(contd.....)........ i was greeted by unaccountable number of people........men, women and children .....in various sizes & conditions ..... & from different backgrounds......
with my entry into the building i suddenly sensed a rise in temperature of the atmosphere by atleast 4-5 degrees......i got an unpleasent whiff of air ....loaded with carbon dioxide and many other molecules unimaginable........
serpentine queues is only what i saw....the rest of the inner building was obscured from my view....(later i was to know that the queues extend to outside the building ........welcome to a govt. hospital in capital!!)i couldnt see where they actually began.....
since i knew the floor i was to reach n since i didnt really rely on my frail frame to take me up that many flight of stairs i began my search for the lifts.....now i don't ask for directions n that cost me another 2-3 precious minutes.....finally lo n behold at one corner of the building i saw something which resembled a lift.......i slowly and carefully made my way through the sea of human beings towards it.....after i finally reached it i realised that the actual task was to get on it rather than get to it....well there were three of them and all of them took another two miutes to reach the ground floor.....the doors to the 1st lift opened and closed and i found myself way behind in line to get to it....the second one came and went too; the 3rd one i realised was my only hope so i fought and struggled n squeezed past a few cribbing old ladies, a mother with a bunch of wailing kids in tow and many burly uncles and finally made it into the lift and i was pushed to the end of it.....by this time i was having a feeling that i wouldn't probably survive this for many days( i was to discover later that the staff lift is no better...just a namesake!!)........all except me got down at the penultimate floor and guess what i had one more to go.....seconds ticked away and the door to the lift would not shut....i waited a few more agonising seconds but the doors wouldn't budge....now i am not a claustrophobic but i had had enough so i decided to take that one flight of stairs up!!guess what? by the time i reached up so had the lift.....i found myself grumbling but attention was taken off to the empty, almost deserted look that this floor was bearing........in a sharp contrast to just what i had witnessed a few minutes ago....
i kept on wandering really not knowing exactly where to go....but as luck would have it i was in the right direction.....i was instructed to report to the PA to the HOD at 9am.....here i was standing outside the room reading the name of the PA contemplating my next move.....(as if i was planning a war!!)....i finally decided to take the plunge and i entered the room....seems like the PA had a PA who informed me that the PA was on leave....well howzzat?anyhow this guy was really helpful so he told me to report to a certain doctor and gave me the room number too....it was already 9 so i thought it was hardly a matter of time before someone showed up ....but as it turned out i was wrong......minutes after minutes passed and my watch ticked past 915....i thought i probably heard something wrong so i made my way back to the PA to PA and guess what i hear?the doctor whom i was supposed to report is also on leave....and now i am supposed to report to another doctor.....though it was some relief to know that the room hadn't changed....so i made my way back again to where i was.....
ofcourse in all this while i was busy.....busy doing what? you see if you have forgotten i had this white coat on which gave me the distinction of a doctor .....and from directions to diagnosis to queries about doctors and timings i had a lot of answering to do.....some directions i managed others i had no clue so i politely had to decline and inform that like most of them it was my first day too........some grumbles and some apologetic smiles later i found someone enter the room and so i did too......... with hopes of a new beginning....a chance to learn thigns that i had lost out on earlier on the personal as well as academic front........Amen!!
with my entry into the building i suddenly sensed a rise in temperature of the atmosphere by atleast 4-5 degrees......i got an unpleasent whiff of air ....loaded with carbon dioxide and many other molecules unimaginable........
serpentine queues is only what i saw....the rest of the inner building was obscured from my view....(later i was to know that the queues extend to outside the building ........welcome to a govt. hospital in capital!!)i couldnt see where they actually began.....
since i knew the floor i was to reach n since i didnt really rely on my frail frame to take me up that many flight of stairs i began my search for the lifts.....now i don't ask for directions n that cost me another 2-3 precious minutes.....finally lo n behold at one corner of the building i saw something which resembled a lift.......i slowly and carefully made my way through the sea of human beings towards it.....after i finally reached it i realised that the actual task was to get on it rather than get to it....well there were three of them and all of them took another two miutes to reach the ground floor.....the doors to the 1st lift opened and closed and i found myself way behind in line to get to it....the second one came and went too; the 3rd one i realised was my only hope so i fought and struggled n squeezed past a few cribbing old ladies, a mother with a bunch of wailing kids in tow and many burly uncles and finally made it into the lift and i was pushed to the end of it.....by this time i was having a feeling that i wouldn't probably survive this for many days( i was to discover later that the staff lift is no better...just a namesake!!)........all except me got down at the penultimate floor and guess what i had one more to go.....seconds ticked away and the door to the lift would not shut....i waited a few more agonising seconds but the doors wouldn't budge....now i am not a claustrophobic but i had had enough so i decided to take that one flight of stairs up!!guess what? by the time i reached up so had the lift.....i found myself grumbling but attention was taken off to the empty, almost deserted look that this floor was bearing........in a sharp contrast to just what i had witnessed a few minutes ago....
i kept on wandering really not knowing exactly where to go....but as luck would have it i was in the right direction.....i was instructed to report to the PA to the HOD at 9am.....here i was standing outside the room reading the name of the PA contemplating my next move.....(as if i was planning a war!!)....i finally decided to take the plunge and i entered the room....seems like the PA had a PA who informed me that the PA was on leave....well howzzat?anyhow this guy was really helpful so he told me to report to a certain doctor and gave me the room number too....it was already 9 so i thought it was hardly a matter of time before someone showed up ....but as it turned out i was wrong......minutes after minutes passed and my watch ticked past 915....i thought i probably heard something wrong so i made my way back to the PA to PA and guess what i hear?the doctor whom i was supposed to report is also on leave....and now i am supposed to report to another doctor.....though it was some relief to know that the room hadn't changed....so i made my way back again to where i was.....
ofcourse in all this while i was busy.....busy doing what? you see if you have forgotten i had this white coat on which gave me the distinction of a doctor .....and from directions to diagnosis to queries about doctors and timings i had a lot of answering to do.....some directions i managed others i had no clue so i politely had to decline and inform that like most of them it was my first day too........some grumbles and some apologetic smiles later i found someone enter the room and so i did too......... with hopes of a new beginning....a chance to learn thigns that i had lost out on earlier on the personal as well as academic front........Amen!!
