I was leaving the ward with the unit doctors when the Sister in charge of the ward came along. She was quite upset.
"Sir, I am fed up with the relatives of patients. They eat in the corridor outside the ward, and then wash their hands and gargle in the dustbin kept here. All that dirty water leaks out and spreads on the floor. The servants have to clean it up and they are fed up too."
She had a reason to be upset. I could not blame the people who did this too. This was the way of life for them. They spat on the roads, out of their windows and wherever they went. No one had taught them different and they were not teaching their children different. This problem was permanent and expanding at the same rate the population was expanding.
"But we have to provide a dustbin. Or they will throw garbage on the floor" I said.
"That is true" she said.
I brainstormed alone for a couple of seconds and then I had that brainwave.
"Sister, put the dustbin here" I said, pointing to the wall recess near the dustbin. "Chain it to the wall so that they will not be able to take it down."
They all looked at the place I was pointing at and took in the implications of the suggestion.
That is my artistic representation of what it would look like.
"No one will jump up and gargle into the dustbin that high. Keep the edges of the dustbin dirty so that they will not bring their mouths close to it, even if they stand up on something to reach it."
The Sister and all the doctors laughed. Even the servants of the adjacent OT who were listening from a distance laughed. They were probably imagining people using slam dunk technique like a basket ball player.
"I think I deserve an award for coming up with funky ideas" I said, regretting there was no such award offered by the civic body.
"Sir, I am fed up with the relatives of patients. They eat in the corridor outside the ward, and then wash their hands and gargle in the dustbin kept here. All that dirty water leaks out and spreads on the floor. The servants have to clean it up and they are fed up too."
She had a reason to be upset. I could not blame the people who did this too. This was the way of life for them. They spat on the roads, out of their windows and wherever they went. No one had taught them different and they were not teaching their children different. This problem was permanent and expanding at the same rate the population was expanding.
"But we have to provide a dustbin. Or they will throw garbage on the floor" I said.
"That is true" she said.
I brainstormed alone for a couple of seconds and then I had that brainwave.
"Sister, put the dustbin here" I said, pointing to the wall recess near the dustbin. "Chain it to the wall so that they will not be able to take it down."
They all looked at the place I was pointing at and took in the implications of the suggestion.
That is my artistic representation of what it would look like.
"No one will jump up and gargle into the dustbin that high. Keep the edges of the dustbin dirty so that they will not bring their mouths close to it, even if they stand up on something to reach it."
The Sister and all the doctors laughed. Even the servants of the adjacent OT who were listening from a distance laughed. They were probably imagining people using slam dunk technique like a basket ball player.
"I think I deserve an award for coming up with funky ideas" I said, regretting there was no such award offered by the civic body.
