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Just stand there!
#WritcoStoryPrompt12
The old woman was near death. I could hear her try to draw in painful gasps of breath. I felt helpless as a doctor in this remote part of the world. Was there nothing I could do?
Venila- her grand daughter and other folks gathered were looking at me with an expectation, almost goading me to do ‘something’ with their eyes.
I froze.
The past three months played out before my eyes like a timelapse imagery. They called her’Keerai Patti ( roughly translates’Greens Granny’). She sold greens on the street side. Whenever I visited the village, she would greet me ‘ Sogama Doctor thambi’- ( are you well Doctor Saab?). I will in turn say ‘Sogame keerti patti ( I am well), Give me a bunch of sirukeerai Patti’ and buy greens every time. Siru Keerai is a variety of green that has very high iron content. Keerai Patti changed the way I practiced medicine. I learnt from her what my five years of allopathic medical school failed to teach me.
It was an afternoon in August. I was just two months into the posting of this remote Primay Health Center ( PHC) in TamilNadu. I was on my visit to all the villages that came under the...
The old woman was near death. I could hear her try to draw in painful gasps of breath. I felt helpless as a doctor in this remote part of the world. Was there nothing I could do?
Venila- her grand daughter and other folks gathered were looking at me with an expectation, almost goading me to do ‘something’ with their eyes.
I froze.
The past three months played out before my eyes like a timelapse imagery. They called her’Keerai Patti ( roughly translates’Greens Granny’). She sold greens on the street side. Whenever I visited the village, she would greet me ‘ Sogama Doctor thambi’- ( are you well Doctor Saab?). I will in turn say ‘Sogame keerti patti ( I am well), Give me a bunch of sirukeerai Patti’ and buy greens every time. Siru Keerai is a variety of green that has very high iron content. Keerai Patti changed the way I practiced medicine. I learnt from her what my five years of allopathic medical school failed to teach me.
It was an afternoon in August. I was just two months into the posting of this remote Primay Health Center ( PHC) in TamilNadu. I was on my visit to all the villages that came under the...
