Beating Loneliness!

Life in Kapchorwa Hospital, Uganda, was simple and busy as it was a one man show, I being the only doctor there in the sixty-bedded hospital. Being new in the country and not yet fully accustomed to the way of life there, I used to feel lonely and depressed occasionally. Since there was no electricity there, my Sony radio was run on batteries and that was my great companion in my leisure time. Radio helped keep me in touch with the outside world including India, with news, views, current affairs and music.

Still, I would miss my own people. I cannot forget the time when a doctor couple from Kampala visited me, on their way to Sipi Falls just about 10 miles away from Kapchorwa. Dr. Brahm Dutt Sharma and his wife who were attached to the Physiology Department, Medical School and Mulago Hospital, respectively. We had a nice interaction, it was mood elevating for me when I was feeling so low at that particular time.

Sometime later, Pritam Singh came with another Sardarji, one of his workers who was sick with high fever. Pritam Singh, who was in his late-seventies then, owned a textile mill in Mbale, related stories of 1920s. In those early days, with no roads worth mentioning, he built a house for a local Chief in the hills of this region (Kapchorwa). The transportation of building materials was an extremely difficult one, and there was a lot of sacrifice involved when the blackwater fever was so rampant in Uganda of those days. For his work, he would be stay here in this region for 7-8 months without visiting his home in Mbale. On his return to Mbale, people would wonder if he had returned from a trip to India. Such was the state of affairs  when the means of transport and communications were non-existent or were very primitive. These stories of our pioneers were really encouraging and would make me feel a lot better. A few years later while on our way to Nairobi by our car, we had a night halt at a Gurudwara in Kisumu, Kenya, and again had a pleasant, surprise meeting him and his wife, where he was recuperating after a cataract operation

Another welcome visit came from Pakhar Singh along with his wife. He was in the process of putting up a saw mill, Bubwa Saw Mill, a few miles further on Kapchorwa-Kitale road. He hailed from a small village, Chitti in Jallandhar district, why I am adding this is because this is how connected ourselves with our homeland. These visits were morale boosting for me in those circumstances and gave me an impetus to work more diligently and contribute to the welfare of the community which was deprived of the basic services they very much needed.

Such visits would give me a rare opportunity of talking to them in my own language, Punjabi or Hindi. One can appreciate such feelings only when one is denied such a facility, a basic amenity. I derived an immense pleasure by conversing with these simple and hard working people who had contributed  a lot towards the present day development of the country. I would take pride in India and Indians in general who were doing a great work for the uplifting of the country of their residence. It was not a mean achievement by any standard!