Free Smoking Area

I loathe visiting hospitals and i am sure most of us abstain from going to the hospitals if we are not too sick. But Choden was sick last week and i had to accompany her to Wangdicholing Hospital. When your near and dear ones are sick, you would even call up a disqualified Shaman to do whatever was not done.

By the time we reached the hospital, there were people already in a long queue waiting for the doctorji!

I volunteered to stand in the queue while choden took rest on a chair nearby. After about few hours, we finally had our opportunity. "Tell everything", i had whispered to Choden since a conference with a doctor is almost next to impossible these days. Despite, tell me when often do you see a friendly doctor?

"What happened?", the doctor asked as if he was presiding over a state funeral.

"Sick, doc", i chipped in. She helped me by explaining her symptoms.

"When did it happen?"

He checked her blood pressure. "Quite low", he murmured.

He then scribbled that famous doctoral diagnosis on the paper. I curiously bent low to sneak what he was writing down. We can only wonder why doctors can't write neatly.

"Thank you, la", i uttered as we stood up. He wouldn't even look up at me. :)

Frankly speaking, doctors in Bhutan are overburdened. But who aint overburdened?! We are all paid in equal measures for our work and the least we can do is apply some Grace in our work. Well you must have heard, doctors in Bhutan are underpaid comparatively. On the other end, no one is overpaid. Few months back, there were talks about why we should increase the salary of our Tshogpas in the LG. They claim that they do most of the work: calling up people for the meeting, carrying our notices to each doors, chaperoning Gewog guests etc while Ap Gup would sit in his chair! Ditto in the hospitals. Ask a sweeper how important his work is.

We are all imbued with notions that only the work that we do is important, other works are not as important as what you do! These days, it is more difficult to get a decent appointment with a doctor than the PMO.

On a lighter side, have you ever seen a good place to light up a cigarette? Do drop by the hospital side in Bumthang. They have a huge signboard attached to the main gate that reads: FREE SMOKING AREA!

(I regretted not taking my camera but i guess that signboard would be still there for years!)

I wanted to remind it to the doctor but the sight of that doctor frightened me and i thought might scold my poor vision. I re-read it. No mistake. I read the Dzongkha version: Tamku thung me chok(in Dzongkha)!

 A year ago, the famed National Referral Hospital in Thimphu had a signboard in its 3rd or 4th floor

 reading: ENT and Throat! I assume it is still there.

The Main Gate to Hospital

Area to light up...he he.

That is all for today. Good day ahead!