Recently, when I reached hospital with
my apron and stethoscope around my neck, one little girl who was in her
mother's lap, pointed towards me and told her mother, "mumma dekho
doctor!". It amused me. I went up to her and talked to her, played with
her for a while. When I left, I turned back and saw her beaming with joy. That
little girl made me feel like a celebrity :).
It is little things like this that make
me glad that I became a pediatrician. When a baby stops crying on seeing you
and starts playing with you, tries to catch your stethoscope and giggles. When
a child waits for you on ward rounds, and when you don’t reach her bed, she
feigns a stomachache to catch your attention :). When a baby who initially came
so sick that she could barely open her eyes, now smiles at you, puts her hands
out towards you, asking you to take her into your lap. I think this is what gives
me true happiness and strength and carries me through tough and testing times,
through all the suffering around, through sick, dying kids, through worrying,
frantic parents and through my own conscience at times.
