Weekly Buggles

Two young NRIs, who came from London and Texas, were admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi with suspected H1N1 flu symptoms and have been kept under observation in the isolation ward.

While the 35-year-old London-based NRI was brought to hospital directly from the Indira Gandhi International Airport this morning, the 25-year-old who came from Texas got himself admitted to the RML last evening.

“Both of them are under observation in isolation ward. We have done all tests and samples have been sent to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD),” NK Chaturvedi, Medical Superintendent of RML, told reporters.

The London-based NRI, who hails from Delhi, developed flu symptoms during his flight to the national capital from London and was referred to the hospital after a screening at the airport, he said.

“He has a running nose, soar throat and cold but has no fever. He will be kept under observation for the next three days,” Chaturvedi said.

The Texas-based youth, who landed in Delhi on April 19 and had fever for two days on April 24, turned up at the hospital last evening, Chaturvedi said adding the man, who hails from adjoining Ghaziabad, later became asymptomatic.

“However, due to media coverage, he himself turned up at the hospital. We have kept him under observation in the isolation ward. As of now there are no symptoms,” he said.

He calls them his extended family, shares his day-to-day life with them and is now looking forward to see the faces of those who regularly visit his blog. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who completed a year of blogging April 17, doesn’t want to tag his online friends who enrich his life as “faceless”.

” ‘Faceless’ is a harsh term. I refer to them as my ‘extended family’. They confide in me. They show affection and concern. They get upset at times and reprimand me… they miss me when I am not there on time. Are not all these wonderfully domesticated attributes?

“And now Big Adda (the website that hosts his blog) is developing software and my readers will be able to put up their photographs on the blog against their name. So they shall no longer be ‘faceless’,”