On Friendship day

 He looked very shabby and tired. He hadn’t taken a bath in few days and looked depressed.

“It is my head, doctor” he said

There was a friend of his who had brought him to the clinic, who did not look   any better than the patient himself.

“Tell me more’ I said

For more than two weeks, he had this terrible head ache. Continuous headache which disturbed his sleep, and he couldn’t work. He was working as a barber in a saloon and so was his friend. He had already gone to some clinics who had given him some analgesics, but the pain was getting worse. I got some more of relevant history from him and did a quick examination. The last test, an examination of the inside of his eyes through an ophthalmoscope, told me that he had some serious problem. He had, what we doctors call ‘papilledema’, that is in simple terms ,a swelling of the optic nerve head, which in turn tells us that he has a problem in the brain.

“It is a bad situation, doctor “his friend said.

Vasu was working in a saloon as barber. He was about thirty years old, was married and had two children aged eight and six years. Both his children had some congenital ailments. It was some kind of crippling illness, and he had spent his life’s earnings for the treatment of his children. And both the kids died one after the other in the recent past. His income was meager and he could never bring his family to this place. After few years of hard work day and night, he had managed to start a small saloon himself. His friends helped him to raise some money to bring his wife to live with him, and he was just about to start a new beginning.

“And now, this”. His friend said. Vasu was all the time looking at my face and was wondering what I was going to say. His experience in life probably would have told him that the news was not going to be good.

“There is nothing to worry’ I told him. “But we need to do some more tests”

A CT scan of the brain was the next thing to be done. That would cost him about a thousand dirham and at the rate of his earning, more than a month’s income. I told him I would arrange to get it done through the governmental hospital, where I still had some good friends. 

“Will it be all right after the scan, doctor?” he probably thought that the scan was going to cure his illness.

I explained the situation to his friend that I expected some kind of problem in his brain, and it wouldn’t be an easy one.

I was surprised when he replied “whatever it comes to, we will manage, just don’t let him know about it”

After they left, I looked more depressed, and my nurse guessed it right.
"Doctor, there are more patients waiting”, she said.

I  remembered the Biblical saying .

Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die; Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:7-9   NIV

Vasu was probably the third or fourth patient I had seen recently in such a situation. Life already in shambles. Neck deep in problems that cannot be solved and then getting a serious illness, and no money to  treat.

I can’t think of a worse situation than when you are sick and have no money to get treatment.

In poverty, sickness and in other misfortunes, friends are the only refuge. If you have money, life is easier in many ways. But for the poor, there is no one else to turn to. The rich and the poor both would need friendship. For the poor, it is consolation in despair. For the rich, companionship in their abundance and loneliness.

Friendship is clearly more than a social connection. It is one of the primary relationships in life, a tie at times exceeding that which bonds blood relatives.Most people seem, owing to ambition, wish to be loved rather than to love. Never be miserly in matters of love and friendship. Give, and take back in abundance.



"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."—Walter Winchell