Incredibly Indian

After my trip to the Indian capital last December I was going to write a piece “Maa Tujhe Salaam” on the Republic Day this year impressed as I was with the airport, the metro and the malls of Delhi
But life has its strange twists and turns. I found myself back in Delhi on the eve of the Republic Day under very different circumstances.
My father lay critically ill in the hospital and my sister and I were the chief caregivers. Just like one realizes the true worth of friends and relatives in a time of crisis, does one realize the culture of a place. Delhi is ruled by scavengers! Soon enough I began to see that the cab drivers, the helps at home were all cashing in on the hapless situation we found ourselves in. They were out to maximize their gains in the face of our vulnerability. I looked for angels in the crowd and for the first time in many years found none!
Everything was a struggle. From getting my father a bedpan to getting him cleaned up and into a fresh pair of pyjamas. The inhumanity, the lack of reverence for a human life both amazed and disgusted me. The nurses were in a perpetual daze administering wrong dosages of medicines and relaying half baked information.
When it was time to leave the hospital, and I asked for an ambulance, my father was actually made to step into the ambulance and then ordered out! One had to literally scream to get their attention to the fact that the reason the ambulance was ordered was because the patient was a patient! And people who did their duty at the hospital lined up for their bakshish!
While the doctors were excellent- all surrounding facts almost negated the fact that they were so.
I hired 24 hours attendants for my Dad, who slept while my dad moved himself around to the bathroom on his own.
Unfortunately we lost our father the second time into the hospital. And when it was time to move him to the crematorium, a drunken ambulance driver tried to order the bodily remains out with no reverence to the fact this was the last journey of a person – a living being a few hours ago! The crematorium employee wanted money to hand over the ashes and the pundits were shockingly mercenary.
Thanks to one family of women and an old pujari, we finally found some solace and peace in performing the last rites.
Is this what Incredible India is all about? True the size of the population puts a strain on the infrastructure but whatever happened to the tehzeeb North Indians were known for? In its run to become an economic superpower, Indians are slowly losing their values – the essence of what made India dear to us.