Medicine remains one of the few professions which I deeply respect. Females of the species, especially the contemporary young, urban, ‘educated’ kind, who think even hotel valets, airline stewardesses and call-centre operatives are professionals deserving of admiration, and believe that women unlike men ought to make money primarily to splurge on themselves, on the other hand, and working women who imagine they have a special right to make nuisances of themselves in public with their loud gossip on mobile phones and rudeness with fellow commuters or pedestrians, I regard with disdain.
At a major new private hospital in Kolkata which I happened to haunt morning and evening for a few days recently, I was pleased to find, therefore, a lot of smart young women – doctors as well as nurses – who knew their jobs well, and were doing them with the utmost sincerity, yet with ever smiling faces.
And I fell in love with a very pretty young thing whose smile was as bewitching as the seriousness with which she attended to her medical rounds. Very young, indeed – she could have been my pupil eight years ago! What stole my heart, though, was the fact that being very short (and unwilling, for some reason, to wear high heels…) she stood on tiptoe every time she wanted to peer through the glass into a patient’s room. I could have lifted her up in my arms, telling her I was daydreaming that I was doing it with my daughter in mind, but I resisted the temptation!
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13 comments:
Tis a rather pricelessly "heart-puttying" post, Suvro da (although while reading the first bit I was wondering which way you would swerve). I've been smiling rather widely it seems - quite unknowingly too, because Guha asked me ten minutes after I read the post - what I was smiling so furiously about!
Good for you...and by the sounds of her - she seems to have been a pretty sensible good doc' as well. Can you imagine her trampling around in high heels the whole day while doing her rounds?! Good thing possibly that you didn't end up lifting her up in your arms...although that doesn't mean that I can't wonder what might have happened if you had...
Take care. I'm still grinning.
Love, Shilpi
P.S: About the young things whom you mention in the first para - some other day!
When my father was admitted in the same hospital you had been, I too happened to have fallen in love with a very nice, caring and beautiful nurse over there. I wonder if it is she you are talking about. But I understand the difference in your liking and mine. At my age there must have been sexual belonging as the reason behind my liking. But I am eagerly waiting to reach to your age when I will fall in love with a girl the way I will be loving my daughter. It is a parental affection which is very sweet and one of the sweetest things in this world. It is an affection much more deep and much more genuine. At that age it might be painful too, the hint of which I get in your tone. I am yet to learn what that pain is. Whereas I perfectly know that many middle-aged men do not have the slightest shame while looking at young girls with hungry eyes, there are some middle-aged men who can feel parental affection for other boys and girls apart from their own children. Adoption is one wonderful thing that stands as a testimony to my viewpoint. The willingness and effort to take care of someone else's child the way one take care or would have taken care of one's own child is a very hard thing. Those who can do so, hats off to them.
Shilpi-di and Subhanjan-da have already said what I wanted to.
I understand why you resisted. The same reasons why I resist some of my own child-like wishes: adults don't really understand affection the way little ones do! I hear in some places people have already started getting paranoid about affection: for example, even brotherly pats and hugs are taken as signs of homosexuality in Umrica (or so I've read); and parents sometimes get too worked up if a kind affectionate stranger starts interacting with their children. The world is, uh, too weird-- too much even for a weirdo's liking!
By the way, I can picturise the short didi going about in her rounds with a smile on her face: I know somebody who roughly fits the same description!
Ooh dear me. Of course there are both sick and sensible middle-aged men (and plenty of in-betweeners). Just as there are sick and sensible "middle-aged" women (I sure am middle-aged too). But does that mean all "middle-aged" folks must feel either parental affection or sisterly affection for everybody who is younger and/or older, I wonder (but I don't really!). Otherwise is the person considered to be a sick and bad woman or a loose woman...
Sure enough I may feel sisterly towards some, and sometimes act like a mother-hen in some instances or feel and do both (and age has nothing to do with the one who is on the receiving end of my affections), and in many instances I might feel complete indifference or feel "ghastily" negative feelings as well - but being middle-aged doesn't preclude all other emotions and feelings. And feeling sisterly towards some does not mean I will feel sisterly towards all or many.
