WHEN MY DOCTOR PRESCRIBES WHAT I CRAVE FOR






Pic.: Chirjiv Nagpal


There is a popular proverb in Kannada. It goes like this:

 

“Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”

 

It means: The patient craved for milk… the doctor prescribed, too, milk.

 

I would, often, hear it from my mom, when I was a small boy back in our village… Whenever I and my brothers would jump in joy on seeing some favorite dish prepared by her… She knew how her little-ones had craved for it… So, with a mischief in her eyes and a silent joy in her heart, she would dish out the folklore:

“Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”

 

Another occasion on which we would hear it from mom was when we came back from school and jumped before her: “HEEEEEEEEEY! No school… Head Master died (Or a Trustee, a Minister or just a torrential rain!)”

 

Mom knew how badly her little-boys hated to go to school that morning… how they wished someone important had died or some tragedy had struck our town!

 

And, yes, that’s the time she would come out with her favorite proverb:

“Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”

 

 

Early this morning, mom’s proverb came back to tickle my heart and make my day…

 

Bobby, my F.Y.BMS student, lives in our colony. He had to attend my first batch at 8:15 and, last night, he had phoned me up saying that he would be waiting for me near our society gate at 7.45 to pick me up in his car. At 7.45, I was still not ready and wanted to call him and request him to wait for ten more minutes. When I picked my phone to call him, I saw his missed call. I got back to him hurriedly, a little guiltily (I don’t like to make anyone wait… I like to communicate). “Good morning Gerry sir,” it was Bobby's mom, “I forgot to wake him up… He is in the bathroom… will be there down in 10 minutes… Sorry sir.”

 

“Don’t worry ma’am… No problem at all”…  I was magnanimous!

 

I remembered my own mom and her pet proverb:

“Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”

 

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

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