Dental Drill

Yesterday I had been to a dentist, Ashish, close to my place to replace a cap. I was visiting him for the first time. He is young and dynamic, and his clinic is well equipped with latest equipments like digital sensor with monitor etc. I came to know about him from my neighbours.

He has a receptionist cum attendent, Anuja, who is in her late fifties. While sitting on the dental chair, I needed more water to rinse my mouth.

Instead of pressing the call bell, he called her, but she was busy attending to a patient, and might not have heard him. He called her again, this time more loudly, “Annu.”

When she came inside, he shouted at her in my presence, “Don’t you listen to me? I called you twice. Refill the water.”

His tone was offending, and I could see how humiliated she was feeling. In fact I get myself humiliated when someone is humiliated in my presence, that too at her age. In my first interaction, she appeared to be a humble and good-natured lady.

The relationship between the two was of employer-employee, but should one forget the human angle? Does it give a right to employer to behave so rudely with his employees? I started pondering.

After treatment, I politely said to him,

“Anuja is of your mother’s age. She must be working under you due to her difficult family circumstances. If you talk to her politely, she will feel happy working with you, and you will also feel a sense of joy and satisfaction. You’re a doctor, you must be knowing that it takes 17 muscles to smile while 43 to frown.”

Ashish obviously didn’t like my intervention or this unwanted sermon and started arguing, “Sir, you don’t know, she is a moody lady, she doesn’t understand the language you are advocating.”

I presume I have landed myself once again in a precarious situation by giving an unsolicited advice. I meekly said, “Ok, just give a try, and see the difference.”

I hope and pray that his scary dental drill machine will not spin and drill more than needed, when I visit him next.😊☺️

–Kaushal Kishore