Hospitals are not the same any more. From a distance they look like 5-star hotels with sky-scrapers and from inside they are no less a fancy mall in a metropolitan conglomeration. They have all the facilities one wants in a hospital like a CCD, a gift shop and multi-cuisine restaurant. For a 10 minute visit to your doctor, they charge you an amount which used to cover all your treatment expenses earlier. I had always believed that medical profession is closest to social service. What better than relieving people off their pain. But today, it has been reduced to just another business avenue. And that makes me hate hospitals like anything. So, if I have to go to one, I like to settle things as fast as possible.
But fancy this, I go to a hospital and for the first time in my life, I wanted to stay there. I wanted the damn time to stop running so freaking fast. Since then, I have been trying to relive it, closing my eyes and imagining, but it ain't the same. So, I was told to go to the Physiotherapy department to learn some strengthening exercises for my perpetual back pain. Aha, the "physio" I wondered. Been there, done that. Always found some indifferent guy who would ask me to do some weird stretches and then hand over to me a chart of exercises. Just plain business as usual.
Not this time though. I enter the department and find that this isn't like the average dull boring workout room with even more boring people. It was spacious and had zillion tools and machines with people on them stretching and some just staring at them trying to understand the mechanical dynamics of it. Interestingly some people have the job of motivating the patients throughout the workout. It is a challenging job I would say as most of the patients are on wheelchairs. But the helpers seemed motivated and happy to help.
So lost was I in the uniqueness of the place that I didn't notice that someone had come up to me and was already talking. I turned to her. And I went blank. I always wondered what its like to forget everything and to concentrate only on one thing. I tried meditating many times but never achieved this isolation from everything. Now I knew how it was like. I only saw her. Everything else vanished as if somebody had spread a white sheet over all of it. She was that beautiful.
Then it occurred to me perhaps she is saying something to me. Asking my name perhaps. Damn it, what the hell. For the love of God, I cannot recollect my own name. I mean I have seen people who forget their cell numbers all the time but holy shit, how can I forget my own name? Come on, don't be a Ghajni, she might think you are a complete dumb ass. Aha, Swapnil it is. I told her. She told me hers. Doesn't matter, I had already named her Goddess Venus. And she was like that. Every bit of her.
She asked me to tell her everything. From beginning till now. 'Everything?' I wondered. I obliged although her eyes were constantly interrupting and making it all the more difficult for me. But soon I gathered the strength to face them and the restrain to tell exactly what she asked me too. She was so patient with the details. She had so many questions. Not like the usual doctors who would love to fast-track everything as they have a long list of people waiting outside. I liked her attention and the capacity to anticipate. She also had this feature which I really envy. She had this cute little smile throughout. I love people who can do that in spite of whatever shit they face in life. I think it makes a huge difference to your life and to the lives of people you come across.
Anyway, after a lot of monitoring and analysis, she prescribed a long routine of exercises. She explained them with all the precautions one needs to take and kept reminding me the order like a Kindergarten teacher. I was blushing like a kindergarten kid anyway. I was so lost that I was sure to forget everything except her. I told her that I would forget. She started making a list on a piece of paper and also drew figures besides them. I felt like that kid in the class who sits on the last bench and the teacher has to do extra effort to make him understand simple things. Couldn't help it.
And then the heartbreak, it was all over. I thanked her for all the extra effort she put in. She smiled and boy oh boy I would never forget that smile. She is an excellent doctor. I wish all doctors were like her, if not that beautiful. Such was her aura, I felt healed from a distance, within moments. God bless Doctor Venus!
But fancy this, I go to a hospital and for the first time in my life, I wanted to stay there. I wanted the damn time to stop running so freaking fast. Since then, I have been trying to relive it, closing my eyes and imagining, but it ain't the same. So, I was told to go to the Physiotherapy department to learn some strengthening exercises for my perpetual back pain. Aha, the "physio" I wondered. Been there, done that. Always found some indifferent guy who would ask me to do some weird stretches and then hand over to me a chart of exercises. Just plain business as usual.
Not this time though. I enter the department and find that this isn't like the average dull boring workout room with even more boring people. It was spacious and had zillion tools and machines with people on them stretching and some just staring at them trying to understand the mechanical dynamics of it. Interestingly some people have the job of motivating the patients throughout the workout. It is a challenging job I would say as most of the patients are on wheelchairs. But the helpers seemed motivated and happy to help.
So lost was I in the uniqueness of the place that I didn't notice that someone had come up to me and was already talking. I turned to her. And I went blank. I always wondered what its like to forget everything and to concentrate only on one thing. I tried meditating many times but never achieved this isolation from everything. Now I knew how it was like. I only saw her. Everything else vanished as if somebody had spread a white sheet over all of it. She was that beautiful.
Then it occurred to me perhaps she is saying something to me. Asking my name perhaps. Damn it, what the hell. For the love of God, I cannot recollect my own name. I mean I have seen people who forget their cell numbers all the time but holy shit, how can I forget my own name? Come on, don't be a Ghajni, she might think you are a complete dumb ass. Aha, Swapnil it is. I told her. She told me hers. Doesn't matter, I had already named her Goddess Venus. And she was like that. Every bit of her.
She asked me to tell her everything. From beginning till now. 'Everything?' I wondered. I obliged although her eyes were constantly interrupting and making it all the more difficult for me. But soon I gathered the strength to face them and the restrain to tell exactly what she asked me too. She was so patient with the details. She had so many questions. Not like the usual doctors who would love to fast-track everything as they have a long list of people waiting outside. I liked her attention and the capacity to anticipate. She also had this feature which I really envy. She had this cute little smile throughout. I love people who can do that in spite of whatever shit they face in life. I think it makes a huge difference to your life and to the lives of people you come across.
Anyway, after a lot of monitoring and analysis, she prescribed a long routine of exercises. She explained them with all the precautions one needs to take and kept reminding me the order like a Kindergarten teacher. I was blushing like a kindergarten kid anyway. I was so lost that I was sure to forget everything except her. I told her that I would forget. She started making a list on a piece of paper and also drew figures besides them. I felt like that kid in the class who sits on the last bench and the teacher has to do extra effort to make him understand simple things. Couldn't help it.
And then the heartbreak, it was all over. I thanked her for all the extra effort she put in. She smiled and boy oh boy I would never forget that smile. She is an excellent doctor. I wish all doctors were like her, if not that beautiful. Such was her aura, I felt healed from a distance, within moments. God bless Doctor Venus!
