A house visit, the auto-wallah and the rains

An area called Madipakkam next to Velachery (the area where I stay) in Chennai is a veritable ocean replete with waves whenever it rains for more than a day. One wonders how at all did people have the mind to buy/rent a house/flat in such a low lying area! Come monsoons and normal life is disrupted for more than a week even after it has stopped raining. Even the MTC (govt. bus transport) halts its services to Madipakkam! Imagine.

Ok today I had a phone call from a doctor friend asking me to visit his patient who lives in Madipakkam. I couldnt refuse as the patient was 88yrs old and she was being looked after by her niece and there wasnt any male member in the family to take her to the hospital.

Knowing that the area would be flooded I decided to hire a rick to visit the patient. Mercifully the auto-wallah agreed to ply me to Madipakkam and back(usually even autowallahs refuse to ply to Madipakkam during the rains, if at all they do, the charge would be astronomical, maybe the equivalent of buying an auto and fuelling it for life)

The Good Samaritan auto driver informed me the fare would be 150 bucks. Off I went and the main road to Madipakkam was cut off with water stagnating as far as the eye could see! There were even waves like the ones you see in Hawaii! I could have easily learnt to surf on those waters.

Ok after the auto waded through the waters and went through rickety-rackety roads, we finally reached the house I was to visit.

The poor old lady had high fever, elephantiasis of the legs, inflammatory edema in the legs because of a few furuncles on the legs and diabetic nephropathy.

I gave a shot of paracetamol to reduce the fever and asked for a few investigations. She was sleeping in a very odd position and was about to fall off the bed. Her attendants being ladies and not very strong could not move her into a proper position and so they had barricaded the bed with a few chairs. Along with the help of the auto driver, I managed to pull the patient into a more comfortable position. Ants were streaming along on her limp body. Poor thing, passing urine and motion on the bed and lying in the wetness should have been really uncomfortable and had moved herself to the cot's edge.

Finally while I was about to leave, the lady of the house wanted to know how much she would have to pay the auto driver. Without batting a lid, he charged 250 bucks. The lady was bewildered but eventually gave him the dough. Next she asked me how much my fee was. I said 200 bucks. She was kind of shocked in a pleasant way, and even offered me a 100 extra. Politely I refused and left asking her to take care. As I left she muttered under her breath: Doctor charges 200 and auto driver charges 250!

I don’t know whether it was right on the part of the auto wallah to charge 250, coz the water logging was so very bad, but that’s life. I don’t have a right to suggest to the autowallah to charge less. What if he were to suggest me to charge less? Each one should be responsible for the fee they collect.

You can have a look at the pics that I took from my mobile while traveling by the rick.