“Namaskar Sir” (Greetings Sir) The feeble voice on the
other end of the line crackled even as I strained to figure out as to who could
be calling me on a Sunday afternoon…
“Kaun bol raha hey” (who is
speaking?) I asked even as I was trying to guess the person on the other
side as recently all my numbers got deleted due to a technical glitch…
“Hum Anil bol rahein hein Sahab” Came the reply… (This is Anil here Sir - Name changed)“ aaj bahut accha camp hua Sir… Ek camp se
521 patient hospital surgery ke liye jaa rahein hein aur ek camp se 200
patients… (We had very good camp today sir, from one camp we got 521 patient
and from another camp 200 patients taken to the hospital for surgery)
As the voice crackled on, I was transported
to about 1 and a half years back when a medium built, heavily accented and
someone who wore his attitude on his sleeves was brought to my office and
introduced as the team leader for Outreach in one of the newly opened hospital
in the northern part of the country…
For the uninitiated, we are the
largest community eye care provider globally and 80% of our services are
provided free of cost to the rural poor who otherwise would have become blind
in the absence of provision of basic eye care surgery. More of that later.
Anil came to us with substantial experience
in community eye care having worked for 15 years with a local eye hospital carrying
out community outreach. We had interacted with him through video conferencing
and our hospital head also had interacted with him and we thought given the
years of experience and the context, he was a suitable fit.
He came to Coimbatore for his
training along with his team and that is where we first met each other.
We put him and his team through the
standard training program which we have where the team is put in the field and
gets exposed to all aspects of community outreach as conducted by us… Few days
in the training and we received complaints about him from our team and later by
his own team about addiction to tobacco and liquor which he has which he indulged
in during his official hours also…
This was infuriating for us and I
called him in to my office and along with the hospital head gave him a strict
warning that if he is found to indulge in such practices in future then he
would be asked to leave… He duly apologised and promised not to repeat it
again…
The training was over in due course
of time and Anil and team departed to our hospital in the north to start the activities
of community Outreach…
Even as work started at our new
hospital, I would often get to hear about Anil taking to his old practices not
only in terms of addictions but also dishonest practices which he was used to
from his earlier job… He also started throwing temper tantrums to increase the
salary or otherwise threatened to leave the job…
We finally decided that enough is
enough and decided to ask him to leave if he did not mend his way soon… This,
it was decided, would happen during one of my visit during May/June when I was
due to visit the hospital…
I reached our northern hospital in
the blistering heat of peak summer and as soon as I landed up I had a brief
meeting with the hospital head on various matters one of which was regarding Anil…
surprisingly the unit head was now all in favour of Anil and said that he has
reformed completely and there is no need for us to expel him now…. I was not
convinced and wanted to meet the man and decide for myself….
The meeting was arranged between me
and Anil in one of the afternoons in our conference room…. Anil walked in at
exactly the appointed time and greeted me in a very humble way and stood there
till I asked him to seat…. I was surprised to see the vast change in the body language
but thought it may be some theatrics which he has adopted to beguile us…
I straight came to the point of
discussion and told him that if he is not happy with the salary and working
with us then he should start looking for other opportunities… Anil looked up
painfully as if hurt and with folded hand asked me to give him some time to
explain himself… Thus he started his story, one which was not only
transformative but one which completely changed him as a person that he was….
“Sir I
know, I have not been a good employee and despite what the organisation has
done, I have not been able to reciprocate in the same manner” Began Anil in
a meek voice…
“I agree that the incentive for leaving my old job was the thought the working
with a larger chain of hospitals would give me more money and comfort… I will
not lie but when I started work here I also started all the old corrupted
practices of taking money from our local supporters and patients… I also
indulged in addiction and got in to the habit of receiving favours from local
camp supporters for unsavoury things… Given this practice, you are within your
right to expel me and I will also not object… But before that please hear my
story and how it has transformed me…” Anil paused to take a sip of water from the
glass put infornt of him and then continued…
“2 months ago I went to a village to follow up patients who have not
come for review… This is a village where I have also worked in my previous job
and those people knew me well…whenever I used to come earlier in my previous
job, they would insult me and hurl abuses at me for being corrupted and indulging
in bad practices.. I used to let it roll of my back and ignore them for what
they were saying was the truth and there was no point arguing them…”
“So I walked in to the village and I could see the village elders, young
man and some of the panchayat members standing near the village pan shop…With
thumping heart and with lots of apprehension I slowly approached them all ready
to face the abuse that was going to start”
“As soon as they saw me a noise and commotion arose and I just clenched
my teeth and closed my eyes for the 1st roll of abuse to hit me… But
then nothing happened and when I opened my eyes I could see all of the village
elders and panchayat member encircling me and falling over each other in
inviting me to come and sit while some young fellows were rushing to get me a charpoy…
Some others were asking me whether I needed tea or lassi!...I could also hear
some elder shouting to the young fellows to make it quick as Doctor sahib has
come”….
