Sisters !!

“I am sorry to call you on your cell number, Sir; but, I am admitted in Ward 4 side room and I have been trying to contact you ….

“Sir, can you please come and see me in the ward….” and the sobbing started…

So, I marched off to Ward 4, met the Sister in Charge and asked, who was admitted in the side room.. I had imagined it would be a medical student or a former faculty.. but, to my surprise the S I/C said “Our sister D  is admitted there, Sir”

Of course, I knew Sister D; she had retired 6-7 years ago and she was one of the first persons, I had run into ward 27, the day I joined there as an orthopedic houseman in 1976. Like most sisters, she had a ‘motherly’ attitude towards me.. helping me cope with the ward work and learning the ropes.

Through days in junior and senior residency, we come under the ‘care’ of a large numbers of sisters - staff nurses and  the “laal patties” and so many of them become a part of our being at the hospital. With some you develop special relationships, one so close and yet indefinable, one born of joy of caring for the sick against all odds and odd times..

Needless to say, so many basic things we will learn from them from -how to load a syringe, to give an intramuscular injection, to preparing a saline sets (those were the good old days) or often the tricks for a fast and easy lumbar puncture which they themselves have learned from generations of residents.

As we switch wards and specialties and change from a resident to a faculty and with time, these memories fade and as faculty, one tends to get more formal in one's dealings with sisters.

 But, not really with those sisters that were with you when you were a bacchu.. The only few people who even today call me a “Tu” in Marathi are the sisters that knew me from my ‘young days” they are the only ones allowed all sorts of liberties with even the head of the department for they are ones like mothers have held our hands and taught the basics of “bed side manners and patient care”.

We outgrow them in rank, and when I see a staff nurse who was a staff nurse when you were a resident and continues to be a staff nurse when you are an assistant professor, And then, suddenly you see her on the corridor with a  “laal patti’ , you feel like shaking their hands warmly and saying” Well deserved sister, long overdue”

Unlike, many of you, I have know most sisters only as sisters, I do not think I  have ever addressed them by their names, but, still the warm bonds I share with them are absolutely unique. Many will drop in Radiology on the last day of retirement to often say “Do not forget me, hun.. you may be big boss today, but you were my houseman..” and we have a good laugh even as I wish them well.

Years pass and one day like sister D in Wd4, some of them will come calling - mostly for medical reasons, they will look around helplessly for a familiar face and then come calling in radiology “I knew you will always be here, I knew you would never leave KEM.. but, ah! ha!.. you seem to have put on some weight , at last”.

Residents look on unbelievingly.. “Who talks like this to their boss”; little do they know the fondness that we all share for our sisters.

And so dear sisters,  those that have helped shape my career and mind, here is my big Salute and a wish - that so many of you (like Sister D in Wd) have showered on me – ever so often - “May God Bless you, all!!

November 2010