I opened the door in a partial slumber. It was a familiar face of the lady next door. She had been my favorite one as a kid…..

I often played with her daughter, and would sometimes have dinner at her home as my mother kept calling for me. I liked what she cooked, and moreover, it was fun! That was long time back! However, tonight her face at the door couldn’t stop me from feeling irritated.

“I couldn’t get your number, and your uncle was in immense pain….” She seemed embarrassed. It was well past midnight, and she had apparently been ringing the doorbell since past 10 minutes or so before my mother answered it.

I quietly picked up my spectacles and slipped off the front gate into the cool night breeze that made me a little less sedated. When I reached him, the very look at his face made the pain obvious. It was just a small tooth in his mouth, and his entire life hung at its mercy at that moment!

He had already taken two doses of ‘Flexon’. It was useless. There was no other painkiller that they had. It was 1am. All the medicine shops or clinics would be closed, and this guy really needed relief! The doctor inside me didn’t know what to do. We were never taught this at the college, but, sometimes our education impacts our thinking so much that we stop thinking like humans. If only we could! As I thought about all the medical procedures that could stop the pain, the lady softly murmured, “I wish I could drive….”

It just struck me, that being a doctor isn’t all you need to cure suffering. Sometimes being human could benefit more. I just rushed back, grabbed my keys and drove to the 24 hours pharmacy at the nearest hospital. On my way back, I had two thoughts in my mind. The first one was that how easy was this! The second one was that what if this were a village and we had nothing around to get the medicine from?

As I handed over the medicine and stayed with him till he was fine again, my mind was preoccupied with the thought of a person in pain at midnight in a village. Though I was able to relieve that pain for him that day, my heart goes out for all those fellow countrymen who have to spend nights in pain because they have nowhere to go. As we relieve individual pain, we sometimes forget that real healthcare will be achieved only when we have pain relief for everyone a stone throw away, even at midnight!