Just my thoughts, of course.
Curious rather. Very curious on multiple levels - but not terribly surprising either...
It is heartening to see that hopefully the medical issues are taken care of for the time being.
I am so pleased that you have met a good professional. I am sure she is working in an environment which supports her way of working. This may sound a bit odd but we have very few such places in the country. Even if there are, one has to be privileged to find such places and work in one such.
While we have some such brilliant service professionals but we hardly ever see them as a collection. In offices most bright youngsters work under tremendous pressure compromising their values, ethics and the way they work. It takes lot of time to get adjusted to the ‘norms’ of working since eventually a young person as to adjust to those establish norms rather than change if something is found grossly unsuitable.
More than “quality”, the business houses (I shall include even private nursing homes), concentrate on only supplying services that justifies ‘fees paid’. The amount you pay (or your status allows), is the amount you get.
I agree to the fact that business perhaps cannot survive by doing philanthropy but certain professions like medicine or may be law need to look beyond mere fees. While all profession has criminal minds taking it up, but expectations from a medical practitioner (or a hospital) is always a bit more.
These days when we frequently find hospitals trade in organs or contaminated drugs, use wasted syringes, or behave rudely etc. I wonder don’t these hospitals have youngsters who don’t support such things! I am sure they have but they are either too weak to protest or they fear compromising their career.
Deciding on a hospital for treatment is one of the hardest jobs to-day. Recently, I have seen that happen in my own family where other than ‘word-of-mouth’ review, you have virtually nothing to rely upon. Surprisingly even the cost associated with treatment is also not an indicator of good treatment. The notorious stories I have heard of reputed Delhi hospitals can put so much dilemma that I cannot explain.
In such times, if you have come across a good nursing home and bright doctors, I am actually so happy for you.
Reading the posts you have penned so far in your blog, I had sketched a portrait of your self, in my mind and this revelation has destroyed that completely, though I hardly mourn its loss!
This post was indeed refreshing and brought before me one more reason as to why my friends from Xaviers and Michaels often mention that, "Suvro Sir's classes were one of their kind, we used to wait for them..."
Love( the one you had for her!)
Manoshij
Sir,
It is true that medical facilities have been improved overtime and the private hospitals have managed pretty well to handle the prospect of medicals.But I have a doubt in my mind regarding the medical professionals.
Now a days,people are disgusted with the poor facilities provided by the government sector and they have to head towards the private ones in order to get a proper treatment.But we also hear about the inhuman activities like deliberate false treatments of patients in order to take extra money from the patient to treat him/her again.Moreover,the doctors of certain private hospitals thrust the patient to the ventilation chamber and charge huge amounts of money for their treatment(despite the fact that they might not have such a serious ailment to be admitted to the ventilation chamber).there are also incidents like the hospitals charging money even to discharge a dead body and lots of such other underhand means of the doctors to increase their income......
My question is if this becomes theattitude of the doctors towards their patients,such that they look down upon their patients as mere animals,then how will the common people rely upon the contemporary medical professionals?
Sir,have you ever thought abot the way to resolve this problem?
I wouldrequest you to share your views on this aspect with me.
Yours faithfully,
Soumallya Chattopadhyay
Suvro da,
Reading and re-reading and re-reading your post and the comments for this post makes me feel much like Alice or else it makes me seriously wonder whether I'm completely off my rockers....or is this something perfectly normal that's happening: people will see what they want to see and understand what they want to understand in the way they want to make sense of things...and in a way that makes sense to them.
No wonder the normal people call you mad! No wonder it delights you so!
Take care, Suvro da. Higgles, giggles, and squiggles.
Shilpi
P.S: There was something else that I wanted to comment on - but I'm worried that this comment sounds a little off already....If it does - don't put it up - what else can I say.
