Held Fugitive In A Hospital

It all started with a maternal aunt of mine having been diagnosed with cancer.

Soon, there was another cousin, yet another cousin and a few ladies known to us.
A " Doctor cousin " was also not spared and this nice human being- the best among my cousins , caught in the claws of the deadly crab , had to undergo mastectomy. This was enough to create some sort of panic.This was twenty six years ago, when the mere word cancer sent shivers down the spine of people.

The elders in the family started persuading their daughters to undergo screening- a routine check up, to eliminate all doubts. Well, I too was being pestered by my dear mother to do the same. I am allergic to hospitals. To injections( I remember darting out of my class room in my 9th standard to the recluse of the fifth standard and taking shelter under a bench to avoid small pox vaccination in the early sixties!!). To the smell of dettol and other spirits. Wailings that could be heard. ...the list is endless.

I was simply not keen. I told my mother that if one has to get some disease, one will get it! I believe that when someone visits a hospital even for a routine check up, the anxiety levels unknown to us will work it's way subconsciously and definitely go haywire and record a high reading of the Blood Pressure !! It is all in the mind. But then my hubby also decided that I need to go, as the ladies in the quarters where we were staying had decided to undergo tests and check ups.

We were stationed at Bombay at that time and accompanied by a friend, landed at a famous hospital.
The friend had to wait in the reception lobby and I was taken to a room on the first floor.

After filling up a lengthy form- almost the whole horoscope - my clothes were taken away by the staff and I was wrapped in something like a house coat, which was so loose( could accommodate three , my size)and the welcrow not functioning .
The " funny costume " coming only up to a little above the ankles. I must have looked like female clown- minus the red ball on the tip of the nose and a joker's cap ! Well, the staff accompanied me to yet another floor above and I was ushered into a tiny darkish room with no windows and freezing cold like North Pole.

There was a nurse there who resembled in haughtiness, a terrible witch and soon a Medical staff- a pretty lady who must have been in her twenties looking very grumpy wandered in. Not my day, I told myself . May be she had a bad day at home or a tiff with some Doctor..I wondered. Sticky slimy gel spread on my anatomy , followed by sticking some black washer like stuff dangling at the end of black wires which in turn were connected to some machine.
Then the nightmare moments started..

Some other nurse stepped in and this lady ( Doctor?) left in a hurry.

"Wait. I'll be back," were her words.

Wait ? How funny ! As if I could leave the room with all these thingies clinging on !!

The wait was long.

Meanwhile, I must tell you that I am a book worm. I had been hooked on to this author Robin Cook those days and was on a spree reading his books.

The last book I had read was the day prior to this and this was about conducting some fertility experiments on women who were duped and lured into laboratories built some where ia some state in the U S. Robin Cook's novels deal with such themes and lying down on this ice cold steel table with the temperatue like freezing ice, I recalled this novel. A chill literally ran through my spine! The moods of the Nurse and this Lady Doctor..the dark room...What an idiot I was ! As if , I in my mid forties could be made the guinea pig for fertility experiments ?

Well, I could not dash out and make good an escape. I did not know where my clothes were. And seeing me flee the room and tearing down the corridors in this mad attire, the Ex Kings of Ruritania( the security guys) who were scattered everywhere may grab me and I could imagine a Nurse sending a syringe into my flesh and then being taken into another room, where I may have to meet a Head Shrink.

I was scared.

I started chanting the Skandha Shashti Kavacham .Yes, " when in difficuly or when you feel that danger lurks, recite Skandha Shashti Kavacham " was my close friend's advice. She was a great Skandha fan.

I started reciting this in all earnestness..
I had never been as earnest or devout before .

Well. It paid.

The nurse and the grumpy Lady Doctor entered.
Her mood had changed ( Was she told that she was in for a raise ? Or she had found true love ? Another dashing handsome Doctor working in the same hospital ?)She was all smiles.She was really chatty and very very friendly and everything passed off well. She told me, " I don't think you have to fear anything!!" What sweet consoling words !

I was relieved that nothing was wrong with me .

But the hospital visit made me wiser. I took two decisions.

I stopped reciting Skandha Sashti Kavacham. It was in that cold nightmarish room that I had concentrated on the words in the prayer ( otherwise a mechanical recital) and discovered to my horror that I was asking the Lord to Chop, Pierce,Burn etc. etc. my enemies !! Phew ! What a request to the Lord ! I'd rather that He changed their nature and made them good!!!

The other decision was to stop reading Robin Cook ) Well I had read almost all of them

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Thank you Satchitananda
Your response seems to have inspired me.
Well, my next blog will be on Doctors..I mean a particular Doctor who was like a God..Deivam Manushya RoopeNa..which I am sure you can display to your husband )

 

Thank you very much Nandinimithun
Yes English novels and our prayers have a strange relationship ))
"Keep writing " ?
Well, you have asked for it!! I don't think I can ignore that request...writing is my breath