The other reason we had come into town was to find a homeopathic doctor. We had purchased a little vial of teeny, tiny pills in Mysore, called “China.” They were homeopathic, and the doctor who prescribed them had said to take only 3 per month to prevent malaria. Somehow, that didn’t sound right (way too few) so, when we got to Goa, we decided to ask another doctor his opinion. Not knowing where to start looking, we asked in one of those many pharmacies whether they could recommend a homeopath. They gave us some very vague instructions on how to find one, and we proceeded to try finding his office. It wasn’t easy, but we did manage to see a lot of life on the back streets of Margao as we searched. After several dead ends, we were directed to a very old, narrow building. Climbing a flight of rickety stairs, we found ourselves in a dark hallway, with a door that stood ajar. Pushing it open, we entered a room the size of a large closet, with very high ceilings, 2 plastic chairs, and a thin cotton curtain that stirred slightly in the breeze of a ceiling fan. That’s all. From behind the flimsy curtain, we could hear two voices speaking very quietly – patient consulting doctor. Not wanting to interrupt, we sat down in the plastic chairs and waited a few minutes, until a woman emerged, carrying a little paper packet of pills as she headed out the door. That was our cue to stick our heads around the curtain and state our business. A nice-looking older gentleman, slim, with steel grey hair, sat behind a desk, with one chair in front. That’s all. He greeted us and asked if he could help us. We asked our question as we showed him our bottle of China, and he recommended we take 4 per day under the tongue. That made sense, so we thanked him and asked him what we owed. Nothing.
I couldn’t get over the contrast between this little room, containing nothing more than a desk behind a curtain and a couple chairs, and a typical doctor’s office in North America. In every village, town and city in India, these little clinics exist, and they all look very much alike. These doctors are probably as highly educated as most North American doctors; yet they toil long hours with very, very little pay. We have found the doctors in India to usually be extremely humble individuals, working in equally humble surroundings.