The Harried Mother and Guilty Pleasures

                                             She barged into the clinic " Are you the doctor?"she accused. I just nodded ,wondering what's wrong with that. She smiled. I relaxed." Doc, I want to get my tooth removed. But I am here for only 3 days, have come to my mother's place you know. And I also have Diabetes and Blood Pressure."
                       "Okay" I said taking control and sounding authoritative " We need to fill the necessary forms and then I'll do a through check-up of your oral cavity and see what can be done". She looked pleased and impressed.(Phew!!)
                  I got down to filling the form " Your good name?"she replied. "Age/Date of birth?" "51" "1951?" "Oh! you want the month? " "And the date too" "5th May"..."okay..5/5/1951" I wrote. "What 1951!" She thundered " You are making me 12 years older...It's 1963" (Oops!! Bad start) " I'm so sorry" I gave her one of my apologetic smile.
                     "Just wait till I arrange things inside" I requested." Are you gonna pull off the tooth today? " She asked narrowing her eyes. "No No.I'll just check and let you know what can be done, take an Xray maybe. Given your medical condition, it's good to do extraction under antibiotic cover.i.e take medicine for a day and then do the tooth removal" I explained trying to read her mind. "Okay" she said.
                      After the check up and lots of questions later,as I was prescribing her medicines " You are almost like my daughter" she smiled indulgently. (Does that mean I am in her good books now?) I just Smiled back. "She's 26 yrs old you know. A very bright girl. She's a Chef. She did her course from a UK university" she beamed. Now, even I was impressed " That sounds good"
                      " But nowadays, she doesn't listen to me at all. All the time back-answering. Is this the way you talk to your parents when you grow up?" she asked accusingly (How does she know? o.O) I gulped, " When do I give you the next appointment?" I tried changing the topic. I guess she didn't hear coz she continued her monologue " I tell her get married, now is the right age. And all she tells me is mummy I want to concentrate on my career. Pls do not nag me into this.If a mother doesn't worry about her daughter then who will tell me? " she paused, looking at me, hoping for answers.
                       I, in turn ,was hoping for divine intervention.Then it stuck me, how about giving her an evening appointment, she could meet my mom and both could share their sorrows." Khub jamega rang, jab mil baithege teen yaar..two mummies and woes of their respective daughter"I smirked "Is 7.30pm good for you?" I asked. She looked dissappointed " yeah", she said. " How old are you?" she inquired, trying to get me interested.
                       It's a tricky question when patient's ask you your age.The older you are, the more experience you have, is the general funda.I tried sticking to the truth, " err..I'm 29" "Just like my daughter!!" she beamed.(Good, she looks pleased)" Are you married?" she inquired looking at my left ring finger.(How many personal queries should be valid professionally??..It happens only in India..I sighed)
                         "Not Yet" is the best answer, is what I have figured out over the years. " Just like my daughter!!" this time she sounded disgusted.( So do I get disqualified from doing her Extraction, was what I was wondering) " Ohh! today's generation, I tell you, I do not understand at all. In our times I started getting proposals when I was in eight standard"
                         "Ooh! lucky you" I managed, keeping my surprised face to myself ( not at all a easy task for me, mind you) " But my father put his foot down and I got married when I was 20. And if I want my daughter to get married at 26 is there something wrong? I gave 6 yrs more freedom than I had, isn't that enough?". I looked down at my appointment diary for inspiration. God knows why,I was feeling guilty for her daughter not listening to her.
                           She probably figured out my discomfort or maybe felt a surge of sympathy " You know this Diabetes and Blood pressure can really be a pain. At least I manage to Do things myself, My mom needs someone all the time" I relaxed a little. Now the conversation was back to my forte.Just as I was about to give her my compassionate Smile of "I Understand"...she threw the bouncer " Tell me doc, people tell me all this is because I'm FAT, am I Fat doctor? "
                          (OMG, now where do I hide.) I decided to brave the storm and said, " Not at all, Aunty. You are well proportioned for your age group" She Cackled ( whoa !! sixer..well done, I said to myself) "Exactly, that's what I tell people. You know I was 45 kgs" and looking at my surprised face she completed " when I got married and then I had to wait for 5 yrs to have this kid and look what a Brat she's turned out to be !"
                              Before she could go back to her life history, I handed her the prescription and explained her about the medicine. Quickly gave her the appointment (Rajnikant would have been proud) and added " See you then" for safety measures. " Just like my daughter! " she smiled and got up to leave. She left, but the Guilt didn't " I guess ! should take some pastries for Mom today on my way back" I said to myself...As they say Guilt should be killed by Guilty pleasures. ;)


(Psst...all those who are wondering ..what happened later...well..er...it was something like this...:p)