not for some…
©Jan Cornall 2023.
Jan Cornall is a writer who leads international writers journeys, retreats and workshops. See pics here. You can read Jan’s most recent travel memoir online at onthejourney.substack.com
Insta: @_writersjourney
