For the past few days I have been a regular at the children ward no 18 of safdarjung hospital.. visiting nahne who has been in hospital for 28 days.. these visits have been an eye opener on many realities.. some heartwarming others disturbing..
ward 18 has several rooms, each having 8 beds.. and in each of them are children from diferent walks of life and parts of India, different castes and religions but here it does not make a difference.. compassion, camaraderie and concern link the families together, each ready to help the other.. crises bringing people together and ironing out all divergence that may have existed outside the walls of the hospital..
when the children sleep, mothers share their life stories, their problems and worries.. a sort of complicity establishes itself between the young mothers and this is visible in the covert smiles that are exchanged when others visit, particularly mothers-in-law!
Funny how people who would have not even glanced at each other and even may have viewed each other with suspicion or even contempt , bond so well in time of crises.. somehow crises always seems to get out the best in people.. maybe these are times when we realise our vulnerability.. human nature one would say..
the only jarring note was when one woman who had brought her orphaned nephew revealed the nature of the little boy’s ailment: AIDS.. ignorance was quick to set up invisible barriers and destroy the almost picture perfect atmosphere that had prevailed..
This is a very poignant post. i am glad you shared your experiences. As a mum myself i can understand and have experienced the comeradie of 'experiences' when a child is ill. Your post is poignant to me when you mention the mother who's child has AIDs…sudden;y she becomes ostracised and is not involved in the 'ill community'. Predjudice, ignorance rears it's ugly head, how very sad indeed. The poor victim an innocent child and equally his poor victimised mother is outcasted from conversation and contact and only because of those dreaded words 'aids'. People can be so fickle in one sense they say they open their hearts to all but in reality if the word Aids comes into the equation they run like scared rabbits. These people are ill too and suffering, why do so many recoil in their love and affections when the word 'aids' is mentioned.? All who 'suffer' rehardless of why need love.
Pam
its really heartbreaking how people push away those who need the maximum amount of affection. whenever i think of HIV positive people or children the only thought that comes to my mind is pity, an immense proportion of it.
beautiful post.
This is a post where I can relate word to word. I myself have been at AIIMS for 6-7 years, which is opposite to Safdarjung. I have seen how it works in these hospitals. I have seen those wards and seen people creating a world in and around the wards and outside near the eating places or medical stores. Crises bind people. They help each other out. It is amazing as there are different worlds people create- world of doctors, world of staff, world of patients and outside the world of medical stores, food and juice places outside. They all are so connected yet so different. There is even a train reservation counter in AIIMS hospital campus whereby people can book their train tickets. There are special counters for patients and their families for buying the tickets. People from all over India visit these two hospitals in Delhi which makes the doctors from here very brilliant in their experiences and knowledge. People get cured mostly. Since patients always outnumber the resources, there are problems and issues and I have seen doctors working like crazy and just going way out of the way to handle all the numerous patients. All in all, it is an experience to be there- be it any world- the world of patients, the world of doctors, the world of shop owners outside.Thanks for this post. It took me back to past.