Doctor quest

Today we decided to make the pilgrimage to Dr. Capt. Thambiah's, since Ash's skin condition especially the scalp after a night of scratching looked pretty bad. He got ready for school but in the end we decided not to send him. Instead, after dropping Mira, we found our way to the clinic of Dr. Thambiah on Poonamalle High Road. The small narrow lane opposite the Das Prakash Hotel led to an old, dilapidated colonial bungalow. I dont think it has been painted for ages and it looked like a haunted house. I could see the doctor in one room on the left while a serpentine queue extended from outside his room to the back of his house.
The morning practice timings are 8.30 to 11 am according to the board hung in the front and we had no hope of making it before that. We decided to come off. Moreoever, going to him each time standing in this perennial Q would be tiresome to say the least.
So we drove to Dr. Patrick Yesudian's clinic next to the Pride Hotel on PH road. Only to be told by his secretary that appointments are full for this week. She very kindly gave us an appointment for Monday next.
But what am I going to do with this itching lil boy until then?
p.s. The house is all quiet again, if the presence of two kids can make it any quieter. The last of our guests left yesterday night.
***
I post this, and then go for a cup of coffee in the canteen. On my way, I meet a colleague whose 9-year-old son also suffers from eczema. It is seasonal and severe too in his case. George and his father have had eczema too as kids. So it is hereditary for them.
But eczema doesnt run in our family, and Ash is a first-generation recipient. George tells me that Dr. Thambiah is a senile maverick. He is 80, a bachelor and doesnt spend more than a minute with each patient. Well, he would have to if he has to see some 150 patients in 3 hours. There must have been some 50 people in the queue when I went there. The consultation fee might seems paltry but apparently he makes up for it in the medicines he prescribes and which have to be bought from his own pharmacy next door.
George swears by Dr. Patrick. He however advises me not to mention to him that we had tried alternative therapies for eczema. Long back he had told V: "Dont try Siddha and Ayurveda and stuff. In the end you will come back to me."
Prophetical.

Doctor horizons

A couple of people had advised me to take Ash to Dr. AS Thambiah, a reputed elderly skin doctor near Das Prakash Hotel on PH Road here. And I have been trying to push the case with V, who is disenchanted of late by allopathic treatment for eczema since it offers no cure, only ways to control and manage it. I tell him that Dr. Thambiah is believed to have one leg in the grave and that we show Ash to him at least once before he leaves this world.

So I look up Sulekha pages today - getting bold after a successful bid at finding a mosquito screen provider through it - and get his ph. no. and address. Looking at the Yahoo Answers page, I dont have much hope about getting through the line. But surprise of surprises. A male voice picks up immediately as I call. What more, the doctor himself. He tells me that he is available Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 5 pm at the clinic and it is first come first served. There is a pretty terrifying queue, I hear and the doctor tells me to come early to beat the queue. "The consulting fee is Rs. 30, three-zero," he tells me and cuts the line.

Thirty! In these days. No wonder the queue is so long.

We need to show Ash to a good dermatologist at the earliest and Dr. Patrick seems to be out of station. Let me see what he will have to say about my little boy's condition.