Being mean?

A lady visited my clinic last week. She wanted a tooth removed. She told her name and while doing so, stressed on her husband’s name and surname. It sounded familiar but nothing flashed in my mind. She waited till I was free, had her tooth removed, paid my fee and left.

She came after two days for another extraction. Again she told her name, stressing on her husband’s name. I did not give it a thought. I asked her to wait till I finished the case on hand and extracted her tooth. Before she paid me, she asked “doctor, you must be knowing my husband, Mr.So&So, don’t you? He was MLA and ex minister.” Flash! I knew why her name sounded familiar.

Her husband had been elected to the assembly three times. To his bad luck, all the three times he happened to be in the wrong party and remained just an MLA. However, during one of the dramas that our elected representatives play for our benefit, his wrong party played the role of a right party and he found himself taking oath as a cabinet minister! Whether his heart got burst with joy or cholesterol, I don’t know, but immediately afterwards he felt a pain in the chest and was flown out of Goa for surgery. Surgery was successful but even as he was regaining consciousness, the next act of the drama was played in the assembly, and his right party was back in its old role as the wrong party. He went into the hospital as a cabinet minister and came out of it just an MLA once again. He was one minister who did not have any scandal against his name while he held office. He was unconscious all the time.

Other than the citizen – representative relation, I did not have anything to do with him and he was not aware that I existed. However I had a very minor grudge against him. I used to travel to my hospital everyday by bus. It was a distance of about thirty kilometers. The road used to be in perfect condition for the first twelve kilometers, up to the point where our MLA had a small industrial unit. The remaining part was in shambles. The inference was obvious. I am not sure whether to say how mean of him to leave the remaining part of the road to its fate or express my gratitude for keeping at least the first part in order. I had forgotten all about it after I retired and stopped travelling on that road. I recollected it when she mentioned her husband’s name.

The lady obviously wanted to be recognized and expected something MORE than what is usually accorded to other patients. These politicians (and their wives) get used to the god like status and the pedestal that we put them up on. I told her that it was an honour to have had the opportunity to treat her, spoke a few flowery words about her husband and charged her MORE than what I usually do.