Do the past residents of Men’s Hostel, especially Circa 1978-1984 recall the strange malady which befell only the males called ‘calcium trouble’?

The clinical scenario was after vigorous and sweaty physical activity or on a hot sweaty night, the victim goes to the toilet to pass urine but is alarmed that he’s unable to pass urine. Just a few drops emerge with severe burning in the urethra.

The treatment of ‘calcium trouble’ paradoxically was common salt. The victim would rush to the mess, pick up the salt container placed on the dinning table, go to the water cooler, pour a glass of cold water, add a fistful rather than a pinch of salt. After one or two glasses of this mixture he would return to the bogs. A blissful expression could then be seen on the suffer’s face along with the sound of urine flowing freely.

It was said that due to the high calcium content of the drinking water which caused this form of dysuria, hence the dubbed as ‘calcium trouble’. How common salt relieved the suffering was a mystery.

During initiation after our exercise session we were told to drink water with salt. I always thought this was part of the initiation but later discovered the reason.

After any physical activity in the hostel, the ritual was the players would run to the water cooler with salt and drink one or two glasses.

Luckily I only had an attack once during my tenure in CMC. But there were others who told pitiful tales of painful peeing and implored us to take precautions. Hence it was water with salt on a regular basis. I suspect I can blame my early hypertension to this practice.

Now the water drunk I am sure undergoes, reverse osmosis, filtration, ozone treatment and God alone knows what else. Plus bottled water is the norm, so I suspect this malady has become a distant memory or an idiosyncrasy of the Batches of yore. In those simpler times water was straight from the tap.