DOCTOR IS UPSTAIRS

 

We will call him Pravin. Pravin’s father was a farmer. They owned a piece of land in the village, a cow and two buffaloes. His parents’ lives taught him all good values and soft skills. He got his primary schooling in his village. His brilliance was obvious right from his early school days. His father encouraged him to study further. But that was going to be a challenge.

The middle and high school was in the town about 5 km away and there was a river between the two villages. Getting admission to that school was not difficult. But commuting in monsoon was going to be a problem. In other months there was a very shallow strip. It was used for walking through the river. But in the monsoon season when the river would be flowing bank to bank, it would mean swimming through.

Walking through, Swimming through and sometimes running through

    So much was his enthusiasm to study further that walking through, swimming through and sometimes running through didn’t bother him. His father got him a bicycle. He would ride it to the river then lift it through the water and ride again on the other side of the bank to the school. It was a similar journey back home. In monsoon it was walking through, swimming through and sometimes running through. Thus went 6 more years.

In the school-ending board exam to a great amazement of so many, he stood sixth in the entire state. No one had heard the name of the school which was now in news due to this feat. He aptly lived the words of the wise “No one has ownership rights over knowledge”. He was in all newspapers. A couple of days after, a white Ambassador car (that was the one available in those days) came and stood outside his home in the village. An obviously wealthy middle-aged couple stepped out and entered the house. Everyone in the village knew them. They were originally from a family of this village that had migrated to the city nearby and made good.

A White Ambassador Car

    Only Pravin’s mother was present in the house when the guests arrived. She got too nervous at the attention. Having made the guests sit on the charpoy, she rushed to the neighborhood to send someone to fetch the father and son who were working in their field.  “Please wait, my people are coming” she comforted the guests and hurried to prepare some tea. “We have come for your son, Pravin”, the couple said. “Oh he is too young to be married. He wants to study”. The couple smiled at her innocence. “We are not for that”. A relief spread on her face.

“What are your plans?” the guests asked the boy who had returned home with his father on getting the message. “I want to study and be a doctor but…” the words trailed off as he squatted on the floor facing them. Wasn’t the problem obvious? As they sipped the tea, the couple offered “You will study. We will stand all expenses of your education. Study as much as you want. But one pre-condition”. A grimness spread on the face of the boy and his parents not knowing what will follow. “You will not forget your roots. You will return to serve your people”. “Oh, that? Sure” all three spoke out in unison. “Then go ahead. Don’t look back” was the promise-giving reply.

A Medical Student

He went to the city for a university education. Being brilliant, he easily got admission to the medical college and studied single-mindedly. Never once did he forget his circumstances and what had made this study possible.  He joined MD – Medicine and cleared the exam with flying colours.

He returned to the district headquarters just about 10 km from his village and started his hospital here. So that his patients feel comforted he decided to have his residence on the same premise as his hospital. He bought his house on the top floor and the ground floor was his hospital. Prominently displayed at the entrance of his hospital was a board that read “Doctor Pravin is upstairs”. The patients read it and felt very relieved. “Oh, our doctor is in this same building, just upstairs – no worries now. He will run down to help anytime”. It sort of became his brand specialty that he lived upstairs in the hospital premises.

Our doctor is just upstairs, will run if needed

    Soon the hospital started thriving. He needed extra space. He built one more floor on top of the present structure and shifted his residential quarters there. The lower two floors now became his hospital.    

He refused to marry. His patients were his mission and his passion. “I don’t have time” was his standard reply. He and his patients were his only world. His fees were very affordable. His benevolence was astounding. He had a promise to keep – “don’t forget your roots”. The words of the kind couple incessantly echoed in his ears – don’t forget your roots, don’t forget what you were!  Pravin’s name became famous in that entire district and beyond, in local vernacular as “Uparwala doctor” meaning the doctor who is upstairs. He became so well known that all used to say – “if nothing cures you, God upstairs (uparwala) and this (uparwala) doctor upstairs will cure you”.

He kept his knowledge up-to-date

   He kept his knowledge up-to-date. He attended conferences, brought in new technology and even went abroad to learn new and recent advances in his subject. He applied all he learnt into clinical practice and used up-to-date knowledge and skills for his patients. This modern approach was also a big factor in making him so successful. Never did anyone saw him getting angry at his patients ever. Bed availability was a huge problem at his hospital due to the incessant rush.

Thankfully another hospital came up nearly adjoining his own. He requested that doctor to share his bed space with him when required. It was a surgical hospital. The doctor agreed. On all the beds that he had rented there used to hang a board that read “Reserved for the patient of The Doctor Upstairs”. He used to get so late in his outdoor practice that he took his indoor rounds sometimes very late at night. But there used to be a common word amongst all his patients, “The doctor upstairs would surely come to examine. He won’t sleep without seeing his patients”.

Corona strikes!

 Soon he entered the fifth decade of his life and that was the time the pandemic of Corona let itself loose on the world. Anyone and everyone who had a relative or a friend in life were getting engulfed in its tentacles. He took all possible precautions. He got the two doses of vaccine but still, he got entrapped. He got the fever and he knew, that’s it! His fever did not abate and needed admission. Other physicians and doctors of his city attended to him in one of their hospitals. Soon his oxygenation fell. He fought and fought valiantly. But on the sixteenth day, his system failed. Corona had ruthlessly engulfed one more angel.

Shocked hush fell on the town!

A shocked hush fell on the town as the fateful news spread like wildfire. “The doctor upstairs is no more” “The doctor upstairs is no more” (“Uparwale doctor nahi rahe”) Thousands of those whom he had saved, stood far away as they watched his dead body being taken for cremation. The pandemic norms were followed for the body disposal. But who could control the crowds? Their helplessness made them feel more vulnerable and angry but to no avail. There was a huge outpour of emotions. Some wept, some swooned some fainted – adults, old, men, women, and children. There was no one now to wipe their tears.

You can not be forgotten!

       A year passed but most of them couldn’t forget him. The pandemic slowly abated. The hospital was now sold off and a new doctor had stepped in. But many families whose lives he had repeatedly touched were not feeling a closure. Their emotional loss just refused to heal. Their helplessness was haunting them. Something was needed, something had to be done. Finally, they met the new doctor who now owned the hospital. They made a very unusual request to him. Thankfully the doctor readily acceded to their request. So now, prominently displayed near the entrance of the hospital was his old board reassuring them, giving them some solace - “Dr. Pravin is upstairs”. Indeed he had become their “Uparwala doctor” - their doctor upstairs (in heaven)!