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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