'I's : Pink I,Chenn 'I'

I did not have to Wiki it to spell  E N D O S U L F A N. Just wrote it badly and someone kinder took the trouble to look it up for me. Well, thank you!  Someone else explained what it is & does. Thank you again! That has made me that much more erudite but not immune to the effects of that DDT-spray. (DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane.  I knew that one since 1977 0r so because Mr. Goa-pinathan, my Chemistry teacher in People's High, had taught it to us)  The spray, one hopes, does not carry too far because it kills. 

Another nagging summer infliction is conjunctivitis. I do not have to spell it badly because, like DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane, I know to spell it. Besides with one eye and a half stuck together with a gooey crusting, WHOCARESABOUTSPELLINGANDSHIT! The most nagging thing about this infliction is not the irritation but the compounded name of the disease. Disease! BIG DEAL! Just makes you uneasy for a few days is all. Heard it around the time I became aware of the different functions of erection.  I was a small boy then. 

In school people called it Soreyeosis (I think, for it sounded that way) or sore eyes. We were asked not to look in other people's eyes and to wear dark glasses. 

In Konkani they simply call it "eyes".

Question: why are you wearing goggles in the dark?

Answer: Because I have eyes!

Then I heard some people call it conjunctivitis.  That sounded proper and important, like something used by the convent educated prudes proud of their good habits.

Later I heard that it was also called "Madras eye". Madras now is known as Chennai, yet the name of this infection has not changed! We must request Mr. Stalin to get a bill passed in the TN assembly.

It is called pink eye also. Pink! It really evokes the yuck. Red eye is out 'cause it would indicate anger. ( Shiva's eyes were pink with rage! Just joking.) Blue or any other colour is not right. Pink is apt but yucky!

But just as a rose by any other name would smell the same, conjunctivitis by any other name would...be the same bloody painfully embarrassing infection which forces you to wear dark glasses in the night.