The Old Doctor

THE OLD DOCTOR
(Published Academia 2005 - Omkar Hajirnis Sem X)


As we look back into the sands of time,flashed through our minds are various thoughts of the good and bad,happy and sad,some memorable while some to be forgotten.Each of us live everyday whatever comes our way,without wondering even once ,"Is this life ?"
Same was going across the mind of a very old doctor who had served all his life under the oath he had taken years before.As he sat back in the empty room of his old dispensary,he thought of his times - the good old times as they say.He thought of the morning sun,pouring down into his room and his ever youthful smile always in place,as he met his patients whom he considered his life,came everyday with the hope which the doctor gave.The clinking sounds of the smelling bottles of medicines which were the fragrance of his life and the churning motion of the mortar.
As life churned over the wheels of time,he grew old.The same old morning sun failed to show up under the heavy buildings which grew up in front of his dilapidated dispensary.The empty benches creaked occasionally under the weight of some old trusted patient.The bottles hardly needed to be opened but their odour lurked around the room.
As the old doctor wondered what had gone wrong,why the decline,he looked outside the window and saw the heavily crowded road with glazy neon signs displaying at least a dozen boards of doctors around him with fancy degrees behind their names.He sighed: actually he pitied the people,the general population - what a waste !
This must be life he guessed.He wasn't as qualified as his younger colleagues and he had to accept it,but then wasn't medicine more about experience and skills than just qualifications ? But this was the irony of his life and he couldn't do much,not that he blamed others.
As he poured himself a glass of water and sat to drink it,he thought that he had completely drowned himself into a sea without the ability to keep himself afloat.Then from one corner of his mind came a call,it told him that he had actually managed to stay afloat after all these years.The fact that he still was a practicing doctor though terribly old,was one of a kind in the world where majority of his colleagues had either died or given their hands up.He had something which nobody could teach anybody no matter any number of degrees behind a name,which was experience and patience.Though a small doctor,he still was a great doctor and still better,a good human being.This was what mattered because because this was the aim he started his life with - to become a good doctor and a good human being.He had succeeded in his own principles and didn't care about the failure the people thought he was.He has succeeded truly.
As he locked the creaking wooden door with the rusted old lock,he put the key in his pocket,took a deep breath and put his head up as he walked away with a sense of pride.