This whole year has been pretty hectic, writing has taken a backseat and circa 2010 A.D has almost come to a close. I have been involved in a couple of other things both professionally and creatively. So let’s rest it at that.
Now you tend to realize the gravity of the population problem when you have to wait endlessly at the doctor’s clinic, but along with that agonizing wait also comes an opportunity to watch the people, who along with you, are waiting incessantly too.
The first thing that I notice is the sheer number of babies. All colors, caste and creed. Some staring intently at me and some staring intently at my blackberry and the naughtier ones who are trying to snatch it from me. They have no burden of behaving in a civilized manner and are probably behaving much worse at the clinic than they would probably do at home. Another baby meanwhile, with huge blobs of kohl applied on her eyes and a peck on the cheek, is holding my finger with both of her hands and looking at it with eyes as big as a pear. She was probably comparing the sizes of our respective limbs with my size seeming impossible to her, maybe she was also secretly trying to calculate as to when her limb would reach my size or equivalent. As the baby grew tired of wondering, she did the next best and put my finger in her mouth trying to bite.
As the mother was desperately trying to pull her baby towards her, who was still trying to cling to my finger, I was noticing other people around. Thankfully none were looking very serious at the moment. There was this particular woman who I think was from a small village or town as she had all proper ‘ghungta’ done with vermillion in huge quantities splashed on her forehead or whatever that was visible of it at that moment. The thing which never ceased to amaze me was that she was managing to hold two babies in one hand, vegetables and medical reports on the other and looking absolutely ill at the same time. It was pretty evident that it was the mother who needed a fair amount of medical attention but apparently she had her hands full with other things.
Along with the agony of waiting was the irritating sound of the blaring T.V which was playing some ancient movie at that time. The hero kept alternating between the elephant and Jackie shroff. But I had to admit that after waiting outside for one and a half hour and being forced to watch that movie, I was mighty disappointed when the compounder changed the channel for IPL matches barring us from watching the end of that pitiable movie which had somehow engrossed all of us including me.
My time waiting outside was almost one and a half hours and my meeting with the doctor lasted about 5 minutes. After coming out I took my medicines from the counter and left for home. As I was introspecting I realized that it was nice to have a look at ordinary people once in a while, observing them, learning lessons and observing those little nuances which make us one in this vast land of varying caste, creed and color, even if it meant being tried to be bit upon by babies who had no teeth.
Life goes on in the city as it used too.
