Call the midwife

Call the midwife

British series have always been fascinating. The accent, the mannerism. Remember the series on DD, "Great Expectations"? Currently, I am binge watching a series on Netflix called “Call the Midwife”. It is a BBC production and right now in my mind, I’m typing with a British accent in my head. Though I was a bit reluctant to watch this, I was totally hooked by the sisters/nuns, nurses and midwives and their chemistry among themselves. What actually caught my attention was the nuns that reminded me of my school days. Now if you have studied in a convent school, you can relate to the nuns so very easily. Also, now I know how much of an influence the have British on some part of our culture.

The series is about a town in East End of London called Poplar. Its a poor dockside city, where there is an abundance of children. The story is set at the Nonnatus House, a nursing convent which is an old building that resides nuns, who are trained nurses and they also are accompanied by trained midwives. Most of the midwives are young, who have got their calling of helping people without any monetary expectations. They ride bicycles and have to attend emergency calls from pregnant women, which are often many in number. They make house calls and give prenatal care. If required, they also have to assist doctors in emergency cases.

There are so many instances in the series that relate to India and school days. Having attended a convent school with strict nuns around, we were often involved in Christian plays and songs. We were often reminded about pronunciations, punctuations, pauses while reciting our poems. The nurse sister Nirmala, who dressed our wounds with “magic” white powder, also taught us knitting and sewing. The nuns in Nonnatus house are often shown knitting, praying and helping people without asking questions was their duty. That explains my automatic inclination towards social service!

“Can I make you a cup’o tea?”, asks the host whenever a midwife comes in her house.

“Oh, that would be delightful!” is the reply.

“Would you like some biscuits?”

“Sure.”
Right now I'm totally thinking in British accent!!

That makes me go back to India, where its a common practice to ask our guests if they would like tea and most of them “delightfully” agree, accept and enjoy it. Now was it the British Raaj influence on us or the other way round? We will always argue that its us Indians who believe in “Atithi devo bhava”, and thus it may be us who may have given a lesson or two on hospitality to them. But then this shows us that we have so many common cultural and traditional following in the world. Tea is served in a cup and saucer and not mugs! There are biscuits that look like Parle-G and also some mention of Bourbon biscuits, that we even now enjoy so very much.

Riding the bicycle in India was always fun. We have so many songs in our Hindi movies where the heroine’s ride the cycle in skirts or salwar kameezes and the scarf or dupatta, respectively, fluttering along with the wind. The midwives attend the calls on their bicycle. They’ve shown teaching a new nurse how to ride it. Gosh, I remember how many times I’ve hurt myself learning to ride a bicycle!

When the nurses examine the pregnant women, the men are often told to step outside. They gladly do as told. Pregnancy is not much discussed with the husband and nor is he present during the delivery, which is most often done at home. That cultural respect (?) is so common as in India. While staying in US, we are so happy that the husband accompanies us to doctors visits, he’s present at the baby’s birth in the delivery room or else he would be looked down upon in friendly social gatherings for not being there for his wife. I remember my mother being shyly devastated by the idea of my husband being in the delivery room.

Then there is a strict nun, that reminds me of all the sisters at school. No questions to be asked when you are told to do something. Nuns are tough and ready to work under any work conditions. Mother Teresa is an excellent example of working without expectations. There are a couple of mentions of her in the series. One of the midwives character was said to have raised in India and when she gets her own baby, she tries to remember the nursery rhymes, but she can’t, as she knows only Hindi lullabies. I waited for her say a few lines, but that didn’t happen.

Another happy reminder was the hospital scene. Yes, happy and hospital together in a sentence! I sometimes accompanied my maternal aunt, who was a nurse, to the hospital. It was exciting, in a way, for a little girl like me. The vivid smells of benzene, dettol, phenol and milk.  I also got to talk to some patients, doctors and nurses. The scene in which Nurse Jenny meets the matron, brought a smile on my face. I remember matron seated in her very own small office room and being a big, strict, commanding, authoritative lady asking questions about school and family.

The setting is old London. The architecture is like Sasoon or K.E.M. hospitals in Pune. Even the hospital atmosphere is droopy. It also is like most government offices with papers stacked on shelves, the black dial telephone, despair.

Britain in late 1950’s was so different as compared to the US portrayed in Mad Men around the same time. Respect for elders, trying to protect the culture and no physical intimacy scenes are just a few points that made me do the comparison. But then, that doesn’t mean there were any less pregnancies.

Very often you are reminded of the past. The joyful and sad moments. Though I don’t like to remember school as the most happening period of my life, I am glad that the nuns were a part of my upbringing, that also taught me to believe in God, or else, I would not have been able to relate to the lifestyles of the sisters. “Call the midwife” brought back so many memories.

If the nuns have been a part of your life, you will have some deja vu moments that will automatically get a smile on your face. And if not, do watch it for the sheer joy of cultural similarities or just for joy of it.

PS.: Its a bit difficult for me to understand British accent, so I had to on the subtitles :)