BILL and a Chill Pill

BILL and a chill pill

It was my first ever trip to London . I was nervous . Had hardly been out of India all these years . As a kid , I remember the school library had a few posters of the London bridge and a castle stuck on the walls , and the English capital was always on my bucket list , but only now when I actually got a chance to visit did I realise my uncertainties . How do I get from place to place . Will people understand my English . Will they find my accent difficult ? Where and what do I eat ? Will people be friendly ? Will there be a help desk . I hope I can ask someone for instructions etc etc ‘ Don’t worry mate , You’ll be fine ‘ PJ’s whatsapp text could not have come at a better time .

I’ve known PJ for more than two decades now. We graduated as doctors after successfully finishing our MBBS training from the same medical college in South India , along with 58 of our batchmates . Though we’re all in different parts of the world now , we all still do keep in touch . It was one of those gruelling labour room ( LR) postings about 15 years ago with him , as interns , the junior most doctors in the medical hierarchy that I learnt a lot about ‘being chill’. We had just been the super seniors in hostel a few months ago , and now we were at the lowest rung of the ladder . The nights were horrible , sometimes extremely busy . Being a tertiary care centre , all the available beds used to be constantly occupied . The turn over was rather quick . By the time you attend to one lady’s delivery , it would be time for another . Soiled shoes , scrubs . Sometimes with blood , and the green coloured meconium , and if you’re ‘lucky’ with the new borns urine too . Those 12 hour shifts were gruelling . If you had a good co-intern with you in the LR , it was a blessing . But if you happened to have the other type who would take a good 20 mins to move from one patient to another , well then , God be with you !! As we finished our night shift , and after the morning’s handing over ritual , we walked together to the Interns quarters , to have our breakfast and then hit the bed , before getting back to the same crazy LR in the night . I was complaining non-stop . ‘ PJ , I hate this LR posting . I’m dead tired man . After breakfast as I go to bed , I invariably end up waking up with terrible cramps . But Im too tired to even grab the water bottle next to me . Oh why does life have to be like this ?’ As I looked at him for some encouraging words , all that PJ said was ‘ London is lovely da ‘ He didn’t seem perturbed by the previous night’s work . What on earth is wrong with you da ?  I’m talking about this horrible labour room posting , and you’re talking about London thousands of miles away . Are you crazy ? ‘ I know his family had moved recently to the UK , and PJ had made a couple of trips there . But still this was no time to discuss the capital of the United Kingdom .

 ‘ Hey come on Danny , this is the only time you and I can do this . We are young, we are fit . Imagine doing this after 40 . You think you’d survive even a night . Fat chance !! ‘ If the night hadn’t been tiring , I may have strangled him .

We were helping ourselves to the South Indian dosa , sambar and vadas in the doctors mess . Since we knew we would wake up next only for dinner , breakfast used to be heavy . ‘ PJ , what’s wrong with you . How can you say this torture is justified . I’d rather sleep normally at night and work during the daytime ‘ ‘ Danny look around in the mess . What do you see ‘ I see many other doctors . ‘ Yes , is anyone having a chat like you and me ‘ I looked around , actually nobody was . Everyone seemed to be in a hurry . Even a few of our batchmates just waved hi and kept carrying on , they didn’t have the time to grab a chair next to us at the table . There were quite a few who came in running to the mess , grabbed a sandwich and ran back out as fast as they had come in . This was the pre-mobile era , and many bleeps were going off simultaneously so much so there was a small queue behind the only available landline in the mess to answer those bleeps , most of them standing there with their breakfast plates in hand. PJ looked at me  ‘ What’s your idea of a dream holiday Danny ?’ I can’t believe you PJ . Here Iam struggling with these night shifts and you’re discussing holidays ? Are you serious ?’ Iam . So here’s the same question to you again . Whats your dream holiday like ?’ Holidays as a concept never existed for me , atleast then . But I remembered I was mesmerized by the beauty of Malta that was captured in a Tamil movie song . I was so much in awe I said ‘ I want to go to Malta , and relax on a hammock by the infinity pool next to the beach , with my hat,shades and sunscreen on ‘ I was impressed with myself . For someone so tired with the LR shift , that came out rather well , or atleast that’s what I thought . And what about your dream PJ ? ‘ Oh I have lots of dreams . But one of them is to go to London . And enjoy a wonderful, sumptous Bill ‘ Any trip to London is gonna be expensive . Do you mean you’re going to save up all your bills as souvenirs ? ‘ I found PJ’s dream holiday rather vague . ‘ You know , I love night duties , just for this reason . You have all the time in the world to sit,relax and enjoy a meal , while the world around you is in a mad rush ‘

But PJ , over the next few years , I realized , was the epitome of a being ‘chilled out’ . There would be so much work to do , so many tasks to be completed , but he would be unfazed . The world maybe collapsing around him , but PJ would never let it affect him . There was something about him , he would laugh away every difficulty with a smile . So much so he soon earned the nickname , quite deservedly , Chill Pill . And after a few years , he decided to move to the UK . I didn’t meet him for a long time , but managed to stay in touch thanks to smart phones and whatsapp .

