Sunday, January 17, 2010

The General of J Block



Hans is my colleague and he is from germany. Every morning he walks past my office to his,after punching in. We wave to each other and say our greetings. This morning how ever it occured to me to wish to him in german and the words just came out of my mouth astonishing myself "Guten Morgen,Wie geht's?" ( good morning , How are you ?). I wondered to myself how the hell did i just manage that ?. I felt like a cold wave of air hitting my face. All of it came back to me in a jiffy and i was back in that hospital room again. Let me tell you how i ended up there back in December 2006. Every year on the 24th of december the boarding school i went to hosts a reunion for all its ex-students. As usual i had showed up late, managed to avoid all my teachers and got away with my buddies to the nearest toddy shop. Several Hours later i was on my way back home in my car alone and was perspiring inspite of the air conditioning, when i reached home i could barely manage to undress myself and get to bed.

My memories of the next 48 hours in some what blurred. I vaguely remember the endless vomiting and the rough ride in the dead of the night in an auto to the hospital . Of Being admitted to the understaffed casuality ward on xmas eve. Some nursing student finally learning to use the needle after several horrible trials on me . By that time i was vomiting blue and green and it was bile or gall secreted by hepatocytes from the liver. I was quickly diagonized with acute and potentially chronic hepatitis B . I slipped in and out for about two days amidst a lot of tubes and machinery.


Two days later i stabilized and was moved to a room on another block. Block J to be exact. I spent my time texting people , reading books , smiling at my visitors , flirting with the nursing students , complaining about the food and bugging the doctors. Then there was sister agnes. Sister Agnes was very old , frail , skinny but shar and shrewd like a hawk. She would come in early mornings to make sure i had been given my morning injection, she made sure my bed was made properly ( the students did that ),that i was fed nothing which had salt in it and a thousand other mundane things. In short sister agnes was in charge....she was the General of J Block. During the course of days i noticed her always muttering to herself under her breath in between shouting at the staff under her. I could barely make out what she said but it was sure in a language i never heard before and one day i mustered up all my courage and asked her about it.


It turned out that sister agnes had spent all her working life as a nurse in berlin right after her ordination as a nun till nearing retirement. Here was a woman who had seen the berlin wall going up and coming down. I was a good listener and she was a fabulous story teller and we hit it right off from there. I was awed by her stories from another world and i horrified her with mine.By the time i was up for discharge after almost a month we had become best friends and she had taught me basic german phrases , words and numbering.


Looking back i regret that i didnt gift her anything on the day we said our "Auf Wiedersehen" (good byes ) . She was such a relief to me. I dont know if she remembers me still but i sure am going to remember her every time i hear something in german or see some one from germany or read " made in germany ".


18 comments:

Kk said...

Nice post!
This reminds me, when in a pharmacy back in Ibri (somewhere in 2002-03), I bumped into an Omani, who wished me in my native language - I must say it was a shock!
Later, I came to know, he learnt the language from the pharmacist who hail from my town!
Now I think Hans will to be in shock!

Jaunty anima said...

Nicely written..We meet so many people everyday but only a few leave this everlasting impression!:)

Insignia said...

Its sweet of you to remember her...this itself is a great gift to her. :-)

Rachna said...

How did Hans react? There are so many people who touch our lives and they might not even be aware of it!

The Holy Lama said...

Danka for sharing the experience. mother tongues always strike a warmer chord.

Destiny's Child said...

Sweet post Pimpernel...I loved the narration...how you started off about that German friend, your greeting and finally the story of how you learned the language....:)

sulagna said...

well written ya..i mean...to imagine someone made you write a blog about him,about his mannerism and ways!! good one

COMMUNI said...

hey nice post. Off to your other posts...

Bhargavi said...

hey,thats a nice story..and u write very well.. nice flow !

Stimulus said...

Awww that's a touching story...

Neha More said...

nicely framed....well connected and the flow maintained is worth appreciating!

sulagna said...

heyii where you been..long since you blogged??

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anisha said...

to think , i dint know you blogged.. ha ha ... so much for being an 'active' member of the blogsphere.

Anonymous said...

Come on you... We are waiting for an update! :0)

scarlet pimpernel said...

@ Bobby

Hans managed not to show his shock for a few days ;-)

@Jaunty anima
Yes!I guess it is the way i am
most ppl leave an impression on me

@QoI

Thanks mate

@ Insignia

Thanks mate

@Rachna

one morning he asked me " Who taught you that ? " and i told him the whole story. He taught me 2 new bits
alis okay ?
kein kublem..

@Lama
True.....mother tounge strikes

@Destiny

Glad that you liked it

@Sulagna

Thanks

@communi
Thanks mate

@Bed

Nothing compared to you ;-)

@Stimulus

Glad that you were touched

@Anisha

Babe ..... you broke my heart ;-)

@ED

Hey .. here i am . Tell hi to max n mec from me

Sandhya Menon said...

i love the thoughtful quality to your posts. just came by here today. nice. keep writing

Sorcerer said...

nicely done.
:)

its situations like this we find people that touch the special zone in our hearts :)