At the beginning of this year 2007, everybody wishes the year ahead will be a bandh free year. In contrast, as yet it is not a bandh free year in our State but a state where bandhs are roaming freely, paralysing the normal life every other day.

Most of the bandhs are related to death. Death of the innocents, mostly from the bullets. But the bandh of the previous Friday is a bandh called in protest against the death of a patient in obstetrics and gynaecology department of RIMS Imphal.

Formation of JACs by the patient party and calling a state wide bandh demanding judicial enquiry and compensation for the death of a patient in hospital is a new dimension which needs to be taken seriously. To whom should we blame and fix the responsibility - the negligence of the doctors on duty or the vandalism of the patient party.

Each party will have their own side of the story but these happenings or call it unfortunate incident gradually drain out and decrease the level of belief which an ordinary man has stocked in his heart about the system of administration in the Government run hospital in Manipur and above all the devotion and sincerity of the men and women in white.

Patients come to the hospitals not to enjoy vacation holidays but to treat ailments in their bodies, minor or major. They want good and speedy recovery. Their hope of recovery entirely depends on the doctors and the nurses who attend to them.

Because of this total trust in doctors and nurses, the patients and their relatives sometimes feel that they are not treated properly and this impression often lead to violent outbursts. So in the past few years we have heard about the confrontation between doctors on duty and patients' party.

But it will never be a natural justice if we are at liberty to box everybody's nose and ears because we do not like their behaviour, or the tone of their voice or the scowl on their faces. If we have to use our firsts at every mistake or offence done to us, then every gutter and every wall will be red with blood.

It always needs two to make a quarrel. The patients' relatives are not always on the wrong side. Our doctors working in Government hospital and RIMS are not entirely free from any blames to be put on them. It happens in most of the new corps or the new entrants in the profession.

Their egotism are enlarged by their new found dresses and their legs are too large to the boots of a doctor. This arrogance on their part leads them to think less of the sufferings of the human being more particularly the patients before them.

I myself often see doctors attending to OPDs and causality wards spending most of their time in casual talks among themselves with the patients waiting in the door or tossing in the sweat soaked beds.

Then, an idea flashes in our minds. That is to know the suffering of man especially of the poor should be the first lesson of the syllabus of an MBBS student.

We all know that medical stream is expensive, a very expensive course of study indeed. The amount of money required by a medical student during his or her course of study is not in terms of thousands but in lakhs.

It requires money, merit and the hard labour of the meritorious students. It will be a matter of great interest if we look back at the family backgrounds of the students who got through the medical entrance test to become doctor. Almost all of them are born in rich families.

They are well fed, admitted in good schools. They have got good educational back-up special coaching and guides. They are exposed only to the bright side of life. They are brought up in an environment immune to the sufferings around.

Such flocks, when they got the medical degree and put in a profession which requires love, dedication and forbearance, a few may well adapt in the profession but as we have seen almost all the doctors do not use the fruits of their hard work and labour to become a doctor for the service of mankind.

If the services of doctors are used only as a means to fetch the profit or to amass wealth as much as he can and to amortize the cost over the patients, then the esteem position of the profession which the doctors have occupied in the society will go down to Nadir. The profession then will become a trade where only profit matters and in that case the bargaining commodities are human lives.

Here and there we may meet unpleasant doctors who regard the patients as their enemies. But there are also doctors who have taken their duty, their profession as a means to serve mankind and a way to god.

I do not hesitate for writing a panegyric on a doctor whose name is Dr Joykumar. He served as a medical officer in Lamlai Primary Health Centre for more than 15 years and took his superannuation from the health centre five year ago. I don't know his exact home but was said from Singjamei area.

When any patient came to him for treatment or advice, the first thing he did was to calm the patient with sweet words mixed with a little dose of humour or fun. He seemed to have an inexhaustible fund of patience and gifts for making his patients comfortable.

With old people he was as considerate and faithful as a son. With children he was as solicitous and affectionate as a father. He had evidently a peculiarly warm place in this heart for the young people and always found himself in merry jest with them.

Patients found a curious pleasure in the constant good nature of his bearing. I found him as a model doctor in good temper and kindness. A moment with him, myself as a patient one day, was a lesson in natural courtesy and good manners.

The profession of a doctor requires the presence of the human values like love, compassion, sympathy and sacrifice. There are also many doctors who are always ready to sacrifice their time energy and skill for the service of the people though the misdeeds of some doctors do blot the good books of good doctors.

Last but not the least, the doctors should remember that the real money they need is not the possession of currency papers, bank accounts but the stock of love embedded in the hearts of the people by their service and sacrifice.