Speaking doctors

Seems like ages before I had a day off. But finally it comes. Sunday as a funday.  The morning starts at about nine. The rest of the house still sleeping. I leave eggs to boil. Time to kick start day with a healthy breakfast. One banana, followed by the boiled egg. Thats the plan. Junaid (my brother) wakes up and agrees to fix tea. I offer him the boiled eggs and he reluctantly accepts.(Junaid says that boiling an egg is equivalent to wasting one!). I head for the little park with my books in one hand and the nashta in the other. No signs of the newspaper yet. Ok. Its a beautiful morning, just the right amount of cool breeze. Partly cloudy. Tazadum... I stick the headphones in my ears and turn on the radio. Its FM 107s birthday. They sound excited and rightly so. I peel my egg as the music continues to blare. The egg has never tasted better. Zabardast, my heart goes. Junaid brings in the tea. I sip away......... The newspaper arrives. Two huge bundles. The express tribu...

Start of a brand new day. I am starting my call with three patients. Another patient has bounced back. Still another has arrived. Pager beeps. Another 'over' given. That makes it six so far. Good morning Karachi! As the weather takes a turn . . . . . . . It started to rain during the rounds. At two in the afternoon it looked so beautiful! The students looked happy, and so did everyone else. One of the students just stood there in front of me staring at the window, raindrops trickling. " Move on kid", I said. (We are rounding, serious stuff it is). "Maam, look at the weather!". I give him a whatever look.

Its that time of the year again. Its the 29th fast and everybody is almost hundred percent sure that its Eid tomorrow. Chand raat and fate decides that we should be oncall.... Hajra stays till iftari. Beenish (rotating in pulmonology), pages me to order food for iftari. After much brain storming, and a lot of phoning here and there we order the McDonald's iftari deal. Eventually the time comes. Maghrib Azaan. The food is there. Chicken wings, chicken burger, and drink. We also order Sundaes. During the course of the meal Beenish continues to say, "this is too good, I'm lovin it!" We then go outside for moon sighting, but its cloudy outside. We leave the job for Mufti Sahab and offer prayers. Later its the usual stuff in hospitals. Patients and more patients. But its festive. The doctors look happy, the staff excited. The staff in private wing collect money and decorate the private wing with frills and it looks amazing. Mehndi and me At three am...