The illusion of permanence

I first met Sergeant Silva at the time I started working at the military hospital. I was then a young army doctor who had just graduated from the Sri Lanka Military Academy, with a Captain’s stars on my epaulettes and plenty of training under my belt, but with virtually no experience or understanding of how the real world functioned.

Sergeant Silva, on the other hand, had been an army medic for many years, and what he did not know about grapevines, networking and military administration was not worth knowing. He certainly knew more about running a medical centre than I did, despite my rank and qualifications, but importantly he knew how to tell me what to do without letting me feel that he was telling me what to do.