FIRST DAY, FIRST ENCOUNTER, FIRST VICTORY, IN MY FATHERLAND

Having served Indian army as a medical officer/Specialist for a period of ten years made good bye in November, 1985, and moved to Queen of Arabian sea to gain some experience in maritime warfare and earn livelihood. Though fatherland and motherland are one and the same I consider Odisha where I was born and brought up as my motherland, and Kerala, my playground as my fatherland, my father-in-law’s place. If we look from this angle “riste mein to hum aap sab ka in-law hii hein….kabhi  out-of law….ho gaya to maaf kar dena…” And it is not a joke to manage in Kerala where the people are mainly law bound ofcourse with exceptions.

                                         Queen of Arabian sea during rains

The next day, I joined duty in a multi specialist 1000 bedded hospital and straight way in the operation theater for briefing and familiarization. After the paperwork and introduction, I asked permission of HOD to permit me to take one hour off to go to City rationing Officer to get my ration card without which cooking gas connection would not be possible .The specialists present there started laughing and laughing,. ration card….you are going today to get it. We all were in Kerala since birth, till yet no ration card for us….It takes years to get it. Do you know how they process the application .They will weigh it on their palms and would come to know whether 100rupee,fifty rupee notes are kept inside and accordingly give dates, say if rupees hundred is kept,  on the file marked one month after, if 50 rupees  2months after.. like that. Anyway Good luck. This is the first coalition of lions I confronted in my father land and the den of lions would be friendly like “Androcles   and the lion.”

Drove my Vijaya scooter and reached the CRO.  Throughout   the driving distance I was being watched as if an alien in space suit was driving, as people were hardly using any helmets that time. Parked my scooter and murmured “Vijaya super..Vijay  sure”. A long cue with 100+ individuals for ration cards !!!.

This is the den of lions predominantly females, the pride of lions , true to their names as comments started reverberating with my entry and marching forward in the direction of CRO.

The comments like “Aliyan of CRO is going…..Ya, he would come out with card….And CRO would treat him nicely like an in-law(in reality Kerala is my father-in-law’s place)”.

The CRO , having responded to my smart salute without uniform asked me to have my sea .I explained him the purpose of my visit like history in a nutshell, gently stressing over the point that unless the ration card is produced  I would not get the gas connection transferred to this place. He looked at me for a moment and satisfied himself that truth and only the truth is written on my face. He called the Rationing Inspector and asked him to complete the formalities. As all the relevant documents were in order the inspector took no time to prepare the ration card and got it signed by CRO.

 And you all may not believe!!!

Within 40 minutes I got a Ration Card , the first for me .Such honest officer were still there !!What I heard in the theater was a myth .I bowed my head with reverence to the officer and slow marched in the corridor of the long cue showing my card to the people who were commenting on me when I was getting in.

From there straightway came to the theater. “So …where is the ration card, Major Nayak”. When are you going next to CRO for the card?...Some more sarcasms like this. Without a word I took out the ration card and showed them. They didn’t have any words only surprise exchanges in between themselves.

This was my first day, and the first victory in the dens of lions of my fatherland.

And you may comment that having gone out of the cue I breached the law.

But in the beginning what I have told “if any out-laws by this in-law I may be forgiven”.

And had it been in my motherland the story would have been different like this:

“ tume army re thila ta, semiti  kete loka achhanti,tumar kagaja patra tale dei  jaa ,dekhiba”, and would have been still using kerosene stove for cooking purpose.

Author is the one and only Non Malayalee to participate in Malayalam version of KBC (Ningalakum akum kodeeswaran).(Photos ,courtesy Asianet)

[Dr. (Major) B. C. Nayak is an Anaesthetist who did his MBBS from MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, Odisha. He is an MD from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and an FCCP from the College of Chest Physicians New Delhi. He served in Indian Army for ten years (1975-1985) and had a stint of five years in the Royal Army of Muscat. Since 1993 he is working as the Chief Consultant Anaesthetist, Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital, Cochin]