NO DILEMMA FOR THIS DOCTOR

Year 1984. I was in Agra on leave from CMS college for my M.Phil at the Agra University. My M.Sc class mate Mukesh Gupta was already married and had a son, the cute little Aditya. His extremely beautiful wife Madhu was a wonderful lady. Later she completed her PhD in painting. During my year long stay in Agra, I was a frequent visitor to Mukesh's house. Earlier during my M.Sc days I was almost always there. I remember his little sister Usha learning English - S...I...T, SIT, "mane baithna", R...U...N , RUN, "mane daudna" etc. Mukesh's mother used to prepare excellent tea for me. Now at M Phil the responsibility shifted to Madhu. She was a wonderful sister to me in Agra. She never asked me or requested me. She would just say "Rajan Bhayya, today you will have dinner here". I was always left with no option but to oblige.

One day I fell ill and Mukesh took me to Dr Kuntae's dispensary near New Agra chaurai.Chaurai is the slang for Chauraha meaning junction.

 This was the junction were Krishnan had his Madrasi hotel. Wonderful Masala Dosa and matchless Vada. I still have the taste on my tongue. Sardarjis used to flock there for Krishnan's special Vada. For them one vada was an unending source of sambar !  And Krishnan was only too happy to serve them with as much sambar as they wanted.

Again, this was the junction from where I used to buy those copies of " The Illustrated Weekly Of India". I was addicted to this wonderful stuff from the Times of India stable.

And the Bhagwan theater was just opposite to Krishnan's hotel. I remember watching Amitab Bachan's DON here. The cinema hall was on fire with the lambooji dancing to the tune of "Khaike Paan Banaraswallah".Today the chaurai is not there. The six lane Delhi-Kolkotta highway swallowed it.

Back to Dr Kuntae. The one room dispensary was about 20 X 20 feet. There were some 50 to 60 patients packed inside the room, all sitting on the floor. The doctor was at the far end of the room (not on the floor). Mukesh asked me to just walk up to him."Walk up to whom", I exclaimed ! Mukesh pushed me into the crowd and I started "drifting" towards the doctor. Finally when I was some 5 or 6 patients away from the doctor, he asked me in English, "what is your problem?" So he has recognized my "Madrasi" look. I said quietly to myself, " my only problem now is to reach you doctor". He waved to me to tell him my problem without wasting time. I could not open my mouth as I found that his stethoscope was moving busily over a patient's chest even as his left hand was sensing another man's pulse. Simultaneously he was telling the ill-literate village lady to increase the medicine dose if her child's dysentery has not subsided. Now hold your breath. Behind him sat an old man on the floor, with a thermometer in his mouth !!!

Parallel Processing ?

Multitasking ??

I am still in a dilemma.

Note:

While hundreds of ordinary people got relief from that 20x20 room, on the opposite side of the road Dr(Mrs) Vasanthi Kuntae ran a hospital for women. A reasonably big one.