This is a hospital
The waiting hour seems unending
Like an anaconda, the line begins
But seems to end nowhere
Not only the aged
Here is a line of the sick
Of all age groups
Some chatting endlessly
Others as quiet as the dormouse
The racket of sounds from all corners
Gives a nasty headache
Amidst the rickety ticking of the newsreader no one is listening
Why can’t people sit quiet? I ask myself
And get no answer
How can people talk so much
I speculate
I am bewildered
if this is a hospital
Or a fish market
Everyone has a mobile
Either he is talking loudly to someone
Or chatting nonsense
God alone knows
Sitting tired and exhausted
I pray
All keep their mouths shut and relax
My headache grows wilder
As I close my eyes and ears
To seal me from this rough disturbance
~Shobha Diwakar
Jabalpur, India
It’s true in hospitals where silence should be maintained you often find it to be noisiest place. There seems to be no sense of respect towards those patients who would like some peace & rest while waiting for their turn to see the doctor. Hopefully your poem Ms Diwakar will awaken at least some people & make them aware of their sense of duty & responsibility towards others
Ms.Diwakar, through her poem has drawn a true picture of a Hospital Waiting Room. The waiting seems to stretch hours on end which itself makes the patient restless ,on top of that the noisy atmosphere adds to the misery of the patients and makes them feel worse than the malady itself. Awareny is what is required and hopefully Ms. Diwarkar’s poem will help people to realize the importance of maintaining silence in a Hospital.
thank you ASB and Manju Naik for your very sensitive comments . I feel that people accompanying patients should not be made to sit in the patients’ waiting area unless the patient is serious or unable to support himself or herself whatever the case may be. People talk so loudly amongst themselves or chat and yap endlessly on their mobiles as though they are sitting in a market place, its so disgusting and irritating that it makes one sicker than before