Doctor V/S Doctor

It’s been more than four years to this incident. I had just shifted to Bangalore and was experiencing a lot of pain in my legs. Nothing was helping so I finally decided to visit the doctor. He sat in a big room in one of Bangalore's most prestigious hospitals. The setting looked 5-starish. I had a feeling the doc was going to be awesome too.

He patiently asked everything and jotted it down. At the end, he gave me a long list of tests I needed to get done. God! Was I so ill? He even gave me an offer to visit his friend's clinic for a good discount on those tests instead of getting them done at the hospital. He told me that the total after the discount would be somewhere around Rs 10,000.

Seriously, the leg pain was nowhere in front of the pocket pain that day. I had heard that doctors charge a bomb, but this looked like nuclear that day. I had never visited a doc without my mom before and this time the money was from my first salary. So obviously it hurt even more.

A friend advised me to take another opinion before going for the tests. But I was in no mood to pay more fee to one more doctor. She persisted, and I had to relent.

This doctor did not sit in a posh room. It was hygienic and more doctorish than 5-starish. He did not recommend any tests. He did not scare the hell out of my wallet. He just told me I need to drink more milk and eat bananas for extra calcium. I was fine in a week.

Had I not taken the second opinion, doctors would have remained money-eating mongrels in my mind throughout my life. That one experience taught me that it's very easy to form a bad opinion. But one man's wrongdoing cannot be implied to his whole community... be it professional or religious. 

I realised that not every doctor is a looter. Not every businessman is a cheat. Not every maid is a thief. Not every restaurant serves stale food. Not every girl has weird mood. Not every saint is a sinner. Not every prisoner is a killer. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. Not every Hindu is NOT a terrorist.

If you ever find a rotten apple, keep it aside and look for the healthy ones. Chances are you'll find some, only if you are not stuck in a government department where all the apples have become rotten after years of exposure to bad air.