Doctors' Day

 July 1! A truly remarkable day indeed. Exactly half a year is already over. Time to hurry up, right? July 1 is important for yet another reason. It is the Doctors' Day. From the childhood period onwards, doctors are the 'bogeymen' of our lives. In every possible sense of the term. In most families, for instance, mothers quieten their unruly small ones with "keep quiet, eat this up, go off to sleep fast, etc, etc; otherwise, Doctor Uncle will give you a bitter medicine or a big injection or keep you in the hospital" etc etc. Despite this, they carry the weight of our health throughout our lives.

Being a doctor IS tough. Just look up the sheer size of 'Gray's Anatomy', and you would know what I mean. Want to do your B.A.M.S.? Get to know your Sanskrit real well in addition, okay? True, every academic discipline is tough. The NET JRF/SRF for English Literature, for example, had a success rate of exactly one per cent. Now, with the MCQ pattern, it is slightly better, that is, tops four per cent!

Yet, I would say that a doctor's life is far, far tougher. Unlike a C.A., who is 'playing' (in all senses of the term, and especially the negative ones) with numbers, a doctor is dealing with human lives. In a way, (s)he is learning and de-learning and re-learning every day, and on the job. Don't you believe me? Remember the COVID days? Much worse, try to forget the Mangeshkar Hospital frenzy circa March/April, 2025!

However much crazy jokes may laugh at doctors, they ARE indispensible in life/death situations. They alone can save us often. After parents, if there is any one who can give life, it is doctors. Sure, teachers/lecturers, too, do so at many, many stages of our lives. Even then, no comparison at all with doctors' absolute yeoman services.

Are not there mal-practices in the medical field? Of course, there are! 'Cuts' of all sizes, real to figurative, exist in this field, too. There are many reasons behind such ugly stories, and none of these is justifiable either. Yet, a sincere, a genuine doctor, like a committed teacher, can alone save you, and in the process, (s)he alone can heal both your mind and body.

May be, hence the regret for the sad decline of that wonderful institution called 'family doctor'. Often, patients literally considered them gods incarnate. Faith, anyways, is a great healer. In today's world of super-specialisations and corporate hospital culture, 'doctor uncle' is almost a fairy tale. Believe me, it existed!

Aai wanted me to be a doctor. Once, as a twelve year old, I had painlessly managed to get out a cockroach that had entered her ear canal, following the flower string she was wearing while asleep. She was confident I would make a very good doctor. Her local doctor, too, always said that I have all the makings of a good doctor. Well, during the last decade of her life, I was her caregiver, a close assistant of all her doctors, and now a full-fledged doctor for myself. She has thus saved me all those huge medical bills. Oh, yes, I WILL be a practising doctor, at least of alternative therapy. For sure. Here is wishing myself all the best!

Pratima@Since precision matters when it comes to being a doctor, please note that it is "Doctors' Day", a generic reference, and NOT "doctor's day", an individual indicator. Happy Doctors' Day yet again!

A sincere C.A., too, can be the doctor of the financial health of a family, whether individual or business. May their tribe grow, as Leigh Hunt said of Abou Ben Adham, a genuine, selfless philanthropist!