If nature had to explain me the meaning of the phrase 'long overdue', it chose to explain it in a brutal way. Yes, I do stand accused of procrastinating, and taking few actions in personal life granted, but time waits for none. So, when I learnt the news of one of my favourite person leaving this earth for heaven, I realised that I missed conveying to her how much she was my favourite.
Being brought up in a close knit habitat brings its own share of perks and punishments. And one of the perks for me during my childhood, was a system to tend to me and cured me quick, every time I was ill. I was insulated from the scenes of deluge of patients (some on wheelchair, some with saline drips) in the Outpatient Department Wards of some of the government run hospitals. And that was primarily due to the healthcare clinic in my colony. There we few doctors tending to patient on their shift timings. But my favourite was one I used to addressed as 'Lady Doctor Aunty'.
Calm face, yet confident, Lady Doctor aunty exhibited a sense of resilience and comfort. She was quick to call out the bad habits (she used to warn me on my slouch posture and always advised me to have a straight posture). From prescribing medicines, to signing off my medical application forms (to be submitted to school), her actions not only improved my physical well being but also gave me mental peace (remember the feeling when ill, and remember the feeling when cured of illness? the transition in mental phase is awesome once you are cured).
Known as being affectionate to children in the colony, Lady Doctor Aunty used to amaze me with her ability to time-and-again guess the patient illness the moment she/walked into the room. An epitome of multi-tasking, she made sure to keep patients at ease while conducting the diagnosis (may it be using stethoscope, blood-pressure monitoring instrument, cleaning wounds or administering injection at times). Like me, there were others in the colony whose patient books (we were provided a notebook by the clinic where the doctors used to write the diagnosis and dates) were inscribed by the prescriptions by Lady Doctor aunty.
On a lighter note , I was often amazed by the color of frame on one of her glasses, and the color of her pen as they were matching. I also drove recourse in the fact that her handwritings were difficult to read for me. So whenever I was asked by my mother to improve on my handwriting I used to reply saying "but even doctor aunty's handwriting is like mine", to which she used to say "she is doctor, and you are student who hasn't even graduated from primary school". Later I realised that Lady Doctor Aunty must have put in the hard work and utilised her ability to serve patients to such an extent that hardly anyone was bothered about the handwritings.
Today when I go to hospitals, I am reminded of my colony days when hospital used to be small and less scary. As the wait time at doctors get longer (with cities swelling in population), finding a moment where one can access a very good doctor with a wait time in half-an-hour is a thing of past. But I am proud to remind myself of the golden old days when I was able to access very good doctors in colony quick.
Yes, the 'long overdue' comes today when I am finally able to put down my thank you to her in words. It is ironical that roughly a week or more back I was listening to back to back campaigns on radio to send an ode about woman/women who impacted individual life on eve of Women's Day. I kept on ignoring the campaign, unaware that after 10 days I would be penning down a tribute to a soul who continues to still impact me till day.
Lady Doctor Aunty might have left us; but the memories associated with her (somewhere in some house that patient notebook would be there with her diagnosis and prescriptions) remain with us as fresh as yesterday.
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