dr pandya's clinic

dr pandyas’ clinic lies in an old rotting building on the fringes of lic colony. its been there for years, behind what once used to be the best bus stand at the base of the hill. i have always gone there, ever since i was a child. mom, dad and me went there in the evening yesterday because of dads hip injury and all those memories of waiting for our turn to go in came back to me.

i have very rarely seen the clinic when i have been healthy. it is always through a mist of antibiotics or in a fevered haze that i used to sit waiting for my turn to go in, studying the medical charts deconstructing the human body into its relevant parts or the detailed descriptions of how to identify and prevent diseases like polio and (yesterday) leptospirosis.

as i was waiting outside yesterday, looking at the doctor talking to my father through the window from the lobby to the inside i had a lot of time to notice just how beautiful the benches are in the lobby. on a white and blue streaked vitrified tiled floor they stand carefully crafted out of wood. slender graceful carved legs holding up a polished teak wood slab- soft to the touch- very comforting and comfortable. the delicate way in which they hover over the floor lightly perched on black legs- a plane of warmth for sick bodies to rest- upright. so much better than the plastic moulded chairs or the cushy sofas in modern hospitals or clinics.

there is something about the space of a clinic that must be necessarily pure- and perhaps hard. there is a rigidity and clarity that in some way represents the pure space of rational science glowing shadowless in fluorescent light. i like that.