Istanbul Diary

For the past one month, I am in Istanbul; the cultural capital of Europe. Nice weather, nice people and nice places to visit. Don't expect anything for shopping though - except Turkish delights and Evil Eyes. And don't expect people to understand whatever you ‘blabber’ (Yes, that's the word which comes in your mind when you talk to those guys!)
 

One of my colleague had a severe lower back pain, on a Saturday morning. We were working, and I thought of going to the office in a relaxed mood by 10 AM. I was about to step down to my Taxi, when the phone bell rang... 'Hello Vipin, this is X; Hey I need your help. Can you please take Mr. Y to the hospital. He has severe back pain and I think he needs some medical help". I went up to this guy's room and he really was writhing with pain... So I tucked in some money (Fortunately or unfortunately, since I had converted the Traveler's cheque to Turkish Lira for some shopping on Sunday) and went with Mr. Y on the same Taxi in which I was supposed to go to Office.
 

We reached the Hospital in about 20 minutes. We first had gone to the Urology specialist, since this guy told that he had some problems with Kidney stones. There was no doctors around...This guy had apparently came already to this hospital before and he had the doc's number with him. He dialed the doc and I talked with him. And then the hay-wiring started... It was so difficult to tell the doc that this guy had met him before and he had come for a re-visit now...Why? Because no one, I mean NO ONE in the whole hospital knows English!!! They all speak in Turkish! Finally over the phone, I told him this, word by word: "Doctor, he (his name) meet you on 15th. Back problem. You remember?".  He answered "Tamam!" (for OK!). I continued: "He have pain at the back now again!"...well that was plain English, so of course he didn't understood. I rephrased my words: "Back Problem. Pain". This three words did the trick. He understood (Thank God!) and instructed me to give the phone to the attender there (by saying Attender and some Turkish words). Attender after talking for sometime with the doctor told us: "Take Açil". Now what the heck is 'Açil' (pronounced Achil)? We thought for some time and then our gaze fixed on a board there... Which read "Açil (Emergency)". So he was telling us to go to Emergency Dept. Ok.. That much understood. He bought a wheel chair and Mr. Y sat down and together we had gone to Emergency. After some trial and error guesses, we came to know that he was being taken for a CT Scan.

Meanwhile, the attender got hold of a lady, who knows a little bit of English. Well, that "little bit" was a very Heavy relief for us, or for me to say; since I was doing all the talking with those guys. 

While I am writing this, I remembered something... Before this 'English speaking' lady came, we came to the Emergency, and a Nurse there told: "He problem with ummm..."; she might had asked her colleague nurse what is the name of the organ, and the other nurse without thinking a thing uttered "Heart!"... I thought "What the...". I asked her did they meant "Kidney", and then they suddenly said, "Yes Yes... He problem in Kidney. Doctor come in bes dakika" [Doctor come in a car? No no... it's something else... Doctor will come in some time... Yes, that seems plausible... I felt like I need the Google translator very badly... Later came to know that 'bes dakika' means 5 minutes, pronounced as Besh dakika. huh!!!]

After the CT Scan, they gave him some medication via a drip. Later when the report for the CT Scan came, it was finalized that Y had stones in his Kidney...But of smaller radius which could get dissolved by themselves after taking some medications. So he was relieved after hearing this and was sleeping under the influence of sedatives given to him via the drip...

The hospital was very neat and clean, compared to the cleanliness of some of the best Indian Hospitals. And there ends the good things. Finally the time came to settle the bills for all the above adventures...After all, adventures are not free, right? They gave a bill of 2500 Turkish Liras (That is 2500 *30, a whopping 75000 INR. Gulp!!!). Mr. Y already had 1300 and I had my 1200 exact amount which I had kept for shopping....It was gone!!! [I have some traveler's cheque left with me, but that also is of no use...The Bank have holidays on Saturday and Sunday!] And I can't shop now, even if Mr Y gives me back the money...Sigh!!! Because the next Saturday, I will be coming back to India; and no time to go in between office hours...

What I didn’t understand in the whole affair is that our company had sent us Onsite on a place where the Insurance they provided didn’t work. Forget that, the doctor didn’t even heard of this Company [Tata AIG Insurance, if you are wondering which Insurance company is that!] We had to pay this from our pocket! I advised the guy to pack his bag and leave for India the next flight. People like his Manager and TLs are so 'Professional' that no one even bothered to call him to the hotel and ask him how he was feeling... Do the work you are assigned to and go home! That's the relation they had between the Managers and the employee...I called his Team Lead (Mr. X, I had talked to earlier) to update the condition of this guy from the Hospital Emergency booth, and he replied: "OK Vipin, thanks for the update! Can you call me back in say 20 minutes? I am bit held up here". Who the hell want to update you... I didn't called after that, of course!!! 

Mr. Y will have a tough time for sure, since he have to sit in the flight to reach India for more than 8 hours, have to undergo every tests again (WHY? Because all the damn reports are in Turkish!) and go all the round robin schedule again in an India Hospital.

And for me. well, seems like Dubai Duty free is the only choice left now...Sigh!