Agony of the waiting
Government hospitals in India have a reputation for being noisy places. But there is a noticeable difference if you reach the oncology department. Even if it is more crowded than most other sections, you can sense a strange calm in the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( aiims ), New Delhi.
Everybody waits. Patiently . The cancer patients have a look of forbearance. Under pale skin, bodily deformities and a range of mixed emotions, there is a marked effort to cope with suffering and hide it from public eye. Attendants look helpless. The physicians seem a little more tolerant than in other departments, a little more sensitive. It is as if everyone has learned to wait under the influence of some strange, overbearing force.
This is the burden of cancer. And it shows clearly on the face of Meera Singh Deo, 20. Her sister Savita, 22, had a brain tumour that was surgically removed. She is now undergoing chemotherapy. In the half hour that Meera spent with Down To Earth in the corridors of aiims , she did not once allude to her sibling by her name or as didi , the common denomination for sister. The young woman from Riding village in Singhbhum district of Bihar, bordering on Orissa, constantly referred to her as the "patient'. Inside the adjoining room, physicians were injecting potent but measured poisons into Savita's body, hoping to kill the cancer cells.
Even to somebody meeting her for the first time, the impersonal, studied quality of her diction and clinical descriptions seemed unusual for her age. She seemed to have picked up a range of new terms, redefined old meanings and matured quite rapidly. The treatment has been on for the past one year. This is her eighth trip to Delhi with her sister.
After being quizzed repeatedly, the youngest among four siblings reluctantly explained that none of them has got married. Everyone is waiting for Savita to get well