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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Telephones and me

I am not friends with “telephones”.
I grew up in a home without telephones and it was when our family had moved to city and lived there for some time that we had a telephone hooked up about 1957-8, something like that.
I had left home after 1953-4 and never learnt the use of this communication method (I mean I knew but never made use of it).
After getting my MBBS I got my “house job” (1958) in Mayo Hospital for one year. There were no telephones in the wards. I would write a note (question suggestion or whatever) on a notebook which the “ward bearer” (baira) will take it to the appropriate person, say house physician or surgeon in other ward who would write the answer and notebook would be brought back to me. Even in my Obstetric training in Lady Willindon Hospital the students had no phone and the aya with her flipflops would come (you could hear the slippers in the veranda from our room) and announce in the verandah “doc sahbji case aye” (Doctor there is emergency which meant that labor has started or water is broke etc.) so whoever is on call would rush to the labor room. Telephones were installed (in Mayo hosp) at the time I finished my job, (Jan.1959) but before that there was one telephone outside the hospital building under a tree ( a telephone booth of some sort). I used that phone once during the time I was senior house physician.
That was summer holidays time and Col. Ilahi Bukhsh Marhoom (my boss, Prof. of Medicine and Principal of the college) had to be called. A patient with acute coronary was admitted who was well-known to the then health minister (Khan Khudadad Khan) and Khan saheb came to the ward in the evening to visit the patient and wanted to see/talk to the doctor incharge. I had to use that phone.
I was in Peshawar for over two years and my department had the phones but not in my (our, more than one senior lecturers) office. I could use the other office phones however. Once I called a freind of mine changing my voice to feminine but he recognized and said and I still remember
“Ba her rangay keh khwahi jama mee posh
man andazay qadat ra mee shanasam”
(Whatever color or type of clothes you may wear, I recognize you from the way you walk)
I start my first job in Southampton after reaching England and have to use telephone for everything. For the first time I realized that I could not hear so well in my right ear, the one which has now the cochlear implant (the left was also not normal) so from then on I used only left ear for listening to the phone. the first day at my job (house surgeon) I received lot of calls as my ward was admitting surgical emergencies… boy I was nervous using this machine as I was not used to it. I still remember there four cases of urinary retention (male ward) and my registrar(An Australian Chap), taught me (very gracefully) the non touch technique of introducing the catheter. Well, after a week or so I became comfortable using phones.
Now, I hardly ever use telephone because I cannot hear with my left ear even with hearing aid’s maximum tune up. I do possess one mobile (cell-phone) but it is more for urgent needs.
The communication technology has advanced so much but for a real “paindoo” like me I am still out of touch and still not friendly with these gadgets.

3 comments:

mystic-soul said...

I grew up in era without cell phone. Our house get phone when I was 24 years old....

I did house job without pager....

Life was as good as it now without cell, internet or blackberry....

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