COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGLISH-15CP01E CHAPTER 5 A Unique Patient NOTES

COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGLISH-15CP01E

CHAPTER 5

A Unique Patient

COMPREHENSION:

I Answers:

1. The person who visited the dentist’s clinic looked like a farmer, and was wearing a dirty white sadara(a kind of upper garment worn by men in rural Maharashtra) with ankle-length pajamas. He looked tired, yet there was sparkle in his eyes that was unmistakable.

2. The farmer passed his turn to two other patients who had arrived after him. He kept on waiting, and when the doctor enquired about this peculiar behavior, he mentioned that he would consult only after the doctor was done with all the other patients for the day. This made the doctor curious about the farmer.

3. The farmer requested the doctor to accompany him for a home visit as he could not get the patient with him on his bicycle. He had travelled from a village that was more than twenty kilometers away.

4. The doctor’s curiosity was piqued and to his own surprise, He agreed to go with the farmer. When he reached his farm, he took the doctor to his barn yard, straight to his bull, and said, ‘Doctor Saheb, this is the patient!’ Hence, the doctor almost ‘fainted in shock’.

5. A week later, the farmer visited the clinic with a box of sweets because the bull’s tooth was doing fine and it had even won a shield in the bull fight! Just because the doctor fixed the bull’s tooth, the bull could participate in ‘bail pola’ competition. Hence, the farmer visited the clinic with a box of sweets and expressed his gratitude.

6. When the farmer visited the clinic a week later he brought the news that the bull’s tooth was doing fine and it had even won a shield in the bull fight!

II ANSWERS

1. In the lesson ‘A Unique Patient’ written by Vijay Parak, the author narrates a story. During the early seventies, the author was the only dentist in a small town in the south of Maharashtra, and had a quite a busy practice. One day a farmer visited his clinic and looked strange. Further in the story we learn that the farmer had a bull. The reason behind the farmer’s visit to the clinic was, the next day was a ‘bail pola’ (bull-fight) in town where the judges would decide the category in which this bull would participate by examining its teeth. His bull had lost one tooth in a practice session that day and in order to make the bull eligible to participate in ‘bail pola’ the farmer wanted the tooth to be fixed. Hence the farmer visited the clinic.

2. The farmer’s bull which was supposed to participate in ‘bail pola’ the next day had lost one tooth in a practice session. As the bull could not be taken to the clinic the farmer requested the doctor to visit his home and on reaching, the farmer explained his difficulty and held a big tooth wrapped in an old cloth in front of the doctor and requested to fix it. The dentist had never fixed a bull’s tooth, but was overwhelmed by the farmer’s passion and decided to help him. Because of a large amount of saliva drooling from the patient’s mouth, he had to use meters and meters of old saris instead of gauze pieces. With the help of the farmer and his family, he devised many innovative ways and finally he was able to fix the bull’s tooth.