The Child In Me

Some time back I had taken my mother to A***** Hospital (a renowned hospital) for a checkup. There was a man from rural Bengal who had come with his son to meet a psychiatrist. The doctor was a Tamilian who spoke English and only passable Hindi. The father could only speak Bengali and barely spoke Hindi / English. They were having a communication problem larger than what many marriages have. At some point, they raised an SOS asking for a Bengali-English/Tamil translator. Since I was kind of free, I took up that responsibility as a good citizen (I had a crooked intention - we will come to it soon enough) - and asked my mother to wait and I went to the psychiatrist's chamber. 

Now I was speaking Bengali after more than a year or two, hence it was rusty. Words used to describe the 10 year old patient (epilepsy, fits, rage etc) were obviously not the run of the mill words and initially I had some difficulty. I picked up such words in Bengali from the father as well as I could and I was soon doing pretty well. The conversation turned out to be largely between the patient's father and me with the doctor occasionally pitching in to say something technical. The doctor was obviously getting very restless and annoyed. He would try to interrupt the discussion between me and the patient and I would show my palm to him (indicating "please wait. don't talk").

The doctor/psychiatrist on the other hand was an A***** hospital doctor. He believed that the conversation should have been essentially between him and the patient and that the clerical work of translation should have been outsourced to me. It turned out that the patient (rather, his father) and I outsourced the "clerical" work of psychiatry to him. 

At the end of the meeting, the psychiatrist suggested to the patient's father that they meet up in the evening at his (doctor's) chambers. The father looked at me hopefully and inquired whether I would be able to come there (to continue to do the good work). I translated the request to the doctor. I am yet to see a doctor scream "NO" as loudly as the psychiatrist did then.

For a long time I have had a resentment against A***** doctors for the condescending way that they treat patients and / or their family members. I had sworn then "one of these days..."). I had a good fun at the doctor's expense - very childish, no?