Interesting Tryst

I had been waiting for almost 20 minutes. Flipping through the October edition of Cineblitz filled with gossips from the starry land, my eyes wandered to something worthwhile. A write up on geo- thermal stations in New Zealand kept me captivated for another 30 minutes when I was called in for the check up.

In the next ten minutes I was on my way to the pharmacy in the basement of the 5 storied clinic. I had shown a constant improvement with my acne treatment and had come in for a routine check up. The clinic was one of its kind. With all possible treatments available in the dermatological domain the architecture of the building was truly state- of- art. The interiors were tasteful with Cerulean blue colour theme. Beautiful ornamented ceramic pottery could be seen on every shelf and the floor was kept warm with nice blue Kashmiri carpets.

In the pharmacy I was greeted by a kind eyed gentleman who must’ve been in his late sixties. Dressed almost identically to Dr. Sharma, a look at his face confirmed him as his brother. He was ruffling through prescriptions and pulling out required medicines for the patient sitting in the sofa inside. I opened the glass door and placed my self next to the first patient. The regular pharmacist was not around and Mr. Sharma looked a bit hassled with packing the medicines in zip pouches and then writing down the billing details. I waited patiently however my curious eyes stayed attentive. Every few seconds he would look at me and smile in a way saying, “I will just attend you in a moment”. I smiled back nodding and reassuring that I was at ease and he need not worry. I think it was this “optical language” that made us click the very next moment. No sooner did the first patient turned his back than Mr. Sharma as he introduced himself as, started chatting with me.

Through out his childhood and adolescence he had lived in and around Delhi. After that he moved to the States and then to the Arabian part of the world where he worked as a Manager for one of the MNC’s. Quite happy with his life it was not until Dr. Sharma, his younger brother, who was practicing as a dermatologist in the States insisted him in starting up their own clinic in India. Close as they were, Mr. Sharma couldn’t say no to his younger favourite. Moreover the thought of coming back home was heart warming enough.

Then began their journey of building the clinic from scratch. Right from buying the land and getting the building erected both the brothers worked towards perfecting everysingle step of their dream. He was made the CEO while Dr. Sharma continued his practice. With a huge clientele and a very busy schedule with patients visiting from all over the world, Dr. Sharma had little time to look into the matters of the company. And what could have been better than your own brother handling it.

Being a traveler Mr. Sharma and his wife had been around the world. “We’ve been to 40 countries,” he gleamed. I smiled back enthusiastically saying, “Wow, I wish to go around the world too!” He quickly replied, “Oh, you should!” And after that I launched into a small description of all the recent tours I had taken and how my generous boss had readily allowed me to take leaves. Mr. Sharma then hurled few questions on my job profile as a researcher and my hobbies and whether I was happy with my job. I nodded and said, “Well, the best thing is I get enough time to travel around.” He listened to me patiently nodding his head here and there and simultaneously making my bills. I was my usual self- chatty and friendly.

Quite pleased with me I suppose, the next thing he did was hand me over his visiting card. A very generous and kind gesture, I thought. He added quickly, “You are full of energy and I like you. Be positive all your life and do what you love the most. I have always liked creative people and you have compelled me to give you my visiting card, which I don’t give out easily. Feel free to contact me any day and I will be more than happy to help you. Keep in touch and I would want to see some of your creativity. ” I smiled benevolently.

It doesn’t happen every day that in the strangest of situations and filled with strange people you suddenly come across someone who without knowing you much, trusts you and believes in you and more importantly wishes good for you. The kind eyes seemed to bless me and reflected the honesty with which I spoke. Mr. Sharma is one of such people whom I would always remember as one of the “Connectors” in my life. People as messengers sent by God to re-instill the faith in me and to always coax me to keep going ahead. Almost like angels.