London . The Home of the Big Ben . Where Royalty lives . A couple of years ago I got an opportunity to work in the UK for a two year period . I had flown into Birmingham a week ago , was staying with a friend and was now planning to meet up with PJ who wanted me to ‘get to London Victoria station somehow ‘ from where he would pick me up . That first trip to the big city , I still remember very well , was a little unnerving . I got off at London Euston but as I went to catch the tube , I found the crowd quite scary . I almost felt like Paddington did , in the first part of the movie . Lost . Confused . Everyone seemed to be in a huge rush , there wasn’t anyone who had the time to even glance at a stranded puzzled visitor . There were escalators but everyone was standing on the right , and those who were in a hurry were actually running up the escalators . Crazy , I thought . Such a mad rush ? But I had my own apprehensions that needed to be tackled . How do I use the tube ? Oyster card ? Debit card ? Credit card ? I only had the forex card from india which I wasn’t sure would work . Take a 24 hour ticket ? I was confused . But thankfully , the directions and sign boards were extremely clear that I did’t really have to ask anyone which way to go . If one could read English , he would have no trouble getting aroud London , I thought to myself  . I  got onto the correct train . And that  tube train was jam packed . The only other time I ever felt that I was in a big group that had been ‘packed like sardines’ into a compartment was a few years ago on Mumbai’s local metro network . As I got off the train  at London Victoria , I couldn’t see PJ anywhere around . I was worried . Had he forgotten ? wasn’t he supposed to be here . I had just got a new Lebara sim and was trying to see if I could contact him .

‘Look at you , how prosperous you’ve become ‘ I could immediately identify the voice behind me . As we gave each other a big warm hug , I could see PJ was genuinely glad to see me . We were meeting up after almost a decade and a half . I had put on a few (  actually lots , not a few ) extra kilos , while PJ was by and large the same . Thin and fit . Maybe a few strands of grey hair but otherwise in top shape . ‘  Chill Pill you still look the same man . Are you still as cool too , or has the UK managed to make you a different person ?’ PJ just smiled . Where are we off to now PJ . How far away do you live ? ‘ First things first , let’s get some breakfast .

As we sat down at a table , Chill pill asked for a full English breakfast , both for himself and for me . I seemed a bit unsure . ‘ What ? This is London . You may not get your usual dosa and sambar mate , and even if you do you wont like the local taste ‘  he chuckled . I wanted to try and sort out my new Lebara Sim and as I was fiddling with my phone , PJ gently took it from me , took out his phone from his pocket too , and put them into his bag . ‘ You can sort out your phone once we get home . Let’s enjoy the breakfast ‘ As I looked around , there seemed to be the same rush that I witnessed in Euston tube station about half an hour ago . People rushing with their coffee in one hand , laptop bag in the other . There were only a few ‘jobless’ like us , sitting down and sipping a cuppa or enjoying a pretzel .

The breakfast was lovely . The sausages , bacon rashers , poached egg, grilled tomato ooohhh my mouth was watering . I thoroughly enjoyed it . To this day , a full English breakfast is still quite high on my list of the top UK dishes . As we were finishing , chill pill asked  ‘So Dan , how’s your dream holiday plans going ? ‘ Dream holiday ? What’s that’ , I almost asked him , when I suddenly remembered the conversation we had in the doctors mess as interns , after an intense LR night duty . ‘ Oh that . You mean Malta ? No PJ , This is only the second time I’ve been out of India , and I don’t believe in ‘wasting’my hard earned money on holidays . Malta can wait .‘ PJ seemed irritated ‘ What’s wrong with you . How can you say that . ‘ Well , let’s leave my plans aside . How’s your dream holiday plans going ?

‘Oh pretty good’ he said . ‘ I’ve been all around London , and have done a fair bit of travelling along the country and I pretty much enjoy it . London is lovely .’

‘But what about your dream . I vaguely remember you talking about a wonderful sumptuous bill or something like that . So is that off your bucket list now ?’

PJ grinned from ear to ear . He had just paid the bill , and given a tip to the waitress too . ‘Look around mate . What do you see ‘ he asked as he was putting some change back into his wallet . I was reminded of the scene in the doctors mess long ago , albeit at a much bigger scale . People in a mad rush , running on escalators , and not many who had the time to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea . As he put the copy of the bill in his pocket , he said ‘ Yes I’ve been blessed to have quite a few of these bills danny boy . No bleeps ,no phones , no distractions just enjoying a relaxed meal either by myself or with family or friends . I’ve just had one now , with you . I love these relaxed , wonderful , sumptuous bills . Coz for me’ , he said as he gave me my phone from his bag ‘ a Bill means ‘ Breakfast in Lovely London .‘

I’ve travelled a fair amount with my family across the UK , and around Europe too . More than a  dozen trips to London in less than a year and a half . Lots of attractions were ticked off the list including the London bridge ( which in reality is actually the tower bridge ) , the Big Ben , the Buckingham palace , the Kohinoor and the Tower of London and quite a few more . After the initial ‘wow’ feeling , somehow London doesn’t seem as cozy , though I would still fully agree with PJ that ‘ London is lovely ‘ . I’d anyday prefer walking along the cobble-stoned paths of Edinburgh , or just unwinding in the serene loche Linnhe lakeside cottages of Scotland . In addition to London’s tube where the kids went free with me and my wife , we also got to travel on Paris’ RER , Geneva’s TPG , Frankfurt’s RMV and Prague’s metro to name a few . But all these places have something in common – a mad rush hour traffic ( maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh on Geneva ) . I myself have very many times been part of that ‘mad rush ‘ both in India and abroad and I’m sure will continue to be too . Malta , though is still not off my bucket list , hopefully one day I will go there and relax on a hammock by the infinity pool with my hat , sunscreen and shades on . After the Covid pandemic , travel has taken a backseat so Malta plans will have to wait . But many times I’ve been fortunate to not be in a rush , sit down with the family or by myself or with friends , relax and look around at the world that seems to be always in a hurry . Taking a cue from PJ , as much as possible I try not be distracted with wifi or my phone and enjoy a meal properly , talking and chatting . And whenever I ask a waiter after sitting down at a table and having a relaxed meal ‘ Can I have the bill please ‘ I can’t help but remember my good friend PJ alias chill pill and his dream holiday of a wonderful sumptuous BILL – Breakfast in Lovely London ‘