simple gesture

13.2.2010

A simple gesture…

Dinner at Govind’s in Klang with Mama and family was the usual stuff with the usual pleasantries, eating and talking. Suddenly, there was a tap on the shoulder. You know that feeling when you are the last to know something. That is the exact feeling I felt that day. People in front of me, facing towards me, were smiling and greeting. Only when I turned around did I realize, to my amazement, that it was my old buddy Samy!

Our friendship had blossomed when we were working together as part of the ‘Hari’s Boys’ in the Surgical department of Seremban Hospital under Mr. Hari Rajah (The Smiling Surgeon). I did surgical elective for a year (Feb91 –Feb92) there. I used to stay the night at his place during my passive call days. I left to do Registrar’s posting in Malacca in April 1992 and we met up again in 1998 when I was in Klang GH as a Consultant O&G and he was an Orthopod. We applied for Sri Kota Hospital together. He got in but I got the boot. That is when I introduced him to Lal to design his stationery for his clinic as well as for his wife, Susan’s practice. Things were initially all lovey-dovey and hunky-dory but took a plunge later. I was roped in to be a mediator, being Susan’s obstetrician. I failed miserably in handing the olive branch, as usual in matters related to arbitrations and that was it. No more phone calls and no more being Obstetrician…

And five years later…

A simple gesture of walking to the table opened the floodgates of hope. We were chatting and later Mama, Shobha and I went over to their table to meet the rest of the family. Everything was cordial and hopefully things will start all over again. Like Timon and Pumba said in “Lion King”, put your past in the behind! A lot of problems in the world would be eradicated by single gestures and burying the hatchet, or am I being naively simplistic?