A prayer to the doctor

Father's Day special for dad in The Tribune:
A prayer to the doctor
by Ravia Gupta
“Doctor doctor I have a prayer,

For all you have given,

I thank you even before God.

I thank you for making me accept things I couldn’t change.

I thank you to have made me realize about my strength and courage.

I thank you for all you have withheld,

I am glad for all you have permitted.

Doctor doctor I am thankful you were there…

to show me the way to hardships,

And adding to my pain.”

Who says changing times has nothing to do with the way we offer our prayers? Except for God, which is now replaced by a doc. Everything is same, long queues, longing to be able to have the first glimpse, same wish to be able to stay for a minute more with God and above all the same trust and faith. Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed in the way we offer our prayers.

A prayer to a doctor is perhaps as important as remembering God in times when your dear ones take to bed. For them, you don’t mind queuing up for hours just to have a word with the modern “talking God”, who measures each word before uttering and write in a language that you often don’t understand, but you simply trust that they will do wonders and all your sufferings will vanish.

I, too, prayed to the modern God, when my dad fell ill and trusted him blindly. Some prayers were answered just, too, quickly and some were delayed. First, I didn’t understand and later the picture became clear. The “quick heal” was to make some quick bucks and the delayed ones were perhaps a way to keep the source of “income alive”. With the instant recovery I, too, became happy and slowly with the delay I became suspicious, so much so that, with each visit to the “modern temple”, I started losing hope in the God and with the system. To make things worst, one day we (I and my dad) reached the “modern temple” (hospital), the doors were closed and suddenly we found there was no God there. All our hopes were dashed and instead of protesting I, helplessly, again prayed to God, but this time to the traditional one. Sadly, Gods, whether traditional or conventional, don’t answer prayers.

Gosh, why do these Gods come from big cities to small towns? Do they come to do some serious healing work, to do some charity, to get some fame or just to find bait, which they think, is easy to find in small towns?

“Doctor doctor I thank you again,

For opening my eyes and killing my emotions,

Now, I truly owe you a lot for what you have prepared me for!”