Raj was back to boarding school in Bangalore for the second year. He had had a good vacation at home but he hadn't managed to convince his parents to let him return to Mumbai and stay with them for good.
Many of the other children in his hostel also came from financially challenged backgrounds and they seemed to find solace in each other's companies. However Raj had a strange accent that remained stuck to him from his years in London where his father was earlier posted. Sometimes that seemed to form a barrier between him and his friends.
He sometimes found more friendship in the books in the library. One afternoon as he was sitting and reading a thick, hard-covered science journal, he felt a sudden strong pain in his tummy. It was so acute that immediately he was sweating all over and he felt nauseous. He knew he needed help so he walked to the main corridor in the huge library. He turned right to look at the librarian sitting at his desk but in the meantime, he felt the ground under him give way. Before he knew it he had fainted.
Water was quickly sprinkled on his face. This woke him up from the unconscious state and he saw the librarian and his assistant looming over him. He realised he was lying on the floor in the big corridor in the library.
The pain was now less acute but the librarian and assistant supported him as they helped him to the boarding school health clinic that was also in the huge compound of the Indian Military School.
As the young doctor in the clinic saw them arriving carrying Raj he immediately tended to him. The librarian and assistant left and the doctor told Raj that he was to take the day off from school and any physical activities. He added that Raj was to tell his House Master that he needed to go to the hospital that was just within the compound and get a full check up done.
Raj felt much better now and the pain had subsided thanks to the medicine that the doctor had given him. He reached his room and lay down, falling asleep immediately. The moment he woke up it was already the end of the day. He went and spoke to the matron in the hostel as the school was now closed and he couldn't meet the House Master. She had just come in for her shift and hadn't been informed about Raj's condition. She was rushed and didn't take the time to listen carefully to the 10 year old boy. She told him to go back to his room and wait for dinner time. He could speak to the House Master in the morning.
Raj went back to his room. He spent a quiet evening and didn't show much interest in the food in the cafeteria. He fell asleep exhausted and pulled himself out of bed the next morning. He'd never gotten any negative points for being late at assembly or for breakfast, so he really did what he could to be present on time. He hoped to meet Mr Sethi, the House Master who was responsible for his well being in school. But, at assembly Raj started feeling unwell again. He rested against a small wall that surrounded the main assembly ground. No one had noticed him, he thought. At that very moment the doctor from the day before spotted him sitting there. He was shocked to see Raj at the assembly. He ran to his side and took him personally to the hospital that was a few hundred metres away.
The scans showed that Raj needed to be immediately operated on. His appendix was abnormally large and swollen. Immediately young Raj was taken over by the hospital's staff and nurses. He didn't even know when he was prepared for the operation because things were moving so fast. He watched the overhead lights glare at him as he realised he was falling asleep on the operating table.
You can hear me read this episode on my podcast channel 'Lekha writes, then reads' on Apple or Spotify here
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1LoMw7GazNgjv3gaOiezsQ?si=zaxL5GCYTf24gNI7Plotnw
#boardingschool #boardingschoollife #oldestson #hostellife
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You seem to have carefully kept all that Raj said in your heart . Great memory and expressed with a feel . Good job Lekha
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment 💕. I usually am like that with most people I love
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