Sir,
See if these suit your tastes,
http://indrsforever.blogspot.com/
http://exceptionallyme.blogspot.com/
http://it-is-all-my-world.blogspot.com/
http://shalinid.blogspot.com/
These blogs are tremendously good, most of them deal with poetry and they define 'awesome', check out for yourself.
Manoshij
I am glad you came across some good doctors in the hospital you visited, Sir.
I have had a rather bad experience at a very famous hospital here in Bangalore. It is one of those posh places with various types of staff members who try to reassure you with their "warmth" and their false smiles. I was so taken in by the dentist on my first visit, that I had full faith in her abilities to diagnose the problem.
Not only did she "identify" 6 cavities that were non-existent (which I didn't know at the time), she also recommended a dental surgery to remove an impacted wisdom tooth, assuring me that it would put an end to all my painful toothy troubles. What is more, the senior dentist who performed the operation removed an extra tooth citing technical difficulties and charged me extra for that. How he failed to notice the very obvious reason for my pain, I still wonder...
It was only after 2 months of "phantom tooth pains" that I mustered the courage to walk into another dental clinic (one of those unpretentious places)... and I couldn't believe my ears when the dentist told me "you have only one cavity, not 7, and that single cavity is in such a bad state that it cannot have happened overnight. I'm sure it's been there for 6 months atleast and that's most likely the reason why you had all that pain in the first place.
So yeah, 6000+ INR deducted from my already depleting bank balance, and I am now very wary of smiling docs in posh hospices!
Both Soumallya and Sumitha have raised very pertinent, important and disturbing questions. I shall definitely answer them, but in the other blog. This one I have deliberately decided to maintain on a light and cheery vein. Indeed, it would be wrong to suppose that I am not aware of all the things that might go wrong when one goes to seek serious medical help in India, and over the last fortnight I have not, believe me, suffered any less anxiety than the next man! However, keeping a stiff upper lip and facing all life's tribulations boldly and cheerfully is, I believe, the toughest test that one has to face, over and over again - and that is what I have been trying to do here. I hope I have not entirely failed. If I cannot see light even in the darkest of tunnels, I am not a good fighter, nor am I setting a good example!
Suvro da, You are a good fighter and you are setting a good example (for those who can see it), and you've been getting some Grim-uns grinning on multiple counts inspite of everything that you have been going through for the last couple of weeks - things which nobody else will know about - and that is not a mean task.
I thought you made it crystal clear what this blog is about, and what you are going to talk about, and that's what you are doing - and you certainly have made some people smile...
There are more than many things in this world that make us sad, angry, frustrated, furious, and grumpy - and there are plenty more things that are so messed up that one wonders whether or how one can reach any solutions or make any peace with what is around, which doesn't mean that we stop thinking about such things and doing what we can...yet in the midst of all this - and given some absolutes - it's no less important (as you keep pointing out over and over again) to be able to laugh, feel cheerful, and be less grumpy.
I don't know whether you've been laughing and smiling much every day - but I've been grinning at least a couple of times, and this blog of yours does get me grinning, and smiling, and thinking about other things and possibilities. It even makes me feel oddly hopeful that maybe some things might work out some...
Of course you can talk more about the terrible side of medicine and the horrors and all else. But that wasn't the central point of this post of yours...in any case - I still think that it would do good for some folks to seriously lighten up every now and again, and to laugh when you're telling a story or expressing a thought, which if it doesn't have a funny-ha-ha end - at least it has an end that should make one smile and/or grin.
I have been utterly relieved that you've started this blog, and enormously happy. And I for one am expecting many, many more posts (which doesn't mean that I don't look forward to new ones on your other blog). You are doing gloriously fine here on this one - and if it didn't sound incredibly cheeky to my ears - I would say "keep it up."
....Take care. Love and regards,
Shilpi
No, this blog is just fine, and it's a pleasure to read some of the posts in here.
I was just saying that there are some doctors who may not be as dedicated as others (just as all engineers are not good at what they do, or half as sincere as they should be).
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