Dr. A, Dr PM and COVID-19
Since last 4 years a young lady doctor is living in my compound. Apart of being a doctor, she is also blessed with multi-faceted personality. Her distinguishing charters include poetry writing, painting, and listening music. Most recently, I realized her new talent – story telling. But the most important personality that I admire is her humane heart. Living in the same compound, I had chance to learn some important things from her. Although I am of her father’s age, we never felt any generational gap when we talk things. Recently, after a long gap, we had a chance to share few things. As always, we tried to inspire each other but this time her story scored much higher than mine. But before I share the story, let me set some background. Let me name her Dr. A, and in fact her name starts with A, anyway.
Dr. A comes from a modest family, the first out of three siblings, and a daughter of a retired army, who is now working in Middle-East. Being the eldest sibling, I have seen her taking the role of guardianship for her younger brother and sister. Until recently, before the pandemic started, all sibling stayed together in my compound. As her dad served the Nepal Army, she got ‘privilege kid status’ to complete her medical studies. Walking on her dad’s footstep, she always expresses her obligation to serve the nation and people. Social service as the main motto of her profession, she has been dedicating all her present time serving patients in this pandemic times.
Since last few years, Dr. A is working in a hospital run by Armed Police Force. After pandemic this hospital has been converted into a Covid Hospital and Dr. A has been working in the front-line. Since the hike in the corona cases, she has been taking different roles in her hospital – at emergencies, ICU, OPD, counseling and many more. Recently she has been very busy with the overflow of infected people and had been in quarantine herself. She told me that the most difficult part of her recent duty is to counsel sick people and their relatives. I know she will do very well in counseling but she told me that she herself might need some counseling now.
Living with corona is a neo-normal for all of us, but it is not an easy thing. We all have our own tensions, our own stories. The overall ‘Global Tension Index’ has been raised to all times high. But I guess for the doctor, who deals with the corona infected patient, the tensions will be naturally very high. Needing to share and vent out her tension, she came to talk with me to express her feelings. Although she came to me to seek some motivation, she ended up inspiring me with her story. This is how she inspires herself and the story goes like this.
We all know the stories of Akbar and Birbal from India. Sadly, at present India-Nepal relationship is all time low. This bad relationship is mostly at the governments’ level however our people level relationship can never vein. We, living in pandemic times, damn care where ancient Ayodhya is really situated. Nepal PM claims real Ayodhya is somewhere near Parsa but my friend based in Sunsari satires that it might also be in Koshi Tappu because there, in fact, lies an island called “Sri Lanka” in the middle of Koshi River. Jokes can’t run the country. But for now, let’s get some inspiration from Akbar and Birbal.
Akbar, the great king, was always worried about his people’s well-being. In addition to his extra-ordinary leadership skills, he also had a good team including his confidante Mr. Birbal. People of all sorts used to come to his palace for help. They usually come with problems. Dealing with all these problems, Akbar felt he himself needed some stimulus. So one day, he called upon PM Birbal and ordered him to come with one line slogan or a strip line which will motivate the victims or sufferers. Akbar demanded that at the same time the same slogan also will have to bring down egoists, or rich elites down to their real size. Akbar wanted to put this slogan at the entrance of his palace where all people could see and read it. Poor Birbal was given a strict deadline to come with this solution.
The next day Akbar read the slogan in his palace wall, which not only inspired him but also inspired me and will inspire all of us who are going through pandemic times. The line goes like this: “This Phase Shall Also Pass One Day”. Good times or Bad… it will vanish one day. Better expressed in Hindi “Ye Waqt Bhi Gujar Jayega” (ये वक्त भी गुजर जाएगा) (please mind my Hindi). This is so true for our times, our present context, when the whole humanity is going through Covid effects. But this shall also pass one day.
I wish to express my heartfelt respect to my young friend who changed my mood since yesterday. My respect rose even higher when I learnt that doctors were promised by the Government to provide extra allowance for serving the Covid patients. Promised, but not yet fulfilled! In many cases, even the doctors salaries are not paid on time. Nevertheless, Dr. A’s motivation has never waned but she keeps on motivating people like me through her every day works. So my sincere salute to my unsung heroine.
So, my derived conclusion from this story: ‘Corona Virus… will also become history one day’. But for our oversized, ego-centric Prime Minister – I have a message: ‘You will also have to come down in the real size one day’. I hope our PM realizes soon that his recent kidney replacement is medical science contribution. Don’t slam the skillful Nepali doctors; you might have to knock the same operation door in the future. And yes, people can’t be fooled with the jokes all the time. Dear PM, your “turmeric formula” or your recipe of “sneezing out the virus”, or your advice of “inhaling the cool Himalayan air to increase virus immunity” are all outdated jokes. Don’t just fool that we Nepalese have natural immunity to fight the virus. Look at the current figure, our corona death rate is highest in South Asia. This is because of our poor health support system for which you are ultimately responsible.
Let’s discard these cheap jokes and start believing in our scientists and support our health workers like Dr. A.
Ravindra Writes 