Billowing curtains have quite a story to tell.
Billowing curtains , as my scaredy self learnt today evening , means simply , that I have left my door open , while watering the plants outside . That the neighbour's cat has quietly slunk in through the main door , and is busy sniffing my bedsheets in your bedroom , while my back was turned . It was a mild progression from the last time when she was found perched on my bed , licking her undersides . That , however , didn't imply that she remembers my hastily thrown bata chappal from the last time .
Billowing curtains throws me and unwary people like me , constantly , into hot water .
I was , at a certain chaotic period of my life , constantly in and out of the house. Told a guest's wife on phone that no , he wasn't in yet . I was standing in the balcony , talking to her , happened to glance in the direction of the guest room . The curtains were , you guessed it , billowing . So , the ceiling fan had been switched on , (it was summer ) and he was in . I told the caller so much and had to spend next half hour explaining and "apologising " for "lying " to her . She , most definitely , smelt a rat . Still does . Well , can't blame her . I would have too , in similar circumstances . The culprit , in my opinion , were the blissfully , gloriously , billowing curtains .
On another occasion, I was video calling an elder , who saw my curtains billowing in carefree abandon of the summer breeze tempered with cool blasts from the AC . Commented on how shabby and faded and thin they looked . So , I was "gifted " a pair that has double layered protection against the sun , and has an outer layer resembling a tarp that had been laid over a freshly cemented pathway , with workers stomping down it . Grey ash , brown , thick and with criss cross pattern on them . They are called "Total blackout " curtains , and they do anything but billow . They now stand stolidly grey , in neat folds , staring down at me like nuns from my high school .
In hospitals , it is a given that the wards should have cheerful cotton curtains . Cheerful , so as to cheer the inmates , who are in pain , obviously ; and cotton because of its breathable quality . So much other life saving and ailment relieving activities go on in the wards that little or no attention is paid to these linen fragments flapping pathetically , watching the ebb and flow of life from top of the window edges .
Once upon a time , a VIP's better half fell sick . It was a minor ailment . Possibly food poisoning at one of those gatherings , which the services are famous for . Well , a normal individual would have taken an antacid , laid in the bed , and would have gotten up ,next morning , fresh as a daisy .
Not for our protagonist here . She had to be admitted into the hospital and all the big wigs ,came to see her , read her case sheet , fussed around , and declared her gravely ill . Everyone took turns to take care of the lady , to their best possible ability , and servile subordinates slipped in and out of the room , bearing trays of succour . Looking grave and unctuous .
The lady , during a gap in her incredible and ceaseless care , took a breather and looked up . Possibly heavenwards .
Somewhere in between the pristinely painted white clinical ceilings and the glory of a manicured garden, outside, lay a vast expanse of a fabric . A fabric that was possibly , as old as the hospital . The large maroon roses had turned an evil shade of brown and the fabric , almost threadbare , let in sunlight from in between its fibres . The thin , almost translucent cloth moved , and dust motes danced gleefully in the stream of a sunbeam cast upon crinkly white , new bedsheets on the bed . Someone had hastily pulled the curtain , that was so unused to being pulled , that it had practically disintegrated . One sunbeam danced on the patient's hastily moved legs and another smote her directly in the left eye , blinding her for an instant . A scream followed a madly ringing bedside bell , and an army of nursing staff raced to address whatever emergency lay unfolding in the VIP Room .
Needless to say , the offending curtains were removed , trashed , replaced pronto , by grey and brown "total blackout " double layered curtains, that added to the grim efficiency of the hospital. They also blocked any cheerful view of the garden outside . They didn't billow anymore .
