How bad are 'People'?

It so happened once, that I had a pus formation just below the big toe of my right leg, and the wound had grown too big, needing even a minor surgery, & some filling of medicated piece of surgical cotton, to prevent further complication. I could see what the doctor was doing to my foot. It is just the memory. I was in my 3rd standard (about 9 years old, then). It so happened that during the breaking open of the wound with that surgical knife, I jerked my foot a bit violently due to unexpected pain. The pus and blood splashed all over the brand new shirt of the doctor. It was a plain, shiny, cream-colour terrylene neatly tucked in, and made the doctor’s appearance quite posh, stylish and impressive. Even he was using the ‘terrylene’ fibre for the first time. We were seeing it for the first time.
My father felt thoroughly embarrassed, and mumbled helplessly ineffective apologies. The doctor was quite unperturbed, and cheerfully completed the operation quite unmindful of the blood-spots that might get embedded inextricably as a discoloration. I was lost in admiration for him, and instantly forgot all about my leg for the rest of the ‘history’ of that wound! The pain part of it vanished. I could never forget the body language, the non-verbal communication of that doctor.

He was well known to my father right from his third year of medical student days. In fact father used to suggest this doctor to his friends and acquaintances. The doctor too, never failed to acknowledge the support to get established very quickly, since every doctor was a ‘family’ doctor, in those days, and new doctors required lot of time to get patients.

This doctor had a wonderful reputation amidst his patients. I loved to linger around the ‘dispensary’ as long as possible, and took all the care to ensure that I don’t end up as a reason to hasten to home, as usual (‘Oh! Now this fellow has become restless, and before he causes some mischief, I must take him back home early’ was a common reason to my father). I got immersed in the ‘out-of-normal’ way of this doctor dealing with his patients, and I became so much of a non-entity that my father almost forgot my presence even, chatting with the doctor for long durations. Patients used to be attended to simultaneously. When I look back, I wonder whether this method of ‘examining’ the patients was a plus point, or a minus point! But the number of patients grew too fast.

I must mention one more observation of mine. The society was undergoing a phase of shift from traditional dependence on unqualified native village-doctors to qualified doctors. The elders then used to comment “we did not have to undergo such rigid diet restrictions that the present day ‘learned doctors’ prescribe. We too had our share of ailments, and were comfortable with simple economical herbal medicines, which were mostly from kitchen shelves, and at times, prepared by the native doctor, from roots and herbs”. The young people of those times (my father’s generation), were forced to reconsider several times, whether it was really wise to shift from traditional medicines to allopathic. The allopathic gave quick results, and a person could go back to work soon. The cost was the only side effect ‘experienced’ more severely. The pace of life was gradually shifting into higher gears, we could feel it clearly.

This doctor used to dilute the diet restrictions liberally, but gently added at the end that the cure would get delayed accordingly with the added risk of a relapse. Medicines were ‘compounded’ by a ‘compounder-uncle’, there itself, taking a frequent a grim look at the doctor’s ‘chit’ (prescription). The doctor could afford to ‘degrade’ his own ‘mixture’, calling it as “ADT-mixture” (it took time to get him to explain that “ADT” was an acronym for ‘Any Damn Thing’!) That made him distinctly popular from others who indulged in rigid-faced-instructions about diet restrictions. This doctor was more popular for his humorous approach and known more as a ‘jolly’ doctor, though his diagnosis was exceptionally good, and deserved much higher degree of popularity, as I could see from my sustained observation. Patients invariably accepted the dietary restrictions, more as a voluntary and willingly self-imposed restriction, and never felt the burden of compulsions. I got started there with my first lessons of communication skills!

Looking at others even, as our toys, our robots, in all innocence and ignorance is what occurred to me, when I looked at this question. There is that fragrance of innocent annoyance displayed by the question (that is what I felt).

Sorry, I seemed to have ‘toyed’ enough with your patience. With the little of it left, if any, I apologetically take you to the question, and with my child-like answer that might amuse you.
Regards,
Psn(19th January, 2010)

The question:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100118204144AAYCSq2
How do u convence urself that people are not bad.?
when u hear them back-bitching about u or they leave u when u need them the most...or anything ...how can u still be good to them..

My answer:
Is there any problem to convince our-self about a baby when it becomes adamant about an object that is snatched away from that baby? It starts crying loudly, non-stop, and becomes quite inconsolable at times. Everybody can easily agree that the baby is not bad. Just that the baby is yet to learn that the object we snatched was for its own safety. The knife which the baby thought that it was a 'toy' could have injured the baby too. So, we do not react, and instead, we also do not fail to act, quite convinced that the baby is not bad, but a bit ignorant..

The problem with adults is that their toys have also become big now. Some of 'their' toys are intangible, and some of them are necessities for others. It takes a lot more effort to 'snatch' it away. Law is there, social norms are there. Democracy is there. Human rights protects the people who indulge in violence, and they convince us that they do it for 'ultimate' peace. Something like violence is peace-in-great-hurry! In the process, we too fail to remember that we are also yet another version of the same grown up babies, getting stuck to similar toys. Now we are busy to set right the other toys(those bad people), the way we want them to 'play' with us!