Reading “The Cry and the Covenant”

Sometime during the year 1980, I was in Pune on work. I went for a stroll in the evening and came across a road-side seller of second hand books. I stopped and browsed hoping to find a book that would interest me.

I came across an old and dog-eared book. The paper was brittle. The book had lost the glue that had once held the leaves together at the spine and had been stitched together. Close to the stiches, the paper was broken. Yes, broken. Not torn. Obviously, it had been read a few times after it was stitched. I flipped through the pages and found the story very interesting.

It was the story of Ignaz Semmelweiss. The great triumph and tragedy of his life. The man who had the means to stop the disease that killed innumerable women during childbirth - puerperal fever. It was transmitted by the doctors who examined women without disinfecting their hands. The very concept of infection didn’t exist at that time, let alone disinfecting. Even without the concept of the germ theory of diseases, he deduced how the disease was being spread and how to prevent it. That was his triumph.

When he told the doctors in the hospital in Budapest, where he worked, they were actually spreading the disease, and how not to, they were incensed. In a temporary triumph of ego over evidence, they continued to kill women ignoring Ignaz. That was his tragedy. The greater tragedy was how he went about proving (or so he thought), once and for all, that he was right. I don't want to reveal this greater tragedy and prevent you from enjoying the book, if you happen to read it.

All that came after I read the book but I got glimpses of it from browsing. I was captivated. I bought the book after a bit of friendly bargaining. I brought it to the hotel room. I caught hold of two covers - a brown paper one and a clear plastic one. I cut the cotton thread that barely held the pages together. I put the "book" into the plastic cover.

I started reading, after dinner, by taking one page out of the plastic bag, reading it and putting it into the brown paper bag. So it went and I finished reading the book in a few days. If I remember right, my sister read it too.

It is the only book I have read, one leaf at a time.