truth is stranger than fiction..

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 37; the thirty-seventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "Truth is stranger than fiction"

If you tell someone that you belong to the medical profession, that too a doctor, their first reaction is always excitement. True enough, it is an exciting job. Its always challenging, hectic, your diurnal rhythm flies out the window. You have to be on look out for the patient's relative who died due to delay in reaching hospital, but his relatives are looking to beat you up. So all in all you have a balance lifestyle, if you were unable to sleep at night due to duty, no worries, you have adapted your brain to fall asleep any time, anywhere. If you were unable to take dinner because you were stuck in Operation Theater, no issues your room mates have snuck in some food for you. So yes, its an exciting job. But what remains hidden from the world are the brutalities we encounter, the dilemmas we face, the personal sacrifices we make (which sadly no one appreciates or even acknowledges) Yeah , yeah go ahead and tell me Grey's Anatomy is doing a hell of a job of blowing the iron curtains from the secrets of the trade, but my dear readers you are missing the important link, its The United States of America they are showing, not India or any other developing countries.


Most of the incidents I am sharing here are first hand experiences I had, some good , some bad, and some just had no words to describe them.

This one I can never forget as I personally took it on my heart.
I was posted in Obstetrics and gynecology department in my final year, when this happened. As its a known fact that you have to get the deliveries done along with the senior residents, so we were used to getting choclates, sweets , and cakes being shared by the patient's family as they were elated on having a new member in the family. One perfectly sunny day it was, I remember clearly it being a sunday and me sulking as I was on duty. The labor ward was dull and there was no inflow of OPD patients , it being a sunday. I was chatting up with nurses on the nurse station, when a nice looking young man came and offered besan laddoo.
Now those were a favorite with me so I gulped one assuming he must be a proud father.

"So, what was it?? a girl ?? or a boy."

"No mam actually I am distributing sweets due to some other reason."

"Ok, some surgery got successful??" I was already done with first laddoo, and was eyeing other.

"No Doctor...Actually my wife delievered a girl child....."

Before he could complete...I interrupted, "Oh, congratzz but you said no when I asked."

"Actually my wife delievered a girl, but you see we were lucky enough that she died within 1 hour of birth, even God did not want us to have a girl child."

For a moment I was numb, the laddoo I was savoring few minutes earlier had me puking at the thought. Then disgust took over the shock and I wanted to hit the man so hard that he would never be able to produce a child let alone wish one dead. But we were taught better, we were told there would be numerous incidents like them, and we were not supposed to react.

"Sir, if you dont want to create a scene , please leave. You have done enough insults for one day. We all are females here, and we dont like it, let alone share your mirth."

"This lecture , you keep it to yourself." he said.

"If you do not leave, I will call the security and tell them you were misbehaving with me. And all the nurses will testify against you."
The nurses had disgust written all over their face.
The man left, but left me thinking is that the level we have fallen to. I thought it happened in old times or movies, but there it was, infront of my eyes.
"Truth is stranger than fiction."

Once again, it felt pathetic to belong to the so called human race.
Some internship postings were just too good to be true, and minor subjects were the ones where we had all the fun. We indulged ourselves in most of the activities we were unable to follow due to hectic schedule. It was winters and we were having some of Vitamin D from Our dear Surya devta, when one of the members of the blood donation committee came running and panting.

"Is any of you A positive blood group?? we need all A positive people like right now."

A positive is one of the common blood group, including mine so there were atleast 10 people who gathered in blood bank.

"Who needs so much of blood??" I asked.
"There is an old lady in surgery who has lost too much of blood as the feeding artery of the tumor got cut."
Still, there are so many students to donate, how much does she need."

"Actually her ass of a healthy-as-an-ass son has refused to give blood and has ordered the whole family not to give blood because he cant "afford" to keep her."

"What the f***???" That is the most bullshit reason I am hearing."

"Believe it or not, its true, we need atleast 12 units of blood to save her."

A son refusing to give blood to his own mother...
"Truth is stranger than fiction.."

There were numerous such incidents, which made me feel ashamed of the human race, fathers raping their own daughters, neighbours killing the kids to avenge something as petty as a bowl of sugar. Rich and famous leaving their parents in hands of nurses on pretext of being busy. You name it, and all much larger and more real than reel life.

The thing that made me believe in humanity again.
There was this old couple admitted together In Fortis when i worked in mumbai. Both were suffering last stage cancer. But there never was a dull moment as the uncle belonged to army and he was full of anecdotes. One day when aunty was sleeping I asked uncle how does he feel about this situation, and he is living quite bravely..His reply astonished me to no extent. He said we are not living life but doing life together. I have loved every moment of our life together and I am glad that I get to be with her in my end time.

That answer stuck with me forever.
Truth is stranger than fiction and will always be.
When I tell people these incidents they dont believe me and so we keep it to ourselves. only to share it with our own fraternity, but that does not make them any less real. It takes hell to keep sanity intact, but somewhere we get adapted to them.
Truth is stranger than fiction and will always be.

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