Home > Mind , Body & Soul > Grandma remedies >Clearing The Throat With growing pollution and the unavoidable everyday travel to workplaces, most of us experience an irritation in the throat which sometimes turns into a bad allergic cough. It is irritating enough as it is, but if your profession is dependent on your voice, if you happen to be a singer or a teacher, there can be nothing more debilitating. Here is an instant home remedy that should put your voice back in action! Using a pestle, pound 500 gram of raisin with 150 gram of sugar crystals. This cannot be done in a single shot, but little by little. Add 1 gram of saffron and 10 gram of cardamom to the mixture. Make small, round balls. Spread these on a tray (do not put them in the sun) and store them in a bottle. Pop in a ball three times a day and almost magically, it will clear your throat! If you feel that your throat is a little itchy and uncomfortable just before a speech or even a concert, take another ball of this mixture. Your voice will be clearer for it. In case you have more than an irritated throat, and it turns into a sore throat, here are some more measures that you can take to restore your voice.

• In six cups of water, add two tablespoon of fenugreek leaves. Boil the water for ten minutes. Gargle this decoction three to four times a day. The throat will clear and the pain will reduce.
• If you are not fussy about garlic, make a paste of two pods of garlic and 2 cloves. Mix in a teaspoon of honey. Drink one teaspoon of the juice three times a day.
• For the onion lovers, peal an onion and boil it in water for about ten minutes and mash the onion. Add some butter, salt and pepper to the onion and eat it!

These are grandma's ways of clearing the voice and reducing the irritation. If you do know that the most sensitive part of you is your voice, wear a mask or at least cover your nose while travelling. You will notice that your voice doesn't get affected so easily then. And of course as grandma would say, stay away from ice cream and cold drinks!