Manager - Retina & Vitreous Services
Aravind-Madurai
I was posted at the Chittagong Eye Infirmary in Bangladesh with Dinakar and we moved later to AEH-Tirunelveli.
As we were preparing for the trip, Dinakar and I tried to put together some basic phrases from the book Learn Hindi in 30 Days (which was bought by our senior fellows during their external posting). Dhinikar has kept the book safely for the next batch of fellows.
At last the day came when "Phaco" Franco (as he is lovingly called), Suganthi, and I started from Madurai, to Bangladesh. Most part of our trip was quite pleasant, but as we approached the border, the bus conductor announced that we should take out our passports and keep them ready. We took it out and there came a guy running who then snatched our passports and put them in a bag. As we approached the border he threw the bag out of the bus window to a guy probably waiting for them. It was around 5:00pm, when we reached the "Banapole" India-Bangladesh border.
After alighting from the bus we were sent to a waiting area. They made us stand in a queue and led us to the security check. A guy came and started calling the names and gave back the passports. The luggage was already under security check. All went one by one until at last it was only we two standing and that guy was left without any more passports. Then came some officials who said we had some problem with our passports, and refused to send us across the border. They agreed only after we paid them Rs.1000/-, and then they came back asking for an additional Rs.1500/- Little did we know, this was just the beginning…
We somehow finally cleared the tight security checks and questioning, and reached Bangladesh just in time to find the embassy closed for the day. We were asked to come the next day, but by now our luggage was already in the bus, and when we turned back, we found that the Indian border was now also closed. We were nowhere now! After multiple requests, the embassy people finally approved us. Luckily we just made it into the running bus.
Around midnight, we reached Dhaka and Franco left. Then after long rainy sleepless night we entered Chittagong around 6:00 a.m. to find flooded roads and lot of accidents. After a while our bus stopped and we were ordered to get down and make our own way as they can’t go further. The water was hip deep, and I recognised my suitcase from the sticker on the handle as it was the only thing visible above water. The bus vanished in a few minutes leaving us in the heavy showers and swimming in the muddy pool with the luggages and no place to stand. After dragging myself for sometime I met a gentleman who then helped me to contact the hospital and make arrangement for picking me up. The driver couldn’t carry my suitcase as the suitcase was now filled with water.
In the guest house I washed all of my mud-stained cloths which I had painstakingly ironed before I left Madurai. I was in a bad state and bed-ridden after spending nearly one hour that day swimming. Similar were the conditions of my cloths, camera, mobile, iron-box, books etc…
Later, when I was feeling better, I began my project at the Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital, Kolkata. I helped to standardising their hospital systems, find bottlenecks, and smooth the patient flow. It was a great learning experience to know and see how Aravind's managed hospitals work. After six weeks we finished our projects and I flew back to Madurai
Today, all of us are working in various branches of Aravind and contributing to the hospital's mission in many ways.