One Night in a Hospital..

..and you realize how much you have to be grateful for.

You realize that beyond a point your wealth, your education, your contacts, your smartness (or the lack of any of these), just doesn’t matter. Only the skill of your doctor does. Pray for her.

You are wiser. The next time you feel a niggle, you’ll check out immediately with your friendly GP, rather than waiting till there is no option but the XYZ certified, swanky, multi-specialty hospital.

You see a live demo of the value of medical insurance. You need to stay in the floral-disinfectant smelling bed, eat “healthy” food, and wear a striped uniform for two days for what might have taken a few hours in the OPD.

You are so much better at playing sudoko on the phone that you can even beat your kids at it.

You pray. Specially if the bright red door painted “FIRE EXIT” in big bold letters has a shiny, big, padlock on it!

Mom Skills-I

Long before reskilling and picking alternative skills became the buzzwords, all Moms have been doing it. I may take a shot on a compounder’s (the guy who used to scrape wounds with stingy, smelly stuff and tie bandages-remember?) job.

Yeah not one to cringe at gory sights, I have dressed enough different types of wounds of my own (driving a two wheeler since you are twelve teaches you a lot about life) to qualify.

I now react to my kids’ cuts and bruises, nosebleeds and bangs on the head with the same degree of equanimity as I would to a project manager’s email about an imminent deadline- a part of life!

I have learnt to diagnose which are the wounds that need scraping, a comfort Band-Aid, a stern rap or just a jadu ki jhappi! 

I have held babies through those routine vaccinations, tetanus injections and even stitches on the younger one's forehead (and managed not to hit the Surgeon who took so long to do it).

And with a kid who complaints of throat pain to explain her unfinished lunch box (stomach ache results in "no junk food" for the next seven days so it is not a common ailment), I also learnt to check for tonsils. 

However, I did have to rush a kid to the Dentist when her milk tooth refused to budge inspite a very painful, newer one, growing in its place. 

When I told my neighbor (a mom with two boys) about the visit-she was genuinely puzzled: Why do you need a Dentist for pulling out a tooth? I could have done it ………

Oh! 

And I thought I was the smart one…