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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Telling Tales
The photograph Nurse Sonali was busy running to and fro in the ward. She had been on duty from yesterday morning, this was December 26, 2004, the day on which the tsunami had ravaged the shores of Sri Lanka. She had been unable to leave the hospital, as it was short-staffed.
Sonali's legs ached and she knew that she had not had anything to eat from the previous day morning. She had been distributing biscuits and other food to patients. She had also made big pots of hot tea for them and had kept herself going, only by drinking a cup of tea, when she made the tea. She went and looked at the two small kids in her ward to see whether they were all right. They seemed to be asleep. She heard a voice calling her "Nurse, could I please have a little water?" She turned and saw a young foreigner. She brought a glass of water to the young man. She remembered he had been brought in unconscious. But Doctor Hemantha had attended to him and he had been all right. Slumber He tried to get into a sitting position and she helped him. His limbs seemed to be stiff, and he found it difficult to move himself. He drank the glass of water. She could see he was in his early thirties, and had dark brown hair. He was very fair, but she could not identify the country he came from the way he spoke. She could remember her brother who was working in a hotel talking about English accents, American accents and Australian accents. But as she had not met many foreigners, she could not make out his nationality. She offered him some biscuits and he accepted. She did not want to ask questions and tire him. Again he went into a deep slumber. It was night and Sonali sat at her table in the ward. She tried to keep herself from falling asleep with great difficulty. She saw the young foreigner suddenly groping for something on the bed. She saw his hands going to his neck as if searching for something. Then again he looked around on the bed and underneath the sheets. She knew he must have been searching for something valuable, which would have got lost. She hoped it would be there, as patients sometimes pointed an accusing finger at the hospital staff when they lost something. She heard somebody calling her. "Nurse, could you please help me?" It was the young foreigner. She looked at the time. It was 11 p.m. She went to his bed and asked him what he wanted. Lost He said "I had a gold chain with a locket round my neck. But now it is lost. But I remember I had it when I regained consciousness. It is lost now, I am sure it must have fallen somewhere while I was being transferred to this bed from the other room. Nurse, would you please be kind enough to look for it for me. It's not the chain I am interested in. It's the locket that is very precious to me. It has the photograph of a person I treasure". Though Sonali was very tired, she could not refuse the foreigner's plea. She went to the room where patients were first brought in and where they were attended to, by the doctor. She began to search the room. First she looked at the floor, then under the bed. This was the bed on which the doctor normally examined the patients. But Sonali could not find anything. Then she carefully took out each bed sheet not find anything. She shook out the pillow from the pillowcase, and something fell with a clink on to the floor. It was a slim gold chain with a beautiful locket. She was thankful that she found it. Delighted When gave the locket him, she could see he was delighted to have it back. He kissed the locket and put the chain round his neck. He told her, "Nurse, I have no words to thank you, and its very kind of you to take the trouble of finding it for me". She wondered why he treasured the photograph inside the locket so much. She thought he could always ask the person in the photograph for another photograph to put into his locket. But as she had come across all sorts of patients, she was not very surprised, and thought that the foreigner was eccentric. If it was a normal working day, she would have been curious to find out more from the foreigner, but at that stage she was too tired and wanted to go home to have a bath and change her clothes, etc. The next day the other nurse was back, and Sonali very gladly went home. She rested the whole day and was ready for work again the next day. She came early to hospital, changed into her white uniform, and pinned the nurse's cap on. She went into her ward and noticed that most of the patients had left. All the foreign patients too had left, except for the young person with the locket. She went about her duties and then it was the foreigner's turn to be given the medicine. He had not been released yet, as there was a big cut on his feet. He smiled at her in recognition and she too smiled back. She asked him whether his locket was still safely with him, and he nodded his head and said, "Nurse, there is a long story behind it. This locket has a photograph of a friend of mine. I haven't seen that person in about twelve years. I lived in Sri Lanka about twelve years ago, though now I live in Australia. I am of the Burger community. This friend of mine lived next door, and as children we used to play together when we were small. But when I was about 20, my family migrated to Australia. I always had this friend in a tiny corner of my heart, and always wanted to come back and see for myself." So Sonali asked him whether he still intended to searching for his friend, and he answered in the affirmative. He said that they had lived in Dehiwala and though he had visited the lane where they had lived, everything had changed. All the people who had lived down the lane had left. The people who had remained had no clue to the whereabouts of his friend's family. Sonali advised him to put an advertisement in the newspapers showing the photograph in the locket. He answered, "Nurse, that's a very good idea, I do hope you will help me. You are my Good Samaritan. You nursed me back to health; you found my chain and locket. Could you please do this one more favour and put the advertisement in the paper for me?" Sonali could not help laughing and said she would do it gladly. He pulled out his wallet and took out some currency to pay for the advertisement. Then he opened the locket and carefully took out a tiny photograph, and handed it to Sonali. He told her "Nurse, as the locket is water-proof the photograph is intact, and I know you will be careful with it." Sonali took the photograph and looked at it, and then she got the surprise of her life. She could remember that self same photograph in her album at home. It was a photograph of her when she was about fourteen years. The photograph dropped from her hand on to the bed, and the foreigner picked it and looked at her. She gasped and the words came out, "I cannot believe it. It's me. How did you manage to get my photograph?" The foreigner looked at her keenly and his face lit up. His voice was hardly audible when he asked "Sonali, is it really you? But how you have grown and how you have changed. Now you are such a lady. No wonder I could not recognize you. True to my imagination you have become a beautiful young girl." Then she remembered Kevin who had played with her and her brothers when they were kids. When she was five years old, Kevin had been about 10 years. She remembered those carefree days of playing cricket and 'Hide and Seek,' during weekends, holidays and even on school days. She remembered how her parents had allowed her to play with people of different races. People were more free and not suspicious of each other in those far off days. She remembered how Kevin, even at that time had been very kind to her. When her brothers sometimes used to bully her calling her 'cry-baby', he used to come to her rescue. Her eyes got misty when those memories kept coming back. Sold She explained to him how they had sold their house in Dehiwala and moved down South to Galle, when her brothers had got employed in the hotel trade. She could not believe that this grown up, handsome young man was the slim tall boy who had played with them. She knew that she would never have recognised this extremely foreign looking Kevin, if not for the link with the photograph in the locket. Kevin wanted to know about her parents and brothers. He was overjoyed that somehow fate had made them meet each other. They both looked at the tiny locket and the precious photograph that had enabled them to recognise one another. As they gazed into each other's eyes, for a moment they forgot the whole world, and knew that their wonderful friendship had turned into a eternal love. by Prasadini Nugawela |
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| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
The wards were full of people, and as there were not enough beds, some
patients were lying or sitting on the ground. They were all human beings,
who had been on the verge of death. 
