I visited this hospital last week accompanying a family member. This is one of the upscale hospitals in the area in a property adjoining Bellary Road (a major highway). Thought I’d write down some of the differences observed for the benefit of fellow NRIs who may be curious.
The hospital premises are well kept and clean. The crowd was cosmopolitan – one could even say multi-national. I noticed a Jewish looking and an Asian family, apart from many Hindi speaking folks chatting busily on their bluetooth headsets while enjoying the big-screen TV (Have you seen one in the US?). I should’ve taken the hint that everything takes so long here that you need some entertainment while you wait.
Appointments don’t seem to be electronic (Someone manually wrote it on a sheet of paper). If the doctor doesn’t show up on time, you don’t get to see another doctor. People simply wait unless its an emergency. Once the doctor shows up, the nurse determines who goes in next. Folks already know their number in the line and dash into the room as soon as the last patient gets out. The poor doctor rarely gets a breather.
Ultrasound? X-ray? You typically wait 30 mins and then some before the data is available in the system to browse. If you want a report – you need to come back the next day, pick it up and see the doctor again.
Once the doctors consultation is done, he punches his fees in the system and you pay (typically cash) on the way out. Apart from excessive waits and disorderly entry/exit from doctors room, it seems to be generally a step forward.l
I was watching ಈ (kannada) TV today and one of the headlines was about an effort by religious leaders to get the govt to ban cow slaughter. The video footage showed mainly Hindu and Jain leaders and someone wearing a Muslim skull cap for completeness.
I returned from a recent trip to Kerala and was surprised by how beef is readily served in many restaurants. Given the vast difference in culture between the two states which are geographically so close to each other, I researched this topic a bit.
Clearly, this has been a political issue that typically rallies the Hindus together – almost to the extent of being a defining element. I learnt that banning cow slaughter is already in the indian constution. I also learnt about a book by D.N.Jha (he seems to be a communist) – claiming that banning cow slaughter is a recent phenomenon whose primary motivation is to rally Hindus against Muslims and British.
Also interesting are articles on this topic by Praful Bidwai (seems to be a left leaning anti-BJP journalist).
Kerala agriculture minister K R Gowri, herself a
Hindu, has termed the proposed bill “detrimental to
the interests of Kerala”. In Kerala, beef accounts for
an estimated 40 percent of all meat consumed. Some 80
percent of Kerala’s people regularly eat beef. They
include 72 Hindu communities, besides Muslim,
Christian and indigenous people.
Although it sounds illogical that cows should have more rights than sheep, what seems to be very clear is that this issue has become a political one – something that has the potential to rally Hindus together, assert their identity (sort of like eating rice/noodles for the Chinese) and to some extent get Muslims and other minorities in the country to respect majority sentiment – something most Muslim countries are very successful at.
It was probably one of the worst monsoon days in Kozhikode (known as Calicut in the 20th century). We even saw one of the local TV stations shooting videos of roads overflowing with muddy waters. Since there was not much else to do, we decided to shop at Focus Mall – probably the trendiest place in the town.
The mall has 3 stories and yet it takes about 2 mins before the elevator shows up. And sure enough it has a dude in a blue uniform to push buttons. We get into one of the larger shops looking for Mens shorts. I should’ve known that the shops need to sell something fashionable in order to justify margins. Why would anyone pay Rs 500 for regular shorts?
The only type of shorts they have are something commonly called “Bermudas” here. The shorts were at least 3 inches below the knee – only a few inches shorter than regular pants. Wikipedia defines Bermuda Shorts as something worn 1 inch above the knee.
My wife picks up some womens clothes and gets in the line for checkout, while I entertain our six year old. It took unusually long given that there were two checkout counters and no one waiting. Sonia told me later that at least two men cut the line and the guys responsible for checkout were taking at least 15 mins for the two items each they had – carefully taking out the anti-theft devices and folding them nicely.
We had a similar experience at a Burger shop in Bangalore. We order pizza and the guy taking the order takes out his notepad and starts writing in cursive — literally like a kindergartner. He probably took about 2-3 mins to write down an order of two pizzas + burger + fries.
Respect for people’s time continues to be an alien concept in most places in India. So if you have a choice, its better to have someone else shop for you for simple items. Saves you a lot of time to do other things – like watching someone eat a light bulb on TV or getting an oil massage.
Hope Ankur lets us get some sleep on the flight. May be I should be more worried about his brother 