Doctors and lill ones...

(Disclaimer: I is not me, but a figment of my imagination)

Most children are scared of doctors, for the simple reason that in their minds a doctor is associated with a syringe. Parents don’t help either when they tell their children:

“ Behave, or Doctor uncle will come”.

This works on most children. It used to work on me. It will work on me even today, but no one knows that so they don’t use it anymore.

Once I was waiting for my turn at the clinic. A little girl’s wails could be heard from the inside. I think they were trying to give her a injection for rabies but she would have none of it. As is usual, they tried cajoling her, bribing here and when all that failed brute force was used. But she wasn’t to be kept still and the Doctor couldn’t inject her. So they held her tight but she had the last word when, between sobs, she yelled at the doctor:

“ Uncle… your children must really hate you. You treat children like that…I feel sorry for your children.”

The doctor was shocked and everyone else was in fits of laughter.

For me, syringes were something I was very afraid of. I think the only thing that scared me more was when my Dad had “that” look in his eye. Once, I stuck my head on a wooden pillar and that pillar had a nail sticking out and I had a hole right on top of my head. I tried to keep that a secret, because it meant a tetanus shot. But when something can go wrong, it usually does and the wound was found out and I was promptly taken to a doctor.

The doctor bought out the inevitable syringe. I wanted to get up and run. I would have, but I looked up at and saw my dad staring at me with that look in his eye. I was doomed. Caught between the evil and the deep blue sea. A deer caught between a leopard and a lion. I was rooted to the chair, tears in my eyes and eyes shut tight.

It was soon over and it wasn’t that bad.