Sanjay Shukla

Dear Doctor,

I am your patient. I am more than a disease, a number or a problem. I have a name. I may be 150000th patient to you. But you are the only ONE to me. I also have feelings, intelligence, passions and dreams for my life ahead. Like lakhs of people out there, I depend on myself and others depend on me with innumerable jobs and responsibilities. Like others, I am also motivated by the desire to help make this world a better place than I was born in.

Those books you read were written by someone like me. The chair you sit , the food you eat, the medical equipment you use, the house you live in, the roads you travel, the clothes you wear, the music you listen to and the security who keep your surroundings safe all exist because of someone like me.

All I am trying to do is live my life the best way I know how. When something goes wrong with my body, I depend on you to help me so I can go on living a life that has meaning; a life that I can be proud of, a life that will be a positive example to others after I am gone…

What I need from you is honesty; no more discussions about my condition in medical lingo with your fraternity keeping me right there. I am not afraid to hear the truth. What I need from you is compassion: not pity – rather a sense that you can imagine yourself in my shoes.

Dear Doctor, please don’t ever forget that everything you say to me has a potential healing power as well as the power to wound. Remember that I could be you and you could be me. We are in this together.