The Colonel Fainted!

At that time, that is a full decade ago from now, he was commanding his Battalion as a full-fledged Colonel. In Infantry to command the same Battalion into which one is Commissioned is quite coveted and looked forward to. For each Infantry Officer that is a dream. He was fortunate in this aspect. For many that is the ultimate. They don’t even care for further achievements!

By then he was quite deep into married life too, with three children. The youngest was only just about three, then.

His wife, who has been with him for about seven years by then, was looking after the Regimental Nursery School. The wife of the Commanding Officer has quite a few duties to perform, mostly de facto. Nursery School was one of those. Ever since their marriage she had been with him mainly in Instructional Institutions, either when he was a student or was an Instructor and on a UN mission. She had thus never noticed him in his full Regimental Regalia, though UN uniform was quite impressive.

One day soon after taking over the command, he, in his early round of the Battalion, walked into the School with his Subedar Major and the Stick Orderly in tow. The tall Stick Orderly with his red sashe with a large knot and tassels at the bottom, the shining leather belt, with the baton in his hand and the slouch hat on, was ram-rod straight behind the other two. Both the Subedar Major and the Commanding Officer were in their full Regimental Regalia with the felt slouch hat on and with batons of their own. The Colonel had the red gorget patches on the collar and the red band on his hat. The wife had till then seen her husband only in his normal working uniform with the green beret on till then. That day was one of those days when the Battalion wore the full uniform. When these three entered her class without any warning, her heart skipped a beat in admiration as per her own admission! Later it was revealed that the Colonel did it on purpose as he did not want any of the Regimental Institutions to be informed for he wanted to make it a surprise visit.

The Commanding Officer had to go quite often to his Divisional HQs, which was about 350 Kms away, for various conferences and other tasks. It was on one of those away days that his three year old child’s foot got caught in the rear wheel of the cycle. The batman was giving the boy a ride on the cycle with him on the carrier. The injury was bad and he was immediately taken to the local Medical Inspection (MI) Room, accompanied by his mother. It was found that there were no fractures or so and his ankle where the tear had taken place was to be bandaged every day, till the rather deep wound healed. The mother took him to the MI room every day and she watched closely the dressing being done.

The father, the Colonel, after discharging his official duties in the HQ, returned after a few days and leant about the accident. He made the mandatory fatherly noises, admonishing every one first for not being informed and then about carelessness and what not to all those who cared to listen like the wife, the batman and anybody else in the vicinity. He looked at the thick bandage and tried to assess the seriousness of the wound. The wife suggested to him that since he was in station, he could take the boy to the MI room the next day. And he did.

At the MI room the next day, the Doctor in charge, a Captain and the other nursing staff became a bit tense. It is not that they are visited everyday by the Commanding Officer of a Regiment. Anyhow, after the mandatory salutations and niceties were exchanged, the boy was taken for his dressing. The father went along to the treatment room. The nursing assistant opened the bloody bandage and the Colonel saw the gaping wound of a large laceration and blood.

And the Colonel fainted!

Noticing the Colonel slanting off from the standing position (he had politely declined a chair to sit on), all the staff forgot the boy and the others being attended to and as one man rushed to the Colonel. For them, they can ignore everyone but not a Colonel! The latter takes priority. Then for the next few minutes he was tended to till he came back to his normalcy. The boy was then attended to. The bewildered son caught on the happenings from the panic filled discussions between the MI room staff and understood his father’s predicament. He was prudent enough not to ask his father anything on the way home.

Well, both the father and son reached back home. The son, then, duly reported the interesting and amusing (for him) incident to his mother. The mother was aghast. The grandeur of her husband when he walked into her school flashed through her mind. The fact that he was the Commanding Officer and hence practically God to his men, flashed through her mind. The fact that he was an Army Officer who is expected to shoot to kill flashed through her mind. The picture of him in the battle field shouting orders and courageously leading his men to charge enemy bunkers flashed through her mind.

The fact that such a person of valour could faint and fall seemed incongruous to her. So she asked him, “how come?” He, drawing himself to his full height said in all firmness, dignity and pride: “He is my son”. So she softly asked him, hiding a chuckle, “What is he to me? How come I never fainted?”

The protagonist of this story........well, let him remain, a man with no name!

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