THAT OLD HOSPITAL BIRD

The O.P was at its peak around 10 a..m..The pens and steths were doing overtime and one by one the patients were falling victims to their onslaught.These faceless victims were neither men,women,children,or even animals,they came under the wide category of CASES`-fever cases,ortho cases,gynaec,eye or mental cases.After sifting through many eyes (incidentally I happen to be an ophthalmologist) some red, some watering, some nonseeing eyes,ofcourse I never bother to look into their faces since I am too professional for that.The o.p is conducted in a large undivided hall with around 8 to 9 doctors of various specialists sitting around 4 tables facing each other with stools in between supposed to seat each patient,but very rarely happens.These cases are usually disposed in the standing posture itself since there is usually long queues.The only problem being most of the cases endind up with the wrong specialities,but that does not pose much of a difficulty since every doctor in govt hospital has the guts to deal with any disease whether he diagnose it or not and most often it is the otherway round.
Soon it is time for a coffey break. I manage to stand up and look around for relaxing my eyes.There she is –old Beeyathumma one of the usual hospital birds.I seek the shelter of duty doctors room for coffey.As I sip my coffey,I wonder about Old Beeyathumma.We have both seen the ups and downs of this hospital for the last 25 years.She will be around 80 to 90yrs, fair ,aroud 5.4 ft, of thin built and as erect as a steel rod.Her face is small and round,with wrinked creases beautifully chisseled out.But the striking feature was the all encompassing smile and the wise tranquil eyes that held no malice.Ofcourse she was absolutely poor.Every day whether the sun rises or not ,whether it is bandh or independence day,she promptly arrives at the o.p ,at 10 sharp as if to mark attendence and stands silently in any one of the queues.She is never bothered about the speciality;ofcourse she knows all the doctors and their respective specialities.She will wait her turn without any fuss.When atlast she reaches the doctor,an old op ticket suddenly appears in her hand and slowly she hands it over to the God.,neverbothering even to sit..She never rambles about her body aches or numbness of feet or tiredness.She just smiles and looks straight in to his eyes which is all revealing.The doc has no other choice .He goes through the op ticket which usually reveals a prescription of Becomplex pills in the top written 10 days back by another doc followed by the word repeat for nother 10days.HE WILL ALSO WRITE REPEAT AND IF HE IS IN GOOD MOOD WILL ADD VIT A&D CAPSULES ALSO.She then nodds in appreciation for the great compassion bestowed on her,blessing him, goes silently to the next queue for getting those miracle drugs from the pharmacy.All these steps usually takes about 2 hrs and sharp at 12noon she leaves the hospital.
I always wonder why she is so cheerful,has no complaints at all about this world and is fully at ease with her surroundings?.I very well know she has never in her life consumed these pills.Then WHY? Is it to kill the time that she visits us? Is it to lose herself in the crowds?No that cannot be a logical answer.After many years the answer came and it nearly knocked me down.SHE IS CHALLENGING THE WORLD THAT SHE IS STILL EXISTING DEFYING ALL THE ODDS.