“initially I though it to be one big joke where they were setting me up
for some sarcastic leg pulling which will end up with abuses hurled at me… as
one village elder tugged my sleeves other made way for me to occupy the
charpoy…”
“I sat down, took a deep breath and asked them that is it some kind of
joke that they want to play with me” surprised and hurtful they had this thing
to say” aap aise kaise soch sakte ho doctor sahib… humein aapke naye hospital ke
bare mein pata nahin tha par jab log wahan se operation karake aaye toh pata
chal kaisa swarg hey woh” (how could you even think thus doctor sahib? We did
not know about your new hospital but came to know of it when people had their
surgery and came told us what a heavenly place that is”)
At that point of time, one frail
looking old man with dark eye glasses like the one which people use after eye surgery,
broke the protocol and jumped in to the conversation….
“Kya hospital hey aapka doctor sahib, itna saaf, safai ke saath aap log
rakhte ho.. Humein toh camp se itne pyaar se sab log hospital le gaye aur wahan
par aapka sab staff itne aadar satkaar se humara kahyal rakha… Khana, pina aur
rehna itne acchhe tarike se diya… Hum aapko kya bolein, saare staff hum logon
ko dada aur daadi ke name se pukarte the… Itna samman toh kabhi humko apne
bacchon ne nahin diya… (What a hospital you have doctor sahib, so neat and
clean it is maintained… we were taken from the campsite with much respect and
at the hospital your staff took so good care of us with dignity, food was
served with so much love as well as the stay…. I even feel choked now
emotionally as I tell you this: your staff called us grandpa and grandma for
all the duration of our stay… such love and respect we have never ever received
even from our own children) at this point he choked and started crying…
“A feeling on guilt on time wasted and a self-loathing about the
opportunity which I was just frittering out at Sankara overtook me at that
point of time… unknowingly tears of gratitude on a second chance and also the
respect of the poor and needy for me started to roll down heavily from my eyes as
I unabashedly cried that day in that village which had forever scorned me but
was now welcoming me with an open arm as one would to their own child”
I could see Anil wiping tears from
the corner of his eyes and I was just overwhelmed to see this cocky and a man
so sure of himself can also cry….
“That day Sir” Anil continued “I
vowed to change myself and dedicate my life to Sankara and the noble work it is
doing…. I do not need any salary hike nor any money for doing this work… I just
need the organisation’s permission for me to do this work… For 15 years I did
the same work but was always met with abuse and expletives thrown at me but
never broke down under those feelings of hatred… This one moment of love and
respect which the villagers showed me that day changed me totally as a person…
Now, whether you decide to keep me or throw me out, does not matter to me… Even
outside Sankara I would continue to work and help the hospital in its noble
work…”
I asked Anil to wait outside and give me some
time to think before I can arrive at a decision…. I just sat back and
contemplated on what transpired between the two of us in last half an hour…
What Anil realised and received 1st hand is something none of our
training manual, field exposure or theoretical framework can give him… This is
the gem which one can only discover when one has really given that care and
love to the countless masses selflessly which gets returned back manifold and becomes
so transformative that it can change the total perspective of community work
and can prove to be life changing…. This ultimately is for me is the real
fortune at the bottom of the pyramid!
I conferred with the hospital head
who is also a good friend and who listened to my tale of Anil with a smile on
his face and asked me to take the final decision…
I called in Anil and asked him to
sit down….
Slowly with emotion choked voice I
said “Ab tak aap kahan the Anil…. Welcome back”
Epilogue:
Since then Anil has gone to work
like a man possessed and has broken many earlier records in the state of
reaching out and serving many poor patients through surgery and provision of
quality eye care.
He also has enrolled himself in a
de addiction program and is slowly limping back to normalcy even as we speak.
Though his doctor has advised him complete bed rest, he could not resist to
come to today’s mega camp which was one of his dreams which he had promised to
me as we departed each other’s way on that blistering hot day of summer...
