We went to the Santhigiri Center in Bhiwadi today. I was looking forward to it, there was going to be a class held by yours truly, on 'lifestyle disorders'.
On the Sumo driven by Sumit, who seemed to overtake every other car with panache (as much panache as a Tata Sumo can muster) – indeed, only one car passed us during the journey, and it was a Mitsubishi Pajero driven by someone who was in a hurry and a good driver – I listened to Dr. Kiran describe how Bhiwadi was the Next Big Thing, and Poised For Development Unlimited, and of our Potential for Growth.
The center at Bhiwadi is appealing, and I met Dr. Roopa, BSMS there. We went on to the venue. I had prepared over 50 slides for what Dr. Kiran had said was going to be a '30 minute max' presentation, and the setup looked nice, what with the banner and all...
But that was it. The first patient wandered in a good fifteen minutes after the time when the presentation ought to have started. An attendance of one was good, no doubt, but how good was it for a full fledged presentation, with an introduction to Ayurveda and Panchakarma and the works? Not very. So I just gave him a consultation, prescribed his medicines, put him down for two therapies, and he, as is wont among patients, thanked me and went on his way. This was repeated, patients coming in ones and twos, (thrice in threes); I, Dr. Rajiv and Dr. Roopa conscientiously consulted them thinking it wouldn't do for them to wait as we waited for the others to arrive for the event, and then, they disappeared after their case discussion and medicine prescription, leaving, at any given time, a maximum of 5 people besides us, which was again not a very good number for giving a lecture/class – if they wanted it in the first place. As it is, they would've fancied the consultation over the lecture; it was more personal, it would be over sooner, and they had other stuff to do over the weekend than sit around and wait for the mass to reach the critical limit for starting a conference and then sitting around some more while they were dispensed pearls of wisdom about management of their waistlines and blood pressures.
And that is how I learned somethings I'm going to use elsewhere – whenever you want to organize a presentation, class or a camp, do your groundwork well, and give it good publicity – create a need in your target group if it isn't present. Keep the seminar/presentation after the consultation, that way you can tell the people who consult you to come back at such and such time for a corker of a class which will be really beneficial to them...and if by then, thanks to your charisma, you have built up a rapport with the patient, he or she will come back, or stay back, to hear your words.
We had lunch at one of the Ashram's well wishers' house in the housing colony which had arranged the camp. The guy dabbled in real estate too, and he told us some anecdotes about the property deals around the area. The place has its share of nouveau rich, who do strange things with all the money that came to them in a short time. One guy built a big pool next to his big house, but the downside was that he didn't know how to swim (he could have learned how, there was a pool by his house, but maybe he didn't notice it...), and the proud waterbody was reduced to being used for washing clothes by its side by the bai...later on, some village astrologer told him that having a hole next to the house was inauspicious, and he had the pool covered up. Much ado about nothing?
And there was this person who built a palace of a house, designed it himself, even. It had no less than eight entrances. Sighs of admiration invoked on seeing the exterior turned into nonplussed expressions when you found out that each entrance, inexplicably, had a toilet cum bathroom right next to it... (not inexplicable, according to our host, who was of the view that the owner wanted a minimum of waste to enter the house, so you had to do your ablutions, all of them, before getting in to the house.)
Doesn't a house get more and more empty the bigger it gets, especially if there are only so many people living in it? Back in Kerala, I'd heard many stories (and seen a few of them) of people doing things like blowing their life savings to build a mansion bigger and better than any other nearby, only when they were finished with it they didn't have money to furnish it, so they took to sleeping on the floor... and an expatriate who built his parents this large two storied house, but his mother, with her arthritic knees, climbed to the first floor two times ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment