Skip to main content

September-2010,Chattarpur,India.

It's last but one week of September.In UP and the border districts of MP,all eyes are on Ayodhya.It's fascinating to note how every common man's decision about the week seems to be bordered around the verdict.People wanting early discharges,wanting more medicine,wanting to avoid travel.
The ward that admits the medical patients in the hospital here is a potpouri of socioeconomic mix.It is a large hall meant to house eye patients during season but is at the moment converted into a medical ward.
In the first bed ,next to the nursing station ,an endearing old man in his sixties with Alzheimer's who has developed a scrotal ulcer is bedded.His two sons and his wife attend to his needs and seem to be devoted enough.He is a bundled up mass of silver hair,looks almost like Einstein and wears a blank expression on most days.His every nuances and discomfort are well interpreted by his folks and brought to our notice.Twice a day,i make it a point to walk up to his bed and make conversations with him.We managed to get a wheel chair to take him for a stroll.On his good days there is a twinkle in his eyes and he makes some sounds and moves his hand.Today he caught hold of my hand and would not let me go.I find this whole world of dementia intriguing and wonder what actually goes on in the minds of these individuals.The small joys in looking after them are almost akin to seeing a small child conquering milestones.
In the first bed ,placed horizontally is a muslim women with UTI.Her husband,a tough looking mullah looks tense and seems to be in a hurry to be discharged.He makes the referance to the high court verdict and wishes to be in a safe zone before it comes through.I tell him nothing untoward should happen and assure him of our prayers.His face softens momentarily.I discharge the lady.
The patient on the next bed is a fiesty seventy year muslim lady .She walked into my OPD cheekily chewing a paan and smiling from ear to ear 48 hrs after a major antero-septal wall MI.SHe is like a thermostat in the space,smiling,relaxed,wise and warm.Ayodhya's can come and go-life would go on for her.
Another seventy year old gentleman labelled as cirhosis was brought in kicking,screaming and delirious.Thought it was hepatic encephalopathy but his enzymes were normal and there were no other features of liver cell failure.Treated him with anti-malarials.On the second day he was better but defiant and un-willing to eat a morsel.When I came in for the evening rounds he was at the foot of the stair-case happily tucking in loads of Bhel which his wife was lovingly serving him .I thought I would pull his leg for bit but he started weeping.I never could understand why he was crying.Could it have been a case of MDP?He loved the out-doors for one.He spent one entire day out hanging around the chowk and was back to his normal self the next day.
Eighty year old Sukhi Ram was brought to the OPD with acute onset of swelling in the tongue and infra-mandibular region with inability to speak.He had woken up with the complaints.His vitals were stable.I had absolutely no clue as to what I was dealing with.He was stone deaf and blind in one eye to boot.The tongue was grotesquely swollen and hanging out from the mouth.His clotting time was normal so I treated him with steroids and anti-histaminics.His swelling gradually receded.
When he got back his voice the first word he addressed to me was 'beti'with a toothless grin and began to up-date me about his bowel habits at length while the whole ward listened rapt!.
There were other patients in the ward with a variety of predictable diseases and behavior.
It was an important day in the life of the community they represented but for those who had lived through the longer portion of their lives,for those who had seen it all,for those who had known what it meant to be a muslim or a hindu through the partition days,it was clearly of no consequence.They were too busy living life.
Sukhi Ram,eighty years old,from a lower socio-economic background,a hindu,from the borders of Uttar pradesh-deaf and partially blind,obsessed with his bowel habits, had no qualms about addressing me, an oriental christian doctor, in her late thirties,physically sound in the ear and eye, and under normal circumstances, would be embarrased to discuss her bowel habits in public as 'his daughter'.
This is the India I know of in the rural parts and this is the India I enjoy and have learnt to love.The sectarians can take a walk!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Feet in the water.

  Fifteen days of earned leave after working for two years,I was praying in a house group prayer and worship and pleading with the Lord to show me something ,when it was not forthcoming I surrendered to the Lord and prayed let your will be done and then I saw the Lord walking up a winding road and deep in my spirit I knew He was calling me to follow Him .I did not know where to but I thanked the Lord and said yes. I have been living more in the unseen world than the seen world. Suddenly out of the blue I received a message from Dr Arpit asking me to replace them in Madhipura  for a  fortnight. I needed to go because things were getting a little intense and I needed sometime to step back and mull some things over. I had no idea why the Lord was taking me back to the old world of EHA , mission hospitals and friends from the yore. Travelling to Madhipura , I  continnued to ask the Lord, 'Why this road? I had no idea why I was going  where I was going.I am glad I came because I could r

night-hunting.

 Monda suggested  we go  hunting. Dressed up to beat the rains and the unpredictable weather we ventured out at night with the two Dawas. Annie had baked a cake for Rumpanol.It started  pouring in spurts but nothing could beat the enthusiasm.The junior Dawa was to drive us to a place around fifteen kilometres up the north Sikkim highway.We would come across three rivulets of sort where we could possibly find the edible frog.The senior Dawa was already at the spot making a pathway in the jungle for us to proceed. We reached the spot at around eight at night.in the pitch dark one could hear the sound of frogs of all variety and we started seeing quite a few but none of edible variety.We shuffled around in the rain with an umbrella,raincoat and torches like Nancy drew exploring the grasses and having eye contacts with stunned frogs which seemed to have lost the ability to run .The two boys did a Tarzen and was lost in the jungle with a sling bag ,a torch sans any cover from the rain.While

Thank you.

 After almost five months of struggling with the nitty gritties the dialysis unit opened last week. We were able to dialyse our set of first three patients over the last few days. So much of effort,dissapointments ,struggles,joys and most importantly prayers have gone into the venture.Many who will never see the fruit of their prayers have invested their prayers into it. The day it started with many apprehension I was praying at the early morning hour and put my head on the pillow to rest and then just as I was about to sleep I saw a vision of Jesus on His knees interceding.That is how much my Lord cares for us and this morning while listening to Alistair I realised that He deals with us like a father does a five year old .That is how He sees us. Lord Jesus ,you are the crown on my head and the only thing I can take pride in.