A Snowy Day Misery

I love to see beautiful pictures of Snow fall. Isn't it very beautiful.
But experience says.....most of the beautiful things are often painful.
This became true during my stay in Aalborg, Denmark.

It was Wednesday, 21st Feb 2007. The weather report predicted the weather would be worse that day and remaining couple of days. My 2 and half year old son was sick. He was coughing and had slight fever too. I thought of taking him to the doctor. I looked out of the window, it was snowing and heavy wind was also blowing. I looked at the thermometer outside my window, it was showing "-3" degrees. I thought it is not a good idea to take him out... in that weather. It may even worsen his condition. After sometime I received a call from my husband saying the heavy snow fall predicted for the rest of the day and at any time the busses may stop, so he may start soon. (Here in Denmark the public transport is good and temporary visitors like us will not prefer owning any vehicle.) But…by that time the roads were almost covered with the snow. Traffic was slow. Some how my husband reached home after 2hours (Else it would take 30mins)!!!

The weather was worsening. My child was coughing whole night and had very high temperature. We decided to take him to the doctor next day. Outside... the wind was blowing heavily, we could hear it even through the closed windows. We were thinking... if this wind would have blown in Mangalore, many areca nut trees would have seen the ground. But the good thing here is, in winter trees shed their leaves. So they can withstand the wind.

Next day morning my child’s sickness worsened. He was finding difficult to breath. We looked outside, we can see only eternal white. Vehicles parked outside are sunk in the heavy snow. Roads cannot be seen. Wind is still blowing and it is snowing too. We rang up to the clinic, the nurse said that the doctor will be able to come only after 12 o’clock. We took an appointment at 12 O’clock.

We started calling for a taxi. No Taxis are operating. How they can? There is no road. Airport is closed for flights. Trains have stopped functioning. It was a nightmare rather Day-mare for us. It is not possible for one to lift a 2 and half year old kid and walk for 4kms in the snow across the blowing wind. Pram/strollers cannot be taken in that snow. Moreover the weather will worsen his health condition. It reminded me a typical Hindi movie scene. It is true also. Children always fall sick either in the night, or during weekends or when the situation is not supporting.

Till 12 noon we could not get any taxi. I talked to our doctor over phone. She said it is better to show a doctor immediately. So she contacted a doctor nearby. She took an appointment for us at 1o’clock with that doctor. She informed me the doctor would leave the clinic after 2:00 PM. So asked us to visit him before 2 O’clock. But still this clinic too is 1.5Kms away and the weather condition is not supporting to walk with a kid. I told her that we don’t have any means of transportation. I asked her if we could call 112 (emergency service). She said it should be availed only when the condition is critical. We were worried. We had only two options, either walk in that weather or wait till the situation turns critical. We missed our Bangalore a lot. This is not the first time when we missed our Bangalore.

Around 1:00PM the traffic police could clear couple of main roads, so that a small car can be taken. God was also kind to us. After continuously trying for 3 hours, we could talk to the taxi operator at 1 o’clock. She said taxis are not operating today. But after knowing the reason she said she will find one taxi for us. Immediately I rang up to the new doctor nearby and told him we may reach little late. He was kind enough to wait. At last, after 20mins the taxi arrived. But he was not from Aalborg ...he was from a different place. Moreover he can’t understand English. Since this doctor is new to us, we didn’t know the way. I had a rough idea of the location coz...before leaving for the clinic, I had seen the map. But communicating to him was a problem. (Language was major problem for us in Denmark. We had very bad experience during our stay, b'coz of language and when it became worst, I started learning little Danish). That helped me now. Somehow I could convey him the route..in my “tooti-footi’ Danish. (I always felt we have to make them to learn all the 24 languages when they visit India!!!)

At last we reached the clinic. Doctor said my son got slight pneumonia attack and we brought him on the right time. He wrote medicine and kind enough to call a taxi for us(It is very tough to explain the street name to the operator because the pronunciation is totally different). Again waited for 1hr in the clinic for the taxi. On the way back we had to go to the drug house so the new taxi driver took a different way. On the way the taxi got stuck in the snow. It was not moving. Immediately few other people gathered and helped us to push the vehicle. Thank god somehow reached back home with the medicine.

The entire day it snowed. Next day too it snowed. So totally there was heavy snow for continuous 3 days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). Danish people say, it is one of the worst snow fall after 1970s. Last year too it snowed, but it was not that bad, or might be our son was not sick so we couldn’t experience the severity !!!

On Friday night the police started clearing the roads. A Danish man with JCB was clearing the road in front of my house. First time I was seeing a Danish man working outside after 4:00PM !!! I could see him working whole night....

Next day trains and flights started operating. Private vehicles and taxis were also operating. But supermarkets were running short of food items and milk. There was no supply. On Saturday afternoon I saw an Arla truck approaching a nearby supermarket. I rushed immediately and bought the milk for next couple of days. Because on Sundays shops and Supermarkets are closed!!!

On Sunday the temperature was positive. But it was raining all the time. The snow surface had become slippery. Busses started operating. We caught a bus to go to church. After 10 meters or so, the bus got stuck in a heap of snow. Suddenly we got down and ran to the train station. Caught the train on time.

At last we were able to reach the church on time. We were happy that we didn’t miss the Sunday mass in Lent!!!

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