Cashing the Disease: a catch-22

I Believe, we everyday experience something, which astounds us. They shape our thoughts accordingly or they simply leave us speechless. Perhaps this is how life goes on. There has been one life account I want to share too. The incident that made me rethink about my prescription of disserving patients

We as human beings, always have a soft corner for patients suffering from any kind of disease. The feeling of either sympathy or empathy grasps us while we think of them. Definitely we silently pray for their betterment and try our best to comfort them. However, it is not always this way.

Last week I visited a pharmacy in order to pick medicines for my mother who hasn’t been well since quite some time. I had to wait there for few minutes, as I had to wait for my brother to pick me up. While I was sitting there, a man in his early forties with very rough and jagged outfit came there with his front neck swollen badly. He was suffering from goiter, a serious thyroid disorder. It seems that he often visited that store to have his medications free. However, that day, the owner didn’t give him any medicine rather he called him inside the cabin and asked him to go for proper treatment for cure of the disease.

Upon which he replied that he couldn’t afford those expenses. I was listening all conversation and was happy to hear that the owner was ready to take all expenses by himself. But on this, that beggar looking man ran like thief. All of us there were surprised but real nerve-wracking sentence which surprised me was,

“Dr ji ay bemari ty meri rozi rotti lai hoi ay, me operation krwa k bachyan nu bhoka marna ay?” (Sir this disease is a source of income to me, I do not want to get this cured, as my children would have nothing to eat than.)

Was he cashing his disease? I was so regretful to know his level of thinking. Such people have deprived the real disserving people. They don’t want to work and earn, as they found it easy to beg. What about the self-respect? Have they long killed it too or buried under the goiter they pretend to have? Cognizance, Self-regard, dignity and self-respect are the attributes bestowed to everyman on earth, and these attributes differentiate the crown of creation from other creations on earth. Nevertheless, some people have lost them or we should say have sold them for few commodities. At least I don’t count them in the list of crown of creations. The question is, are we or the society, not willing to deconstruct it ourselves or we want this to continue this way?

Author: Atia Kanwal