My little job requires me to move and work all around the country and there are many instances when I found myself in some extremely isolated places deep in the mainland of the country. And I must tell you there are quite a number of times when I found myself being the exotic one. People would come to see me or stare at me forgetting whatever they are doing, and as if they expect you to know their language, they would talk to you and laughed heartily at whatever you said.
I remember working for a little over two week in a small town in the tribal dominated state of Malkangiri in the south of Orissa. My job doesn’t require me to go out much but my boss and other consultants from our firm have to go all over the sub-division for meeting with all sorts of people to discuss their problems, what can be done, their conditions and standards of life, and they asked me to come along and help them since I hardly have anything to do at that time.
I don’t have to attend any meeting and thought of spending the days inside my room in the state guest house. But after the first two meeting on the first day itself, my boss have to send for me since the villagers enquire too often about me. After that I was part of every meeting though I hardly have any role in those meetings nor do I have anything to spoke about, but as soon as the meeting is over, everybody would come first to me to shake hand, and if there is anything to be eaten, it was started with me.
When we work in the makeshift office, I, and my laptop are the most exciting thing to watch, all the staffs in the guest house would stand behind me to watch me working with my colourful daily schedules in excel sheet. When I went out to buy some fruits, if they do charge me, they ensure that I get more than I paid for. On the roadside, they would ask me to taste some fruits or food, and even if I grimace, rather then being offended, they laughed heartily.
At first, I was embarrassed at the treatment I get, I know pretty well that I am a nonentity, I have no rank and I am no consultant. This is in total contrast to the treatment I got in Delhi which was etched in my mind like a scar. Then I started getting curious and suspicious else they are expecting something from me.
The consultants were also curious but they said it was just because of the difference in my face, but that don’t satisfy me so I started enquiring by myself. One day I happened to meet a man who spoke a little English and it was from him that I learned of the Doctor.
It seems nearly a decade before I was here, a ‘foreign man’ (a Filipinos missionary named Dr. Santiago, I later learned) served here. He was basically a doctor, and died before he can fulfil his mission. But within the two years he spent here building up his base, he had done a lot of development work like a water harvesting reservoir for their farm, digging fish ponds and many well for the villages around here apart from working as a doctor without charging anything.
It frighten me to think that I was compared with someone of that stature, though in some way it saved me from the name-calling that I was very familiar with wherever I go. I thought the best way to deal with the situation was to continue being myself and do nothing to strenghten or weaken the illusion they had of that great man. Fortunately the Team Leader sensing my discomfort asked me to leave for the base office.
I thought of looking up for some information on the net about that good Doctor, but there was none and I never got the chance to go back to the place. This is my tribute to that Good Doctor, I only wish I have known his full name or at least some more information about him. May God increases his tribes! ©lyan
(An extract from my diary dated February, 2007)
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