After having spent an entire year on bed working from home, I gradually starting working full time from office and eventually driving, regaining back some of my lost independence. Then I heard a news that my Eldest First cousin met with an accident & broke his spine. Having spent all of my childhood in & out of hospitals, Hospitals no longer scare me & Doctors' no longer intimidate me. If anything my recent stint with hospitalisation made me very aware of the high emotional strength I've developed as a result of so much exposure to hospitals. My insatiable curiosity of bio-mechanics made me quite proficient in understanding it well enough to name every single bone & joint in body with detailed knowledge of how each worked.
Hospitals are also the places where my unfettered thinking, substantial understanding of medical jargon & inspiring emotional strength are very much coveted for emotional support. Feeling unusually charitable I decided it was high time & I have to become a bit more useful. that unfortunately meant I would have to come out of my self-imposed social exile, which was imposed mostly by inaccessible environment & in no small part because of exhausting my tolerance of seeing other 'normal' people pitying me. After a serious thought I told Mum, that I will drive her to see my cousin, My Mum was then just recovering out of cataract surgery, so she too found much of the public infra-structure around inaccessible.
Hospitals are also the places where my unfettered thinking, substantial understanding of medical jargon & inspiring emotional strength are very much coveted for emotional support. Feeling unusually charitable I decided it was high time & I have to become a bit more useful. that unfortunately meant I would have to come out of my self-imposed social exile, which was imposed mostly by inaccessible environment & in no small part because of exhausting my tolerance of seeing other 'normal' people pitying me. After a serious thought I told Mum, that I will drive her to see my cousin, My Mum was then just recovering out of cataract surgery, so she too found much of the public infra-structure around inaccessible.
On the way, I picked-up my sis & drove to one huge multi-speciality hospital, they had just recently added a brand new 3 storied underground parking. India is overpopulated & we are culturally raised with a very strong belief that it is our moral obligation "to visit sick & injured people in hospitals & pity them". Result all Indian hospitals have crowd management problems, every single one has its own approach to solution some more innovative than others'. This particular hospital has elected to limit visiting hours, build huge parking space, one-way (read one directional) drive through exit, pass only visitor access, not more than 2 visitors at a time, lifts dedicated to odd & even numbered floors to further segregate the crowds to manageable sizes, etc...
At the gate my sister & my mother had this brilliant idea, which every Indian & only Indian can relate to. It is one of the conditioned reflexes that only Indians have, like looking out on both sides of road before crossing either side. My mother started showing my support stick that I got as an accessory after my recent knee reconstruction surgery. So the parking security with extreme annoyance at us for creating grid-lock, re-directed us to an entry-gate to drop off physically handicapped. While I was pleasantly surprised with that accessible entry gate, it was not what we were looking for.
I awkwardly tried explaining to the security guard there, that I am looking for accessible parking. Now since I knew they have just recently added humongous parking, I made an educated guess that the 3 level parking should have lifts, a slight miscalculation on my part. We entered the huge parking lot & got pushed to lowest level, where after getting parking spot, we (me, Mum & sis) started hunting for security guards to get help in navigating to main reception.
We coincidentally found an opening to lift lobby but it was locked, then after much efforts found one security guard willing to answer questions about navigation help needed, here's the gist of conversation as it unfolded with the security guard referred as 'He' going forward just for simplicity.
Me : (with sheer disbelief) the lift lobby is locked!
He : (very politely) lift lobby access is available only to Doctors & important staff with access cards.
Me : I am not in shape to climb steps yet having recently undergone knee surgery to remove the k-wire implant
He : (looking at Mum & Sis as if he has never seen crueller people in his life ) why did you not drop her off at the physically handicapped drop point ?
[at this point I am forced to elaborate for the those unaware of the social context that it is often expected as physically challenged person to be ignored / considered without intelligence, voice, choice & opinions. just Fyi, Doctors do it too all the time.]
Sis : (confessed rather guiltily) how are we supposed to park the car after dropping her off ? neither of us can drive a car, she (pointing towards me) drove us here.
He : (now looking at me with mixed feelings of pity for my handicap, admiration for being a rare wonder of handicapped driver & sorry for the parking situation) Madam, I am really sorry, you can only climb out of parking via stairs.
Me : (with bit of amusement & growing sense of irritation for being admired for "being able to drive") This is a multi-speciality hospital, must have an Orthopaedics wing with patients coming in for Physiotherapy too, right ?
He : (with extreme pride) yes ! that is why we have the physically handicapped drop off point.
