9 Sep 2008, Bihar

Yesterday we had a medical camp in Janaki Nagar, but at another locality within that general area.

As usual as soon as we set up our facilities there was a huge line of patients were waiting impatiently to be examined. After getting the prescription from the doctors, the patients were to register their names and some minor details with us so that we could keep track of the trend in illnesses in a camp. And using this system we were actually able to determine that the cases of diarrhea were on the increase in the camp.

At one point I was registering the names. There was a small line in front and people came up with their prescriptions. The age was written on the prescription itself, but sometimes the writing was illegible (doctors are meant to write illegibly?) so I would ask them there age. A woman came up and her age was not clear on the paper, so I asked her age. She said, “How am I supposed to know? How old do I look to you? Just write down what you think is right.”

And this was not a lone case. A mother came with a child who seemed to be about three years old to me – but the mother did not seem to know the age.
“You must be one and a half,” I joked.
Everybody standing in the line said that it was wrong. A very old lady said, “You can write what you want – it could be 50 or it could be 80.”
Contrary to the novel – this is the Land that forgot Time.

The collector came to our camp and was very pleased to see the level of proficiency of the doctors and the medication we were giving to the patients. He promised all possible help to us.
— Nijamrita