Brave Heart!

The next weekend after Sinhagad trek ...

God forbid you fall ill in Pune! I don't know about other big cities because I have never lived in cities other than my very dear twin-cities (Hyderabad and Secundrabad) but cost of living in Pune is high as it is and rising steadily. Back home in my place Doctors charge no more than 100 bucks for a consultation and they don't charge a follow-up consultation fee if the visit is in less than 15 days! The other day I woke up only to feel a searing pain in my left calf. It thought it was a muscle cramp and just went about doing my work thinking that it would subside. After 4 days it worsened still. I had no choice but to visit a doctor lest it was something serious. The doctor was a very experienced old man who examined my calf for a couple of minutes and pronounced gravely "Cellular Thrombosis!" as though he just passed a death sentence and as if to confuse me with his medical jargon. Perhaps he thought I was one of those innumerable software drones who lead a very happy life typing away on the keyboards to their pay checks and are blissfully ignorant about Biology either animal or plant or human! :) . But he was wrong. I did understand that he meant a blood clot in my leg! My real ailment surfaced when I was about to pay the consultation fee at the counter. I didn't know that I had a cardiac problem until I saw that his 5 minute examination was worth 350 bucks!! - My only offence: I admitted that I was a software engineer! He prescribed a sonograph to determine where exactly the clot was( And that cost me about 1300 bucks ). He asked me to come back and see him the next day with the test results. Armed with the test results I consulted him the next day morning only to be charged 150 for the follow-up consultation that lasted just better than 2 minutes. The doctor kept charging me 150 on each of my subsequent visits over the next two weeks. On my last visit that lasted less than a minute I was finally relieved to hear that I was completely cured. But by the time I was finished I realized that the bills totaled 3300 which included a 1000 for consultation fee alone!

In Pune it is not enough if you have an ailment to consult the doctor - You also need a brave heart!