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Well, well, well, where were we? Moving to the ward, right? Files were exchanged, the nurses’ handover was done, a bed shifted, that’s all!? The shift doesn’t seem like much, but it meant a lot in terms of opening doors to my recovery. Almost celebration time, it seemed. I had just got myself upgraded. I went from the ICU on the 1st floor to the Neuro-Ortho ward on the 3rd floor! A completely new level! Going from a small ICU cubicle to an entire room just for myself (with a window and, wait for it, a view!). Up until now, all of my food was being fed to me in the form of a nutrient paste through a rice tube, that opened directly into my stomach via my nose (which is particularly annoying). This had to be done because I was unable to swallow. This tube was practically useless as I remember, distinctly, the insatiable feeling of hunger round the clock and asking for food all the time (something which I excelled at, anyway). My pleas fell on deaf ears as nobody could feed me (swallow problem, folks). Eventually, my speech therapist gave in to them and conducted something known as the barium test to check my swallowing and Voila! The test bore fruit. Within the next 2 days, I got my first morsels of food in nearly a month – a small bite of a Mars chocolate bar and a sip of water – Water on Mars had been found! You cannot begin to fathom the joy, relief and sense of accomplishment this came along with, after not being able to eat or drink for nearly 24 days. Yaay! One problem down! What followed next? As we like putting it in India – Abhi to picture baki hai mere dost (the rest of the picture still remains to be seen, my friend).