Me : what happens if the patient decides to drive ?
He : Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!
Me : (irritation gradually transforming into annoyance) what if a mobility challenged person has to visit emergency ?
He : (with incredulity) Madam, Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!
Me : (barely hiding my annoyance) Seriously? they should wait to be driven around in emergency rather than save their own life ?
I've reached this particular impasse another dozen times, with multiple permutations & combinations of arguments & their sequence, but very similar end when I was forced to visit this multi-speciality hospital for many other relatives. I did manage to convince the security guard once, who allowed me to park at surface level at midnight all because I drove my then 5 yrs old niece to emergency for catching 'Dengue'. With Caveat, that the slot was Doctors' reserved parking, making me feel incredibly guilty not to mention uncomfortable to breathe whilst inside for the fear of being summoned back to parking by an angry Doctor who was delayed from attending to an emergency because of my very inconsiderate behaviour.
We do eventually learn to overcome our limitations, in process find some very creative & unique workarounds, at times even overcompensate by masking the pain & hurt just to fit in; But we are still disabled by the perceptions & handicapped by inaccessible surroundings.
At the gate my sister & my mother had this brilliant idea, which every Indian & only Indian can relate to. It is one of the conditioned reflexes that only Indians have, like looking out on both sides of road before crossing either side. My mother started showing my support stick that I got as an accessory after my recent knee reconstruction surgery. So the parking security with extreme annoyance at us for creating grid-lock, re-directed us to an entry-gate to drop off physically handicapped. While I was pleasantly surprised with that accessible entry gate, it was not what we were looking for.
I awkwardly tried explaining to the security guard there, that I am looking for accessible parking. Now since I knew they have just recently added humongous parking, I made an educated guess that the 3 level parking should have lifts, a slight miscalculation on my part. We entered the huge parking lot & got pushed to lowest level, where after getting parking spot, we (me, Mum & sis) started hunting for security guards to get help in navigating to main reception.
We coincidentally found an opening to lift lobby but it was locked, then after much efforts found one security guard willing to answer questions about navigation help needed, here's the gist of conversation as it unfolded with the security guard referred as 'He' going forward just for simplicity.
Me : (with sheer disbelief) the lift lobby is locked!
He : (very politely) lift lobby access is available only to Doctors & important staff with access cards.
Me : I am not in shape to climb steps yet having recently undergone knee surgery to remove the k-wire implant
He : (looking at Mum & Sis as if he has never seen crueller people in his life ) why did you not drop her off at the physically handicapped drop point ?
[at this point I am forced to elaborate for the those unaware of the social context that it is often expected as physically challenged person to be ignored / considered without intelligence, voice, choice & opinions. just Fyi, Doctors do it too all the time.]
Sis : (confessed rather guiltily) how are we supposed to park the car after dropping her off ? neither of us can drive a car, she (pointing towards me) drove us here.
He : (now looking at me with mixed feelings of pity for my handicap, admiration for being a rare wonder of handicapped driver & sorry for the parking situation) Madam, I am really sorry, you can only climb out of parking via stairs.
Me : (with bit of amusement & growing sense of irritation for being admired for "being able to drive") This is a multi-speciality hospital, must have an Orthopaedics wing with patients coming in for Physiotherapy too, right ?
He : (with extreme pride) yes ! that is why we have the physically handicapped drop off point.
Me : what happens if the patient decides to drive ?
He : Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!
Me : (irritation gradually transforming into annoyance) what if a mobility challenged person has to visit emergency ?
He : (with incredulity) Madam, Patients never drive ! they are dropped off !!
Me : (barely hiding my annoyance) Seriously? they should wait to be driven around in emergency rather than save their own life ?
I've reached this particular impasse another dozen times, with multiple permutations & combinations of arguments & their sequence, but very similar end when I was forced to visit this multi-speciality hospital for many other relatives. I did manage to convince the security guard once, who allowed me to park at surface level at midnight all because I drove my then 5 yrs old niece to emergency for catching 'Dengue'. With Caveat, that the slot was Doctors' reserved parking, making me feel incredibly guilty not to mention uncomfortable to breathe whilst inside for the fear of being summoned back to parking by an angry Doctor who was delayed from attending to an emergency because of my very inconsiderate behaviour.
We do eventually learn to overcome our limitations, in process find some very creative & unique workarounds, at times even overcompensate by masking the pain & hurt just to fit in; But we are still disabled by the perceptions & handicapped by inaccessible surroundings.
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