An impactful event

This post is about an incident that had an impact on me and everyone who was with me that day.

We were posted to the General Medicine Out Patient Department that particular day. Seven of us second years were standing behind the doctor and observing. Most patients had complaints of cold, cough, or a fever; some of them had more serious lung problems. Most of these people were habitual smokers who were embarrassed to admit it. But then a man entered who was very different from all the rest. He was hardly forty five years old, but he could not stand, nor walk; he was wheeled into the room in a wheelchair by his young son. He had Parkinson's disease.

Our professor took this as an opportunity to show us, undergraduates a Parkinson's patient. He asked the man to hold a pen, and he couldn't do as much. He could stretch his arm out to the pen, but he couldn't wrap his fingers around and grasp it; the pen fell to the floor.

His hands were trembling so much, that he'd lost significant control over his motor activity. His eyes welled up. He couldn't hide how helpless he was feeling. He literally could not do the smallest, most insignificant thing without support. And he wasn't even old; just middle aged.

When you're too sick to move your own body, when you don't have the power to navigate your own limbs... That must feel so overwhelmingly terrible. When you gather all your willpower and energy to perform a tiny task and it simply isn't enough.

This was only one instance of a person with a disease that incapacitated him. Think of all the different types of diseases that conquer all the different people's bodies in the world. What about those that don't even have a caring, responsible son for support?

Sometimes when you feel nauseated you get a tiny taste of the feeling of not having enough power; you need a much stronger will to do anything at all. And that, in itself is painful, though you know it's only temporary.

What if it lasted forever?

What if you couldn't even kill yourself on your own?

Your body really isn't your own, is it? Maybe we take everything that's given to us for granted, far beyond the point till where it's permitted. We complain so much, about the pressure of exams, about that difficult roommate, about our selfish friends, about how it isn't fair...

Maybe eyes that can see, ears that can hear and limbs that work under our command is more than enough to be happy and thankful for. Maybe this is all we need to be one of the luckier ones around. Maybe we're actually blessed beyond compare.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.