OT ego

The other day my neighbor, Chandar, slipped down the stairs, and landed on his elbow. There was a deep cut and some bleeding. 

Since I am a trainer for the medical representatives, he came to me to show his wound. I inspected it and felt that the wound needed some stitches to heal quickly.

So both of went to the nearest orthopedic doctor. He had a X-ray taken to rule out minor fractures. There was none. So it was time to go to the minor OT. I got a TT and diclofenac injections. TT was to rule out tetanus and diclofenac was to bring down to swelling and pain.

Diclofenac , itself causes pain in the area wherein it is injected, not because of the needle but because it is the quality of the drug.

In the minor OT, the technician,  Udaya, had Chandar lower his shorts and lie face down on the table.

I was telling Chandar, that the injection would pain. This statement irritated Udaya, who felt I was insulting his talent. He argued with me telling me that it was not the injection, but the technique used in injecting which would make it painful or painless. To prove a point he told Chandar, “ sir now I will inject you on each hip, one by one. You tell me which is more painful. “ He then proceeded to injected each hip with the respective medicine.

Chandar was in a fix. Because Udaya was yet to stitch his elbow and Udaya’s help would be needed to remove the stitches 10 days later. Chandar did not want to offend him.  Very diplomatically he said that he could not feel any difference between one prick and the other.  

Udaya looked at me triumphantly, and gave me a look that said, “ so who do you think you are? Smart guy!!!”

This event left me stunned. Here I was, who just made a harmless statement, which affected the  ego of a technician, who wanted to prove his superiority over me.

Funny , but point is to be noted.

We are all creatures of emotions. We are creatures driven by our egos. We have to be right, no matter what, have our way every time, whatever the consequence, and prove to everyone that we are great.

Even if it is momentary and fleeting the ego is always ready to brandish its sword and slay any other passerby ego. 

The feeling behind this small event, when multiplied many times, breaks friendship, separates lovers, divorces marriages, brings war and disaster to nations and starvations to humans, and destroys endangered species.

When will peaceful co-existence be a reality and not something you read in books.

Once a librarian named Swarnamukhi, told me, “there can be a cure for cancer and aids, but not for human ego.”

How true.