Infirmary
We went to the infirmary when we got ill. And also when we did not. The hospital, aka, the infirmary is the retreat of all boarding schools. You escaped there to avoid a Monday test, or to spend a chill day without having to wake up at 6:00A.M. to the warden’s claps or just to avoid running around the field during the sports interval.
Getting admitted was not easy. Until you were really ill. Which you seldom were. The nurse knew every trick in the book. Running the thermometer under warm water from the sink while she attended the other boys or blowing warm air into the thermometer sometimes worked. Sometimes you could limp well enough to feign a sprain or a fracture, but without the swelling that was again a difficult one. Chest pain was promising, because there was no diagnosis, but you would have to go to the infirmary on multiple days to convince the nurse that you were not lying.
The rewards of getting admitted were amazing. Firstly, no need to attend the study hour. Instead, we were allowed to stay in the infirmary which had 8 beds. And when the nurse went back to her quarters, you were free as free could be. You could jump on the beds, read Harry Potter or sleep. Getting your friend admitted at the same time was a whole separate major mission. In a parallel non-infirmary world, you would have to quietly sit in the study room under the watchful eye of the warden and bid two hours until dinner. But here, there was no warden to mind you. And there was a bonus carom board at the back.
I remember the smell of the infirmary, and the joy after feigning an admit. I sometimes feigned to give company to friends who were really ill. At night, the infirmary, far removed from the rest of the school could sometimes get scary. Specially if loud winds or heavy rains clattered the roof and you were the only one admitted. At about 8:00 dinner was served and you got to go back and stay awake for as long as you liked and talk and have fun, as long as the nurse could not hear you in her quarters.
If you could stay admitted for long enough, and the school thought you were not getting better, you got to go to town in a car to see Dr. Gangola. On the way back, there was some time to roam around and buy yourself a bun-tikki too. Your friends visited you during the 10–10 and the 2–10 breaks. If they were close ones, they came during both the breaks. It was a nice world in the infirmary, getting to spend all day in your pajamas.
And worst case, if your bluff got caught, you still got a vitamin C tablet that was tasty enough to make you come back and try another day.
