After the others left, I spent sometime wondering what to do. I needed to reach Aarohi, another NGO on the 1st of July, and I’d three days to kill. I thought I’d go to Almora, but our host Anandji said I’d like Kausani.

I spent more than 2 nauseating hours in the back of three different jeeps to get there, but it was worth it. Kausani is a small quiet town with a narrow street lined by shops, many hotels and loads of greenery. I was staying in a nice comfortable room with a lovely view of the hills. The hotel was on the slope of the hill surrounded by a thick forest of pines with a lovely view of the valley in front. I went around for a walk, but had to return soon because of the first showers of the monsoons, two weeks late.

The road after it rained all night

It rained all night, so when I went for a walk in the morning things were much cooler than usual. After a yummy breakfast I set off to the Kausani tea estate. I reached the Uttaranchal Tea Development board office after about an hours walk. I couldn’t see any tea plants, so I went up and asked a person around if they were still growing tea on the estates.

Taken aback and slightly offended, he replied that of course they were still growing tea. “The estate is further down the road”, he told me. Half an hour later I was there.

And more?!?!

There was a tea processing plant with some stuff I wasn’t taught in medical college painted on the walls. I went in and was told the same stuff I’d been taught about tea processing in school. Still couldn’t understand it.

Yesh, very aggresshive marketing!

Someone pointed out a shorter route back to my hotel, so I thought I’d try it out. It was around forty minutes of a steep uphill climb, but it wouldn’ve taken me two hours if I was to return the way I came. I was drenched in sweat when I reached the top!

A government school I passed on my climb up

In the evening I set out to see the Anasakti Ashram, but on the way I saw an additional Primary Health Centre (PHC). Curious, I went in. It was a nice colonial era complex of one-storey buildings with a hospital, doctors quarters, and rooms for the other staff. Very pretty It was in really good shape, I must add, though there were a couple of cows grazing there too!

This PHC was built in 1952!

The chief medical officer was a doctor called Harish who’d been working there since nine months. He was quite happy to show me around the hospital, which had been started in 1952. They had an outpatient department, a ward, a small theatre for minor surgeries, and a labour room for delivering babies. It was well staffed too, with a pharmacist, a midwife, nurses and other support staff. As in all PHCs, the chief medical officer was also the CEO. He was in charge of the day-to-day running of the PHC, ordering medicines and equipment and paying salaries.

Dr Harish - the man with the plan!

Dr Harish said there not much was being done in the PHC when he’d joined last year. He’d worked hard, making himself available around the clock and doing the best he could with what he had. From around 10 patients a day, the daily OPD load was now around 50-60 per day. He’d slowly started asking the government for more medicines and newer equipment, and soon things started coming. One of the biggest challenges was motivating his staff, but he felt he’d manage to do that too, although he’d had to learn to turn a blind eye to their skipping work every now and then.

“Everything depends on you”. He told me this again, and again and again! He emphasized that the government was willing to supply drugs and equipment, but the doctors had to ask. He said there were 900 posts vacant in the state, and if I was interested I should apply!

Very tempting!

I was quite impressed with what I saw. It was very well stocked - all the basic medicines a PHC ought to have, and more. Higher end antibiotics, plenty of dressing material, sutures, autoclaving machines, a suction machine, vaccine with a freezer for storage. He was planning on getting a ventilator too! The only thing he didn’t have was a laboratory for investigations, something I thought was quite necessary since there were no diagnostic labs in the town.

I thought Harish was doing an amazing job. By doing his work well, he was getting the Government to give him more. He was quite clear as to what he could handle, and what he couldn’t. He wasn’t interested in changing people’s attitudes, and did not see any point in being idealistic. He’s got a very realistic view of how the world works. We really need more people like him in the system.

Anasakti Ashram

I took a quick look at the Anasakti Ashram, where Gandhiji had written the Anasakti Yoga, a translation of the Bhagwad Gita. There were was a small museum dedicated to him with a prayer session going on inside. I clicked a few snaps and then headed back, ate, and slept!