Dolma - Dr Dolkar’s- Bonding in the clinic-

Bonding in Adversity 

The Divided over years for the lack of communication and several situations and with a bubble of a decade of quiet and solitude… how a Tibetan Doctor and her clinic was instrumental in binding us in adversity.

She, the younger one was just  back from America…the older one distant for years was diagnosed by Barrett’s we were worried…though we were in the hands of a very senior and sensitive gastroenterologist by far, after the initial help with allopathy the situation wasn’t getting better. 

Then like divine providence I heard the words …Dolma … by Priyam Ghosh a colleague in the College Staff Room as I talked of my woes…of illness in the fam..I said that’s very far perhaps Dharamshala… no in your neighborhood in Kalkaji…..she said.I was superbly delighted..

On a Sunday on a July Morning at the crack of dawn I got the token number one… and there we were at 8.30 am again talking to the Doctor… then medicine… followed by a essentially South Indian breakfast… we did Dosa & Coffee ( name of a restaurant), Yamuna Canteen, Chidambaram, Naivedhyam with an occasional A2B or so thrown in. Or even a The Paris Coffee House or Pour Over..It became a jovial family gathering the Sunday morning ritual…

More importantly it was Dr Dolkar who developed a relationship with each one of us ..her jovial disposition brought back sanity, good cheer and a semblance of a family. So much so we would look forward to the weekly visits to the Doctor’s Clinic….

We had a choice of meeting her once a month but we chose once week, It helped with better monitoring, more importantly it was bonding time.

It was for the bubble of a decade and a half the daughter had missed.. it was for the complete family the Dad craved for at airports, when he saw families take vacations… mom was happy for the little one and support mechanism of love and care and more importantly a feeling of being wanted…which in return helped us all.

After three holidays and 50 outings… the dark clouds began to appear, the self doubts of the efficacy of the  Tibetan medicine… the travels of the Doctor to Bombay and Bangalore.. the travels of the mother patient.. to several places, brought back the clouds of distress disbelief and dismay…again.

Bad health bad tempers and bad outcomes..

With the the Ides of March came strangely better fortunes.., better health better elevation of moods and spirits..Medicine was working.. and so was the festooned jovial succour of Dr Dolkar … for better communication her drawing room .., okay waiting room became our planning board for vacations, purchases and outings… 

We were back amidst and despite all the back stories and odds to meet and bond Dr Dolkar respectfully called Dolma’s Clinic.

We have had more than seven months of Tibet in our lives…,bodies, minds and souls… the kindred spirit of Tibet.