Kathmandu:

A school hostel is the best place to grow up in. It teaches you discipline and it teaches you to take care of yourself from a very young age. It also teaches you to mingle with people from very diverse cultures and backgrounds. But a hostel can also be a very lonely place even with so many people around you. Most of the days I spent in my hostel while in school were fun, but there were days when the sun just would not shine for me and I would be left searching for a place of comfort. I would look for a place where I could be alone and gather myself some composure and reflect on incidents and accidents. I was lucky I had such a place in Budhanilkantha School.

I got admitted in Budhanilkantha School when I was eleven and I clearly remember enjoying the first night tremendously. It was like living a page torn away from an Enid Blyton novel. I had cousins and I thought it was going to be fun and games all the time. Time went by and I made friends and I made foes too. I enjoyed school even though I did feel very homesick in the early years. But even at that young age, I would find the need to escape from all the other kids and get some peace and quiet. That’s when the Kadoorie Clinic came into my life. It was initially located in the sports hall while construction for a new building went on. Pretty soon the clinic was ready and inaugurated by the Prince of Wales. It became my refuge from everyday hostel life drama. The kind faces of the matrons there and the aya didis who helped out always put me at ease. They felt less alien to me than most of my teachers and I often made up an illness to get myself admitted for the day.

Lines of beds filled the place and it was a quiet haven for me. I would lie in bed excused for the day from school and read the small collection of books and magazines kept there for those who turned in sick. I always had a feeling that the matrons knew I was faking it, but they never made a fuss and I remain thankful to them. Days spent there were spent almost without talking, in my own company and I would gather myself and plan little things that took up my thoughts. Even the food there somehow seemed better than the one served in the school-dining hall.

As dramatic as this might sound, I really feel like the place helped me get through those school days better. I look back to those days with a lot of fond memories. I still think about the kind faces of the matrons who took care of me when I was sick and let me stay even though there would be nothing wrong with me. The fact that they knew so many kids by their first names and remembered our previous ailments amazes me. It says volumes about their dedication to their work.

I think every child while growing up should have a place like The Kadoorie Clinic, a place one can go to knowing they will take you in and take care of you no matter what. I think every growing child should have a Kadoorie Clinic to escape to.