Bilkul saahi..

[Guest guest]

Right on target,Kishoreda.

Actually,a 35yr old lady with sudden LR paresis, stable for 8months,without any

cause, was taken up

for squint correction, about 4yrs ago,by me,to correct her diplopia.

Just before we wheeled her,she casually mentioned to her husband that I

resembled her,of the famous

ROCKY movie,Slyvester,yes Stallone(Aur Kaun).

After surgery 2nd post op day,when I visited her she was feeling very

embarrased,that after the diplopia

was gone,she no longer felt,I resembled her Hero,by even a long shot.

For a moment,I feel,maybe,I should have postponed her surgery.Atleast,I would

have been ROCKY,for a

few more days,without having to do any hard workouts.

Shyam(84)

Hello Jamiben

Shyam's mail about the cultural gap reminds me of an incident which occurred

few years ago.

Just like Shyam, my friend from the 1976 batch, Dr. Mridul Panditrao was

toying with the idea of returning to India. Now Mridul is an anaesthetist.

He had practised in the Bahamas for a large number of years. Bahamas has a

different culture than India, to put it mildly. It has nude beaches (and

bitches). It has orgies on board cruise ships, etc.

Mridul told me that he would be henceforth available for anaesthesia.

Dutifully, being a loyal Sevagrami, I called him at the next procedure.

Now, the patient who I was operating upon, belonged to the Banjara tribes.

You must have seen many on the Indian roads. They wear rainbow coloured

clothes and multiple mirrors in their backless blouses and saris.

After the usual cribbing about a primitive set-up, Mridul gave a flawless

anaesthesia. The operation went without any hitch. The problem occurred when

we shifted the patient to the recovery room. The hordes of relatives were

looking on anxiously. Mridul then asked me the patient's name. I quickly

told him that her name was Jamiben, not in the least suspecting the

impending catastrophe.

Mridul promptly turned to the unconscious Jamiben and started pinching her

cheek and ear lobe, crooning in a most seductive voice, " Hello, Jamiben. "

Jamiben's husband, who was watching from far got a shock of his life. Never

in his life had anyone said a simple Hello to him (probably because he would

not be able to understand the word). And here was a young upstart stroking

his wife's cheek and saying, of all the things, " Hello Jamiben " ? It took 5-6

relatives and our entire staff to pacify the frothing man.

We explained that Mridul was from Amrika. (He would not have comprehended

Bahamas). In Amrika, that is the way they find out if the patient has

recovered from anaesthesia.

Ultimately, the patient recovered from anaesthesia. I wonder if she would

have been awake, what her reaction would have been to some guy stroking her

cheek and saying " Hello Jamiben " . She probably would have fainted once

again.

Meanwhile, instead of the patient, Mridul went into shock at this cultural

gap. It took him 5 more years to return to India. He says that he needed

those years to wind up his affairs, but I believe that he took that time to

recover from Jamiben. Today he is HOD at DY Patil College Pune, and I am

sure he does not say Hello to his patients.

In Shyam's case, I think, the opposite will happen. When a socialite lady

will come displaying her ample cleavage asking him to do his refraction,

Shyam will patiently take a large Abhaya and cover his patient's distracting

bosom, before attempting to look into her eyes.

Kishore Shah 1974

------------------------------

Website: www.mgims.org

------------------------------