Documentary

More than a year ago, I was called to attend a meeting on a proposed documentary on our hospital. Some elderly person with loads of money wanted to do one. I was reluctant to attend, but they pushed me. I listened to whatever they were saying, but kept to myself. “What is your opinion, doctor?” she asked me. “I don’t think the documentary will serve any purpose from point of view of our hospital” I said. “It will be watched by an elite few, while it is the masses who come to our hospital and get treated. They will not get to see it. Even if they do, what does it matter to them? They want treatment, without knowing anything about it.” “Anyway, we want to do it. The Director wants it launched on the Independence day.” I knew the Director set deadlines of nearest auspicious days, so that concerned people worked hard and hopefully met those deadlines. I also knew they often did not, but that was besides the point. Since I did not see any point in the whole exercise, I had no suggestions. Two independence days passed, and still there was no documentary. I wondered about it sometimes, because I dislike loose ends, and this was a loose end. Yesterday she came back to our office and said she wanted to talk to me. “No, the documentary is not ready” she told me. “We want to interview you for that documentary.” “You don’t want me” I told her. “We want you” she said. “Believe me, you don’t want me” I repeated. “I cannot say politically correct things if they are not actually correct.” “We want such people” she said. Then I had no argument to offer any more. We fixed for that afternoon slot that both of had free. She came along with her crew, saw my transit office chair and table space, with the plaster off the wall behind me, and got enthusiastic. I think she wanted to show all negative aspects I would tell her about. Her crew arranged Everything, and we started. “So we begin, angry man of the hospital” she began. She did not add ‘young’ in that description, because I was with a lot of grey hair and ditto moustache. She had been primed by someone. Otherwise she had no business calling me angry. “I don’t think the description fits” I said. “I run courses on anger management for my people. I couldn’t if I were angry myself.” She was taken aback by that. The primer had not told her about this apparently. The interview continued. She asked this and that. She tried to get my angry opinions on her presumed poor condition of our building, state of maintenance of equipment, my boss and such things. I think she expected me to take the baits and spill my guts in front of the camera. Unfortunately I told her things that were not only politically correct, but also actually correct. There was no material to spice up her documentary. She asked me about myself, my son, and what I did in my free time. I told her the truth: there was no free time in the hospital. At home I worked preparing for the next day at the hospital, fixed things that needed fixing, wrote articles, did some computer programming etc. The primers had not told her all this. But they had told her something else. “I also understand you have some fun sometimes” she said. “You had nick named someone ‘Queen Bee’ …” “I had not done any such thing” I said, suddenly alert. Something strange was afoot. I knew the Queen Bee business of a few years ago. “Where did you pick up this information?” “I read it on your blog” she said brightly. “I googled and found your blog during my research.” “That is incorrect” I said. “There is no mention of any such thing on my blog.” She dropped that subject. I did not press it any further. I knew the source of her wisdom. Two persons were likely. One was the professor who had called me initially to meet her. The other was an ex-professor, in whose office she had been sitting when some students came along and she had interviewed them too, she said. Both of them had tried to trouble me in the past without reason, and had allegedly stated in presence of the others that I was the poet who wrote the ‘Bee’ poetry. The ‘Bee’ poetry is a topic for another post.