Humanity lost: Because she is not my daughter !!!

That day one well dressed man in his early 50's approached me... He came for the 2nd dose of Rabies vaccination for his 17 year old daughter... She was bitten by a stray dog and accordingly the treating doctor advised her the post exposure vaccination.

"Sir, are all the doses necessary?"

"Yeah for sure... You will have to bring her on all the scheduled dates here..."

He got somewhat annoyed...

"Actually sir, it's far from here.. It's really difficult..."

"Where are you from?"

"Chandmari..."

I smiled and said, "It's hardly 4 kms from here.. The vaccine is given so that she doesn't get the disease... Do you know,  how many people survive after  rabies is diagnosed?"

"Yes Sir... Nobody survives.."

"You already know it... In case of rabies, the mortality rate is 100%... Then where is your problem?"

He became irritated...

"Actually it becomes too troublesome for me to manage time... Today is day 2... I'll have to bring her here for another 3 days.. After all it's me who is facing the trouble... "

Something clicked my mind...

"Is she your own daughter?"

"No.. She is our helper... She stays with us.."

You know... Take me wrong if you want, but frankly speaking, I just hated that guy at that moment and thus I said,

"I already knew it... That's why you are least concerned about her well being... Provided she was your own daughter, you wouldn't have felt all these problems... Rather you would have enquired me if she would need something else even after getting all these injections... Mind you, she is a young girl and someone else's daughter who is serving your family leaving behind her near and dear ones and yet you are this much reluctant to protect her even when the government is providing the vaccines for free... Grow up man... Try to act human !!!"

No further explanations required... I already told him what I was supposed to !!!

A shoulder to cry upon...

[Confession: Unlike my previous posts, some of the facts are modified in this update to maintain privacy. But the incidents are presented as they happened in reality...]

That day one of my junior approached me with his wife.. They came to consult some doctors in our institute who are in good terms with me and I accompanied them. That junior was too close to me, his wife is like my own sister in law and above all these, they were in so much distress that I couldn't leave them alone.

The previous night that junior's younger brother called me and described in details about some diagnosis... Literally he was crying....

"Partha da, you know... Dada is controlling himself, but what to say about bou (sister in law)? She is crying since the morning.. They will meet you tomorrow... Please... Please help them out..."

Initially when I met them, both of them appeared calm and quiet... It seemed like they could somehow control their emotions. Thus without asking anything else, I just smiled and patted her shoulder saying, "Don't worry, everything will be alright!!" Anyway, I didn't want to reignite their suppressed fragile emotions anymore...

Everything went well.. We consulted 2 doctors from different departments and they advised some investigations to be done...  Both my junior and his wife were trying to act practically and eventually they could maintain their calmness.. But as we were returning, incidentally she met one of her maternal uncles and... and she just broke down into tears...

Quite often we come across such incidents when we see people trying hard to control themselves.. But once they meet  some near and dear ones, they can't help, but get overwhelmed by their emotions and break down, which is actually good for them in the sense that even if for temporarily, it helps in relieving their grief to some extent...  Most of you can probably relate to this...

You know... When we are in distress, we may need several things to overcome the situation, but most importantly we need someone whom we can trust, someone with whom we can share our grief... In other words, we will need a shoulder to cry upon.... That shoulder may be in the form a caring husband or a loving wife or a protective parent or a good friend or anyone upon whom we can rely... And until and unless you are the one, there is every chance for you to misjudge their emotions !!!

The tragic episode is now over.. She had to undergo some procedures and everything is gradually returning to normalcy.. To be true, I have encountered similar several incidents in the past, but this was for the first time that I was able analyse the situation and thus it made me  realize once again something most important in all our life...

Being human, our activities should be such that it not only fulfil our interests, but also help or support someone else or can reduce someone's sufferings...

Win someone's trust and be the 'shoulder'.... And you will feel that you have already achieved something in your life !!!