Today again I got up lately in the morning. I have noticed that for the last couple of days I am trying to get up early so that I can go to office in time. Ironically, as hard I try, so bad I do. So, again with a low mood I started for work.
As usually, I took a rickshaw up to the ‘New Adi Dhamrai Mishtanno Bhandar’ a food shop for breakfast. Very often I come to this food shop as I like sweetmeat very much. I remember when I was a little girl everyday in the morning my grand father used to take me in a restaurant like this one to take breakfast with bread and sweetmeat. From my grand father I first learned to take tea in a hotel like this one. I was too little to drink tea from a cup. So, my grand paa poured that in a small plate. It became my regular habit at that time to take tea from roadside tea stall. While I take my breakfast here, it reminds me those days of my childhood.
The restaurant is not so clean one. When I enter into it, people around sometimes get more curious. Here, in Trishal, I have noticed that people are so curious everywhere. They do not wait even a second to ask who is he or she when they see someone new. Initially, they asked me so many questions like who I am, what I do, where I come from, how much I get salary from the job and so many personal questions. They try to ask more and more, but I try to give answers as short as possible. Sometimes, I try to keep my eyes on mobile phone screen to keep myself busy. I can go to other places for breakfast; I can even take it at my home but I do not do that rather everyday morning I cannot stop myself to come to this place. I guess, to deep down in my sweet memories with my grandfather every day I come back again and again.
Anyway, today I finished breakfast too fast as I am late. After that, I walked for a while to get on a tempo. As usually, the tempo destined for Harirampur is empty. It will wait for an hour to fill up and start its journey. As I am late, certainly, I had to find an alternative. I have invented the fact that there are some other tempo. They are locally called out serial route. They do not wait for longer to be filled up, very often; I take the opportunity of this out serial route. Sometimes, I see these two groups quarrel with each other for same passengers. Anyway, I got one luckily, reached my work station within half an hour. The environment which was too fresh and green few months back are now filled with dense, dry dust. In the spring it is dry and rough like hot summer days. Sometimes I see my black bag and hair are nearly white with this dust. The roads are broken badly. I keep myself as tight as possible with the seat of the tempo to avoid hurting my head by the jerking of it. When I get off it, I feel proud to be intact without any broken bone.
After reaching I start to attend the patients. I learn many things from my patients’ everyday. Each patient presents himself as a story to me. Today, one of our patients, a 70 years old man called Barek, came to me for regular follow up. His schedule date of follow up was nearly 20 days back. For the last 20 days our volunteers and assistants tried hard to get him here. When he came to me he explained why he could not come before. He is a farmer. He is so busy with his work. He has to work in his field. This time of year, he has to plant paddy in the field. So, he could not manage time to visit the doctor. I noticed he has been weak and feeling feverish with a productive cough. Also he has been suffering from skin disease. I gave necessary treatment and counseled him about the importance of regular follow up. After understanding everything about our activities and his condition he called me as his daughter and gave word that he would not miss any schedule date in future. He left the room by handshaking with me and made a lot of wishes for me.
I learned that, it is possible to be very active in old age if anyone wishes and a physician can win the heart of a patient simply by good counseling.
Dr. Nelufa Rahman
Trishal, Mymensingh
http://happydmc.blogspot.com
