The nures had just asked a student who had been present how long he was going to be with the ophthalmologist who had been protruding sharp things into my eye. The student said he had to spend another five weeks with Dr Ramaesh.
The student dsclosed that he was from Malaysia, and that he was completing his Medical Degree at Glasgow.
So the bold patient chimed in "I once married a man from Malaysia, he was a Tamil". The atmosphere became a little frosty, but Dr Ramaesh immediately volunteered that there had been Tamils in Malaysia for over a hundred and fifty years, and that ancestors of his had spent some time there.
The nurse chimed in with some other bits of trivia. It was only afterwards that I realized that the student was probably the only person in the room who did not know what I do for a living, and that my Malaysian Tamil friend had come to me with his Norewgian Bride to be married.
This poor student is left with the impression, carelessly given by yours truly, that I had contracted and dispensed with a union with a man from his country!
Andrew
