Hats and Doctors: Stories by Ashk Upendranath

Author:Ashk, Upendranath [Ashk, Upendranath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184759365
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

When Mr Ghatpande returned after about half an hour, he burst into a loud guffaw. ‘I just asked the doctor about fluid,’ he said, ‘and he told me that the chances of my getting fluid are about the same as getting run over by a car.’ Mr Ghatpande laughed again and continued, ‘The doctor told me, “Nobody ever thinks about getting run over by a car, so why are you worrying about getting fluid in your lungs?” My case is quite mild. There’s hardly any chance I’ll get fluid.’

Saying this, he sat down comfortably on his bed. He rested his back against his pillow and then he laughed again. The colour had returned to his face. ‘The doctor was telling me,’ he said, ‘that as a rule here, they examine the new patients for seven days in this ward, and if they don’t run a fever, they’re transferred to another ward and even allowed to walk around a little.’

I heaved a deep sigh because I knew for sure that the chances of my ever being transferred from this ward were very slim.

‘You have no reason to worry,’ Mr Ghatpande told me. ‘You should never listen to what other people say. Have faith in yourself. You know what Napoleon once said about self-confidence?’

Mr Ghatpande was about to reveal to me Napoleon’s views on self-confidence, when a patient with a shaven head came out of the inner ward. He wore a khaki shirt and trousers, and was of medium height and lanky. He had a broad chest and a rather large face, but his cheeks were sunken and there was a kind of a crazy look in his eyes. They seemed peculiarly hollow, straying constantly from one object to the next, resting on nothing.

‘Just think, gentlemen, you’ve arrived today and today I’m leaving.’ He bared his teeth in a grin and greeted us from the door. Walking on to the verandah, he first cast a glance at my chart and then at Mr Ghatpande’s.

Mr Ghatpande laughed and asked him, ‘Are you too afraid of fluid?’

‘Well, yes, fluid is definitely worth fearing,’ he said, ‘and then, it’s been a year since I came here and my condition has not improved a bit. My fever hasn’t gone down and there hasn’t been any decrease of “G”.’

‘I myself will be leaving the sanatorium in a couple of months. My doctor says …’ Mr Ghatpande started to say, but the other man cut him short: ‘All the doctors say that. That’s exactly what they told me and, now look, I’ve been here a whole year. You did the wrong thing, coming to this sanatorium. Who cares about the patients here? This is just a goddamn business. I’m going to Miraj. The doctor there is the most renowned specialist in T.B. You did the wrong thing by coming here. If your case gets worse here, there’s no way you’ll get any better. It will rain here incessantly for weeks and months while the weather will be wonderful at Miraj.

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