Missed call

Many of my friends and the medical sales professionals who visit my clinic have suggested topics for my blog. They have told me to write about my experiences of the different types of patients and their relatives. The other topic is my interaction with the various types of sales representatives that have visited me in these past 29 years.

I had not given a serious thought, though the topics were simply fantastic, as I have narrated such experiences to many. The only problem is compiling, which I think I should do separately and then compose it perfectly in my simple way to make it interesting. Yesterday there was an incident in my clinic which has prompted me to write on those topics, which I will eventually do. I must narrate that first.

Due to the rush this season, I have started a number system, wherein people can take their token and wait or go home or finish their other work instead, but come back in time for their turn. During my work today, my assistant handed me a note given by one of the patients, whom I know well. On the note was written his wife's name, dates from 24th to 26th August, a reason 'viral fever ' and on the reverse was a mobile number. The instructions given by that patient to my assistant was ' Give the chit to the doctor, ask him to issue a medical certificate for my wife for the dates mentioned and when he finishes give me a missed call, so that I can come and collect it '.

I was thoroughly amused at what people expect a doctor to do in addition to treating them. I narrated this to the next patients sitting in front. They too had a good laugh and said that they remembered seeing him rush in the clinic to meet my assistant, ask for a paper, hurriedly scribble something and barge out. After an hour or so, as my door opened to let the next patient in, I spotted him standing gesturing to me if I had finished with the certificate. I just called him in, wrote it and handed it over without losing my cool.

This incident has prompted me to now write about my varied experiences with patients and the Medical Representatives.

Ganapati Bappa Morya

Happy Ganapati festival to all !!!

As I am writing this post I realized that it is almost 2 months since I have visited my blog.

I thought that this post must go on air now before the ganapati visarjan [immersion] day arrives, which is on the 3rd September. I must show off my creativity of my annual Ganapati decoration . The theme was the Bandra Worli sea link. This time of the year is always stressful, monsoon being a season of sickness, this year particularly being more special in view of the H1N1 scare in addition to the other inevitable stresses of life.

This year we decided to be a bit more environment friendly and did away with the use of thermocol in the decoration.

We used a lot of card paper, water colors and color pencils. Shami was a big help in the painting.

She is good at painting and has a very steady hand when doing thin lines, as she makes greeting cards all by herself for different occasions for relatives and friends.


I have realized that this work is a great stress buster. I was on the verge of giving it up as it was difficult to find time and the right mood to apply my mind. Some inner strength pushes you to take up the paper, scale and pencil and the plan that is already made begins to unfold before your eyes. As the work progresses the mind is totally engrossed in what you are doing and when it is completed there is a great sense of achievement and you thank yourself that because of this assignment your mind was off things that were bothering you at least for that period.

Shami's note ---

A few days later we went over this link by chance. We had gone to the airport to see off Rahul for his 4.15 pm flight to Hyderabad. After dropping him off we reached the junction to the Western Express highway near Sahara Star Hotel. Ajit asked me and Supriya whether we should go via Andheri Powai or via Sion Dharavi as we had come. Both of felt we should go via Powai, but before we could answer, he had steered the car towards the left and we had to go towards Bandra. We were a tad disappointed to go back the same way.

But then Ajit said shall we go and have a look at the Bandra Worli sea link? We jumped up at that. Very eagerly we made our way over the rarely used (for us) Prabhodhankar Thackerey Flyover towards Mahim causeway and zoomed over the S.V.Road on to the otherside towards the sea link. We were very excited thinking back over the inauguration ceremony we had witnessed on the television barely a month ago. This is where the VIPs were sitting and so on when we came to the toll . We went past it and on to the link. Ajit took us very slowly so as to take in as much of it as we could and also to make the Rs.75/= return toll fully worth. We could see the various landmarks like Mahim causeway, Hindula Hospital building and Dadar choupatty as we travellled towards Worli.

In no time we were at the other end and then on our way back. This time the sea on our left.We returned to Thane feeling very happy, and proud that our engineers had made such a beautiful masterpiece for the country.