My Pet Dislikes !

People are always known to have “Pet Hates”. I "Dislike" the word “Hate”. We have enough of hatred on this planet to scald the whole earth. So I don’t want to “Hate”. But I certainly find so many things not to my liking. Some may be frivolous and some may sound silly. But I am passionate about certain things in life and will disagree with those things that disagree with my view.

One of the most disgusting things for me is smoking. For me, single most annoying habit anyone can possess is SMOKING. Especially those people who smoke in public places and are unapologetic about it. I have seen extreme levels of rudeness in some smokers. They will not stop smoking even if we request with absolute politeness. I have had to suffer a guy in an air-conditioned Cinema hall. He even challenged me to “Do what you can” when I threatened him about approaching Police! But the truth is, even the police will take sides with smokers. They will say, “Why do you want to complain when other people have no issues?” Unfortunately we have no escape from this menace in spite of Supreme Court Order to “Ban smoking in public places”.

Another thing that annoys me is the traffic awareness or rather the lack of it amongst our population. People just can’t wait for signals. I see so many pedestrians crossing the road exactly when they shouldn’t be. As if rash and rude drivers are not enough; we have careless pedestrians crossing the road exactly when they should not be. They throw the entire traffic haywire and even get killed due to their own mistake. But you can do precious little about this. In Kerala, people will retort at you saying, “Even we are citizens of India and we have equal rights. Road doesn’t belong tour father”. People are bothered about “Rights” but not about “Duties”.

One malignant habit I have noticed is in pedestrians walking with children in tow. This is more common among women than men though men are not always blameless. Everyday I see women holding the hands of little kids and walking on busy roads with the child on the side of the road rather than the footpath. Knowing well about the menacing private buses, auto rickshaws and reckless two-wheelers, this puts the little ones in immense risk. I always make it a point to stop my car and ask people to walk the child on the side of footpath. Some people may like it, but in most of the cases I see a frown and a repulsive look that says, “Mind your own business”. Advice is the only thing that is given in abundance and seldom taken!

Coming to advice, I see a lot of people love to advice. It is common for almost the entire human race to believe that “I know best”. Some people have advised me about my hairstyle. I have written about it before. Some other people advice me about how I should try to improve my practice as a GP. I am a strictly family bound person. My dislike for practice beyond certain levels borders on the verge of being labeled lazy. I don't like to practice beyond 8:30 PM and would like to spend Sunday evenings with my family. But then people will have nothing of it. One gentleman had this piece of invaluable advice for me, “Doctors should never say 'No' to patients. You should be available 24 hours. You have to sacrifice at least that much for the people. Work is worship! Have you not seen Dr. So and So who runs his clinic till 11:00 PM? You will earn enough money also. If you restrict your hours, you will never grow”. We know there are so many hospitals in Kochi with 24 Hour service, why should all Doctors sacrifice their family life? And what will happen to the family of Doctors? They have done nothing to be disturbed in the middle of the night every other night. It is almost a one-way traffic when it comes to Doctors and service. This same gentleman is extremely economical when it comes to paying the Doctor’s fee. He would come at 2:30 AM to my house and demand some medicine for “Gas”. He is least bothered about waking up an entire family at that hour. And then he will walk out without even bothering to ask about paying a fee!

Well, I think before this grows too long, I should call a halt. Too long speeches and write ups also can get on your nerves. So I don’t want to risk getting on anyone’s nerves. Would love to continue from here when time permits, so that it doesn’t hurt!