Idle curiosity

Fidgeting with the strip of the paper that adorned my wrists like a band, I looked around in the crowded OPD (Out Patients Department). The organization and the management of the hospital were unbelievable. I wondered what would have SSKM hospital done had it the fortune of receiving six thousand patients daily! I looked around, there were no raised voices, no chaos but ordered and patient people all around. To minimize the rush they arranged a Band that was colour coded to indicate the day of the week... Blue for Monday, Purple for Tuesday, Green for Wednesday, Orange for Friday and Red for Saturday, it has to be worn on the wrist to indicate you had an appointment with a doctor in the OPD, and without it you would not be admitted into the waiting area.

People have come from all parts of the country for the Christian Medical College is a world renowned hospital and one among the busiest. Having arrived at Vellore I had an urge, like I always have when I visited places where the native language was other than Hindi or Bengali, to learn the basic expressions in the local language. The first sentence that I had obviously picked up was "Kannada Gothila" meaning I don’t know Kannada! Learning as I stayed was fun. I looked abreast and saw Ma dozing off in the chair beside me. I looked at my other side and noticed a burly man with a moustache that could easily make any Sardar jealous. The thick moustache hid his upper lip and curled up to form a tip. He was almost comical, in spite of his brawn for he was completely bald and definitely looked like a person to enact the role of “Ghatotkach” as in Mahabharata. The effect was compounded by two things: his equally bushy eyebrows and his stone black complexion. Lack of any occupation and boredom of having to wait for our names to be called out, fuelled my idle curiosity to take some interest in the person sitting next to me. Overcoming the temptation to laugh out loud, I wondered where he came from and what his mother tongue could be. I started to find an opportunity to get to know more about him.

Voices on the speakers called out names of the patients who was next in line… there were six rooms in the Medicine ward and each room housed two doctors. I had noticed that this person in question waited to be admitted to the same room that we were waiting for. As a new name was called I saw him tense and then look around and then finally our eyes met and I started with my usual harmless grin; “Hello! I am Oirpus” and extended my hand. The man seemed non-impressed and looked suspiciously at me. As if on a second thought, gave a smile. He did not say anything at all. Feeling a bit like a child who has just been denied his favorite candy, I felt a bit put down. Uncertain as what to do next I pretended to be very concerned about my mother who was by then asleep. Then, without warning the man called me by tapping on my arm. I turned and faced him. He was speaking in English but it was very simple. It is wonderful how English without the verb transforms into a very simple language.

“I … Bala”, he blurted “Bala Suvramanium”.

I wondered if Bala Suvramanium was a common place name in South India like Bill in USA or Tom in the UK. I have had already met three people with the same name.

“Hi Bala! Where are you coming from?”

“Tamil Nadu” he replied after thinking for a while.

“So you come from Tamil Nadu.” It was a statement. I had nothing else to say.

Judging that Bala was obviously not very well versed with English, I knew conversation would definitely take lot of thinking and the application of common sense. Nevertheless, my will to pick up tits and bits of some other language made me come straight to the point…

“How do you say ‘what is your name in Tamil?’” I asked with a lot of interest.

The man seemed to pause a while… then he looked at me as if I have asked something terribly stupid.

"I… Bala Suvramanuim” he replied.

I did not get the meaning of the answer at first but then I realized that there was some mistake in understanding. Bala hasn’t really understood the question.

“No..No I was asking you HOW do you SAY ‘What is your name in Tamil?’”

Bala shook his head as if to say no…

“Bala….”

“No! … ok let me put it this way… when you ask someone his/her name how do you do it?” I tried.

He repeated the full question once and looked at me questioningly. I heard a faint giggling beside me and knew Ma was back to reality from her nap-like trance and was following the conversation with animated interest.

I tried once more – “Okay Bala, say you want to ask me ‘what is your name in Tamil?’, how would you ask?”

He seemed to nod, now favourably and thought for some time as if trying to assemble what he was going to say….

“I... Bala Suvramanium… in Tamil, Hindi …. Everything is Bala Suvramanium”

I heard a loud laugh beside me and turned away to wait for our turn to see the doctor.