Vacations are meant to be vacations, a time when you can sleep till twelve, watch T.V., eat and sleep, sleep and sleep, cos’ sleep is what you’re deprived of, the normal days.
The usual wakeup call at nine, and ‘as usual’ I religiously took to the ritual of switching the phone off, Reason being Summer Vacation. But with a difference-I was an intern at the Madras Medical Mission.
Given that I am a stickler for cleanliness, I gave my room a miss the previous night as it was still in a mess that had resulted from my B’day Party. That hot sunny, scorching morning, after having waded through a sea of scribbled note-pads, post-its, loose sheets of Paper (I was preparing!!!) and some more paper, some clipped with those pretty pink (now who in the world came up with the idea of calling pink, pretty????!!!!! Since my cousin refers to those, that way, the name remains. May I add, she gifted me a huge packet of paper clips, the last time she had come down :D :P) paper clips, folders, chocolate wrappers, half a bar of Snickers, gravy stained floor, arrived at the target destination, My wardrobe!
The intensity of the itch is always inversely proportional to its distance, nay? It was half past Twelve. My shift was supposed to start at 1.00, and oh yes, It did :) With my amazing sense of mix and match (mismatch), in ten minutes I was there at MMM to be welcomed by the Chief doctor, obviously frustrated by something, thankfully not my ugly Hairstyle, a kinda upside down pony tail, flaunting the new butterfly clip!
1.00-Rush to the lift...All busy?? Take the stairs...Histopathology dept. Wait!!! I test positive for MRSA which means I cannot enter the lab! (Inner me: You have to do it. Remember reports, HOD, credits?)
OH OK!!
Ah!! Now what? I didn’t have an ID card! Head to the 7th floor, get a temporary one, on the way down, a beautiful spectacle a three something year old kid with his parents, toys on the floor...another baby in the cradle, feeding bottle in the mouth, and a blank staring mother. And just before I could say WOW at the cartoon-characters-stuck room, I noticed the writing on the door- CARDIOLOGY.
Shaken, back to the basement, first specimen for the day-a placenta fresh outta the womb, cancerous. My! Couldn’t we section anything else?
When everything else lets you down, caffeine gives you that high. 5 cups of extra strong coffee, still perturbed, exhausted. The only thing on my mind was, “Flop on the bed”..
Home at 7.00. Cleaned room!
Images of my day at the hospital and the place I call ‘home’ flashed in front of my eyes.
Chills down the spine in the heat of April!
