Hibernating animals include bears, bats, hedgehogs, groundhogs, and various other reptiles/amphibians. Not humans. And yet I, a human by any standard, have been hibernating like nobody’s business these past weeks in God’s Own Country aka Kerala, a tropical paradise where there is no winter to speak of, and humidity kills you all year round even when it rains.

Interestingly, porcupines I hear, don’t ‘hibernate’ and instead choose to sleep-in a lot and stay close to their dens in winter. Hmm… As a self-confessed human porcupine, and being definitely not a bear, bat or the rest of them hibernating gang of animals, I have to admit that I am more into the ‘sleeping in’ (not literally) and ‘staying close to my den’ kind of behaviour.

There’s a difference between the original porcupines and I, the self confessed human one.

If winter is what makes the former porcupines withdraw from an active life, social or otherwise, and get that much needed rest while sticking to the vicinity of their ‘homes’, it is sheer fatigue and resultant foggy-head that has sent me into emulating them.

Believe me you, muscle ache is no joke. No Siree, no. Especially not when it comes in waves and leaves you utterly shaken with your heart pounding as if you had just raced uphill, at the end of each bout.

It puzzled me at first, this whole business. I had been doing so well in general. Eating mindfully, going for regular walks, sleeping at regular times has become the habit since a few years now. Why this sudden about turn of my body which I was treating with so much respect? What had gone wrong?

And then the penny dropped.

It was not hing I was doing. It was the new medication I had been put on to combat my osteoporosis. Knowing that is a comfort of some sort. But the better part of it is that I have been taken off it. Even so I have to wait some days, nay weeks, for the effects to wear off.

I believe I am getting there for I have an unexpected good day or two in between the bad ones. On the bad days all I do is doodle. Yes, that has become my go to, to keep my mind off the pain and also gives me something to do without having to strain myself physically or mentally.

Here are a few of my doodles. (The acrylic abstract art will be shared another day)

Hopefully I’ll be back to my normal self soon. I am not making promises of when I’ll write my next post. But this I assure you, I’ll be back, for I still have more things to bore you all with say. Let’s leave it at that.

©️ Shail Mohan 2026