Symphony in the Metro

Just when I thought the worst part of the winter is over, there is an alert for snow during the winter. Apparently, the winter has only started. I wish the weather was more predictable. During last winter, it snowed mostly during December (of 2010) in Paris. That made me think I can survive winter if I survive December. It is February today. The temperature have now dipped below zero after remaining above it for all of December and almost all of January.

The most interesting part of dipping temperature and changing weather is traveling by the public transport i.e the omnipresent Metro. During normal days, you find zombies with distinct and strong smell of deodorants on the way to work. With winter, the scene changes slightly. The zombies and their smells are still there. The difference is brought by the coughs. Somewhere in the compartment, someone starts coughing. It is not a loud sickening cough but a low-toned cautious cough, loud to bring comfort while not too loud to make others uncomfortable. Just when that someone finds his comfort and stops coughing, another person sitting far away does his/her coughing act. When this stops, somebody else picks up this act. If you listen carefully, it is like a symphony conducted by an invisible maestro.

Using the public transport makes you susceptible to all kinds of illness associated with the change of weather. I was advised to wash my hands after traveling in the Metro. Until now, I have not followed this golden advice. As a result, I fell sick last week. What did I do? I decided to work instead of staying at home. The grand scheme was to spread the illness to everyone at work. But damn it! These guys seem to be disease resistant!

Foot note: 

If you are my boss, please keep the following keywords in mind. "fell sick", "work", "instead", "staying at home".

If you are my colleague, send the link to our boss and tell him to read the footnote no matter what...

Tags: Musings,Paris,Cough,Winter