An Incident At The Marina

Why I rushed back home last weekend

Whenever he is in town over the weekend, my husband and I love to go on walks together. Weekends are more relaxed for a ‘couple walk’ where we get to catch up on what is up in each other’s lives. We have conversations about his work and travel schedules, our daughter, dogs and our moms.

Then there are hundreds of mundane details to speak of - follow ups with the plumber or apartment maintenance, instructions to the florist or our helpers, file bank papers or visa applications, payments … you get the drift.

We live in a beautiful apartment with green lawns around which there is a walking track and another around the periphery of the apartment complex. We usually walk inside of the complex on the weekdays for our quick morning or evening walks. On weekends however, we drive to The Marina beach and walk on the promenade there.

The beach on the weekends is buzzing with people and activity. There are groups of people practicing martial arts, there are laughter clubs and group yoga sessions. The promenade is teeming with joggers and walkers of all age groups. Sometimes there are vendors who sell fresh farm produce. There are also representatives from diabetes clinics who offer to measure your fasting sugar, weight and BMI. There is even a man with an analog scale who will allow you to weigh yourself for a small fee.

We have been frequenting the beach for walks for a few years now. Only last weekend we noticed newer public toilets, first-aid booths and drinking water kiosks along the beach walk. Finally, the government seemed to be making a conscientious effort to provide basic amenities at a large public place like the beach which is frequented by the entire community. We were appreciative of the effort.

I made a mental note that the next time I have to defend my stand why we continue living in Chennai despite the filth, sweat and rule breakers, I will point to these new- facilities by the corporation as my trump card.

We continued to walk as the morning got warmer, when suddenly a middle aged man, in a folded lungi and a chequered shirt fell down to the ground, flat on his face a few paces ahead of us. Immediately a crowd gathered around him just as we heard a little boy’s voice wail in fear. We joined the crowd and realized that the man had had an epileptic attack. The little boy, who stood next to him crying looked no more than six or seven, was probably his son. The man was being helped by the by-standers. Someone asked for a metal key to press into the man’s hand — a myth that is believed to cure seizures.

I peeked and caught sight of the blood gushing from his nostrils. He must have fractured his nose falling on his face on the paved path. The blood and the fluids from his face orifices were making the man breath with a rasping noise.

My husband, wanting to help, jogged back to the first-aid kiosk we had just passed to alert someone for aid. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw him waving towards where the crowd had gathered. After a while, two women dressed in uniform walked towards where the man had fallen. They didn’t seem in any hurry. People in the crowd who sensed the urgency of the situation, urged the nurses to quicken their pace.

By the time the nurses reached, the locals had brought the situation under control. I saw one of them holding the fallen man’s lips tightly closed so that the only way he could breath was through his nose, another was holding his toes and massaging them. The man came-to in a while and the crowd dispersed. The entire episode lasted under ten minutes.

The whole experience left me feeling nauseous and faint. Either that or the morning had become unbearably hot at 8am. When we resumed walking, I felt weak and exhausted. Instead of completing our long walk along the promenade, I wanted to go home.

On our drive back, I noticed that my husband had a grim expression on his face as he apprised me on the conversation with the nurses at the first-aid kiosk. I was disgusted and pained to learn that the nurses had refused to step out of their kiosk for the emergency, when requested because they believed that, ‘their duty was to attend to people who came to the kiosk with injuries and not carry their work outside!’

I cannot tell you if my nausea felt worse listening to this update or the fact that I will never be able to use such progressive ‘developments’ as reason to support my argument that we continue to live in the city.

#Year2020 #Blog-08

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