Waiting and Watching

A doctor's clinic is one of those places where I normally dread to go. Regardless of whether I am the patient or whether I am accompanying one, I usually have to undergo a waiting period ranging from half an hour to more, depending on the long queue ahead before I get to meet the doctor. I am not complaining because the one advantage of this long wait is that I can freely observe human nature and its various nuances. And i tell you, it is really interesting...

 For one, it is amusing to watch people take an interest in the affairs of the other. There is a particular category which compulsively strikes up conversation with the person sitting alongside (usually a lady). Questions usually begin with her particular ailment and can progress to the topic of the best shop where one can get the freshest brinjals at a fair price! The gullible victim who is none too eager to pour out her miserable life following a persistent cough, has in no time revealed her entire family history including details of spouse, kids, in laws, neighbors, the cow, cat, dog, and a whole lot of personal stuff without realizing that it has been heard by the entire humanity assembled there...

Then again, there is another category who are commonly known as hypochondriacs. They suffer from some imaginary disease or the other and believe in changing doctors frequently because in their opinion, the previous doctor was not expert enough to diagnose their ‘serious’ medical condition. These people invariably ramble on about the irresponsibility and unreliability of ‘these new-age doctors’ to an unresponsive audience composed of bored and restless patients who are impatiently waiting for their turn.

The third category is usually older men who are mostly seen accompanying the patient who in most cases would be their wives or mothers. Totally unsympathetic and impatient to the woes of their groaning spouses, these enthusiastic people are full of ears for the tales of agony of the other suffering souls in the waiting area. That’s not all, since this particular category consider themselves to be uncrowned experts in the field of medicine, one can expect a whole lot of advices like managing diabetes by drinking a daily dose of red chillies boiled in water to which a few neem leaves has been added  to running barefoot on sand to counter chronic osteoarthritis!

Another genre of people often similar in status to the ones mentioned above are those who absolutely think the worst of every medical condition, except their own. Totally obsessed with pessimism, these people firmly believe in scaring the already frightened patient out of their skins. I actually heard a man who had accompanied his ailing wife talk to an elderly lady who inadvertently revealed that she was suffering from a wound on her foot which was taking time to heal due to her diabetes. He vehemently told her in no uncertain terms that she was suffering from the same fate as one of his relatives who ultimately had to amputate his leg!

Oops! Here comes an elderly lady to occupy the seat next to mine, with a dangerous glint in her eyes that truly belongs to the second category. Guess I need to make my escape…