A flash flood had submerged their necks leaving only the heads bobbing along the waves of peril. Were it not for the human chain they formed, their impromptu plan to trek in the valleys of Mahabaleshwar would have turned into a lifelong lesson for us college juniors.
The terrain was unforgiving but what kept them alive was the trust they showed in each other. The trust that the one holding their hand would lead them to safety.
You donât really need help of a certain herb smoked in a rolled up piece of paper to contemplate the importance of this five-letter word.
Trust is an indispensable tool at the disposal of Man. And animals, for that matter.
Take my Senior Consultant of Medicine, for example. I remember sitting with him seeing the OPD when a patient presented to me with breathlessness. âWhatâs his oxygen saturation?â, he asked.
I quickly pulled out my pulse oximeter and told him the reading.
â92, sir!â
He thought for a minute and then asked me to perform an arterial blood-gas analysis on him. But immediately, he applied the oximeter again on another finger of the patient, just to confirm.
It then read â96â.
The value was no longer abnormal.
He looked me in the eye and said, âTell me. How can I trust you again?â
A laptop bathed in oil
I was in first year of college and had just bought a laptop. A 360 degrees foldable tablet-cum-laptop I couldnât take my eyes off. More so because I imagined doing the stuff of writers on that machine. Going all clickety-clack on its keys as I poured my thoughts on the screen.
One day, my roommate asked for it. He was planning to watch a movie and although, Iâm not very fond of sharing my gadgets â because of reasons that would be obvious very shortly â I agreed.
The next day I got my laptop back in a condition that had my heart shattered. There was a layer oil on the keypad and the screen. Basically, everywhere my rommateâs fingers wandered. Who doesnât like munching on snacks while watching a movie, after all?
It was not a major offence. But it was something that consolidated my already established opinion. That I canât trust anyone just like that.
Maybe people arenât as uptight and anxious as me when it comes to living life. Maybe I take it too seriously. Like not wanting my books dog-eared by another classmate. I agree that I had asked him to not disturb my bookshelf even before he had a chance to sabotage the corners of the books, but not like I could have waited for that to happen. I knew them. I knew how they do what they do. I knew that these things didnât matter to them and I might come across as a snobbish jerk but I couldnât help it. I like my things a certain way and thatâs the reason I canât trust people enough to share them.
Just like my senior consultant who liked it his way. Immaculate. Flawless. No chance of error whatsoever because for him, patients reigned supreme. It was his way of conducting his professional life.
It is my way of keeping my gadgets.
Not oiled.
A little obsession is the rule of life, I guess?
TheUnknownDoktor