Random forays: Dear doctor, we are truly beholden

Dear doctor, We are truly beholden to you! For your unswerving steadfastness, for your untiring diehard service, for your professional diligence, for your unimaginable sacrifices, for your unflinching valour, for your undaunted courage, for your unruffled calmness, and for your caring humaneness

Dear doctor,

(Representative Photo/ HT)

We are truly beholden to you!

For your unswerving steadfastness, for your untiring diehard service, for your professional diligence, for your unimaginable sacrifices, for your unflinching valour, for your undaunted courage, for your unruffled calmness, and for your caring humaneness.

We know what you are going through, but we cannot fathom the extent of your angst. We cannot feel the ripples of your sweat. We cannot experience the pangs of heart wrenching pathos, that you do, at the sight of patients who are suffering. We cannot imagine the extent of the pressure that you are tackling upon your brave shoulders, in the face of all odds. Neither will we ever be able to understand the helplessness that you feel at often being let down by your own system.

Along with you, this letter addresses the millions of other healthcare professionals, hospital administrators, nurses, ward boys, laboratory technicians, helpers, ambulance drivers, attendants, government officials, security forces et al, as also the zillions of lay volunteers, all of whom are the unsung heroes at the pinnacle of this quest to vanquish the dreaded, unseen, virulent foe.

To each one you, we the people of the world, bow and pay gratitude in this hour of crisis. At a time when our nation feels hapless and helpless, you are the ones holding the fort, with fortitude, with dedication, with zeal.

We are also aware that several people, out of a sense of despair or out of sheer lack of empathy, disparage you and your ilk at times. They shout at and even abuse you, with tempers soaring high. Lives are at stake, after all. Each individual is testy and his at wits end.

And there are those who have let you down, from within your own flanks. Those who cannot handle the unending barrage of crossfire or the relentless surge of numbers, sheer numbers, unmanageable numbers. Those few who are unable to hold the torch high, even while a majority of you do. Then there are some who hoard, even plunder, whether within the system, or from the periphery of it.

Yet, and this is more true than anything else, you just keep marching on. Even when your family is in tears, your children are howling, your parents are worried to bits, you simply keep soldiering on.

You are human, yet super human, somehow. You wipe away your own tears, you swallow the lump in your throat, you shoo away any thought of weakness or frailty.

The enemy continues to loom large and plunder those around you, stretching your forces to the hilt. But you make some inroads into enemy territory. You bounce back with renewed bouts of energy, new strategies, newer methodologies. You battle the odds when the odds are stacked against you. And you battle with great spirit and verve.

Your smile seldom takes leave from your countenance, albeit under the ubiquitous mask. You somehow manage to summon from the depths of inner reserves, the wherewithal to remain gung-ho, full of hope and energy. You organise your thoughts and words, to assuage the feelings of those who seek strength and solace from you.

You are aware that your every word, your every move, is being watched carefully by those who depend upon you and your calibre. You do not flinch even when all and sundry come armed with theories downloaded from God-knows-where, which are supposed to be superior to your know how and experience.

Yet, and in the face of all that the raging contagion may throw at you, you are our bedrock. You are actually living the affirmation that Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the Autobiography of a Yogi, gave to the world: “I will stand unshaken, amidst the crash of breaking worlds!”

Or, as missionary activist Joshua Graham said, “I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me…”

We know too that this dastardly fire will be doused one day. Till then, we pray with all our might, for every one of you, and feel grateful.

For your every act of kindness and fearlessness in this hour of tumult, we will forever be truly beholden to you.