by Dr Navneet Bhullar
( I wrote this Nov 14. Three weeks it took to post this . That is the summary . But you can look at details below.)
Monday : I signed my name 75 times. No kidding. To file a court case against our vehicle’s manufacturer. It was their operating manual I was acknowledging. For social justice, we are sueing this manufacturer’s agency for swindling us.on more than one occasion. And multitudes of others are harassed this way I am sure.
Gagan’s mum calls : I hear her out . Her husband has been crying. A neighbor curses and abuses them when Gagan screams. There is a new sarpanch elected in their village. I promise to be there in two days to ask for his intervention. Gagan is having daily seizures. I find out he is getting less than half his seizure medicine dose ( after three messages and photos on whatsapp with his sister). Gagan has not had an outing in very long. He screams when taken out. Akash’s mother calls me at my request. I tell her we are appointing Akash as an assistant in Apaar and he will receive a small salary. My main goal I tell her is to get into the mindset that Akash can be a livelihood generator . WE have to place him in a salaried job outside APAAR.
I have been struggling to write receipts to donors. I give up and wait for our now part time manager.
Tuesday : Staff meeting for training- we have two new staff. The special educator who applied for a job at APAAR withdrew when his current employer, a corporate therapy centre offered him raise of Rs 5000 not to leave. He started negotiating his pay check w us before interviewing. “We are not a corporate therapy centre. We believe in holistic healing. We offer respite, outings, jobs. Capitalism is killing APAAR. We have get notice to vacate our building by year end as the hospital is expanding. Our manager squeezes in an hour after work to keep helping us out.
Wednesday : spent nearly an hour at Gagan’s home. His mother is upset and I listen out the neighbor’s story. Gagan is excited to be out in his wheelchair, and we linger in the lanes as he is greeted by ladies who know him. I pluck two flowers from the roadside. Gagan smiles. Later I meet the new sarpanch and request village volunteers to haul G into wheelchair and “walk” him in the neighbourhood.. Next I go across town to the care home we are training staff in. They have printed photos of our outings, but there is still no notice board to in them. I call the chairman who says they will be sent a notice board. Rajan has good news- V ’s parents are going to start occupational therapy in a local centre.
Thursday: V’s mum calls. She has not yet got a time for the occupational therapy. V is 18 year old after all. I call the therapy centre- the coordinator is away daily to Ludhiana for their upcoming centre there. He says four times in one minute that V ’s hyperactivity prevents therapy during regular hours as smaller kids’ parents could be alarmed. V’s mother is suffering I insist, we have no occupational therapist. His psychiatrist never gets in touch with rehab professionals ( us). My letter to the Indian Psychiatry association months ago regarding this silo treatment method, which is failing miserably, remains unacknowledged.
I call V’s mom back. V has been declined at special schools and a residential facility. We are too short-staffed to manage a hyperactive young man. She missed their Ludhiana psychiatrist appointment. I offer a Ludhiana centre where there is a psychiatrist plus very likely an occupational therapist. She says they cannot go to Ludhiana. I offer respite if Rajan is here Saturday. Vansh can spend an hour in the playground. I prepare an Instagram post congratulating Akash. The last post was three months ago. (People have insta posts daily or more often.)Tomorrow is a holiday for Gurpurab . I invoke the great Guru’s name. For me, Guru Nanak Dev ji’s favourite trait is his indefatigability. He walked as far as Iraq west, Nepal east, Tibet to the north. He was the most travelled man in the world then. But I will concentrate on his indefatigability