Here come bad news, talking this
and that
(Yeah) Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold it back
(Yeah) Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine
(Yeah) No offense to you, don’t waste your time
Here’s why
Sixty doctors across India danced
to the song Happy and the video, in the times of the virus, went- well-
viral, giving a sense of energy and happiness to the valiant efforts
of our Indian doctors in their battle against COVID19.The stanza from the song mentioned
at the start of this story tells it all. The pulsating video of each doctor
from across cities in India, sending a clip of them ( and in cases their family
and other folks) dancing to the song, to a team that put it together has been
breaking the internet. Doctors in Goa had also seen
the clip which had been forwarded and some felt they could dance too if given
the opportunity while others felt the battle was still on and they were very
focussed on the task on hand. Dr. Oscar Rebello smiled when asked
how he was keeping his spirits up. He said “Most doctors I know, are going
about their routine as regularly as before. We are not seeing an overwhelming
surge of cases of pneumonia during the lockdown period. As the workload is
light due to patient movement restrictions, there is more time for family,
reading, and music and sadly to keep raiding the refrigerator to eat more than
necessary”. More honest words were never spoken. Calangute maybe famous all over
India and in parts of the world for the parting that takes place but Dr. Lloyd
Fernandes is not one to indulge due to the pressures of the profession. He
smiled and said “We are delivering the same service in regular times or now
when it is a pandemic. We are all using protective gear and our motivation has
always been high. What we would like to see however is some protection from the
government in our line of work. The cases of relatives attacking doctors are on
the rise and now the government has passed a bill but it says it is not ok to
attack a doctor during a pandemic. We are happy and confident of facing all
situations as doctors but an amendment in that bill would be appreciated. And
yes, I would not mind shaking a leg”. A noted physiotherapist, Dr. Sachin
Sarin who works with limbs, was quite happy to shake a leg or two, to express
his support to the cause. He smiled and said “I have been relaxing and having a
great time with my kids who are very young. They have never seen me this much
and home and when I started going out again to meet patients there was much
fear. We had to explain what I was doing and they are ok now”. He admitted to
having watched the video and enjoyed it and felt he would have certainly joined
in if he was invited. Dr Madhu Gawade who has been in the
thick of it all felt doctors in the public sector had certainly felt the rough
end of the stick because all the cases were referred to them. These
doctors he said had no alternative but to treat the patient. This meant a great
deal of precaution needed to be taken. That, however, was part of their
training and he and his colleagues were confident in dealing with all kinds of
situations. Stress was not something they wanted to befriend and humour
certainly helped. Their days can be calm and can turn
upside down at a minute’s notice and yet these men and women maintain their
calm and keep their spirits up to ensure that others don’t fall sick, lose
their lives, or those of their loved ones.
Here’s to ‘Happy’ times.
