Prashant was ill when he came ,required intensive care.He recovered albeit slowly but surely.The father realised how ill he was and requested me to do all I could do,his words were ,'Don't worry about money'.Needless to have said that because we never worry about money when we treat a patient.
I was away when it was time for Prashant to go home.There was no usual asking for charity here.The father quietly disappeared and appeared one fine day with half the sum.We wrote off the rest.He had arranged for six grands.I wondered how?He showed me the papers.He had leased out his land to another person for a year,sealed,stamped and approved by the local tehsil.No interest ,nothing.
Considering how uncertain it was for farmers anyways I thought it was smart.
Shitiiz brought in his mother to the out-patient.He went to the local Sahu ,left his mother's silver anklet and got a fifteen hundred rupees for her treatment.He has to pay an added interest of fifteen rupees per month.If he goes to Nagpur or Jabalpur to work,he and his brother would earn around six hundred rupees between them.I do the calculation and he says it will take them a year to release the anklet.I am not sure how the calculation works because I thought a week should see them out of the debt.The market price for the anklet is twenty-five hundred I am told.
That is a way of life for Prashant's and Shitiz's of the world.that is how their world ticks and there is a certain amount of dignity in the way they go about it.Especially the poor,they will never ask for charity.
I was away when it was time for Prashant to go home.There was no usual asking for charity here.The father quietly disappeared and appeared one fine day with half the sum.We wrote off the rest.He had arranged for six grands.I wondered how?He showed me the papers.He had leased out his land to another person for a year,sealed,stamped and approved by the local tehsil.No interest ,nothing.
Considering how uncertain it was for farmers anyways I thought it was smart.
Shitiiz brought in his mother to the out-patient.He went to the local Sahu ,left his mother's silver anklet and got a fifteen hundred rupees for her treatment.He has to pay an added interest of fifteen rupees per month.If he goes to Nagpur or Jabalpur to work,he and his brother would earn around six hundred rupees between them.I do the calculation and he says it will take them a year to release the anklet.I am not sure how the calculation works because I thought a week should see them out of the debt.The market price for the anklet is twenty-five hundred I am told.
That is a way of life for Prashant's and Shitiz's of the world.that is how their world ticks and there is a certain amount of dignity in the way they go about it.Especially the poor,they will never ask for charity.
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