Yesterday had lagged on as I was feeling so poorly so I tried to attempt some dissertationing in between sleeps. Today I had to get to the hospital to get my ultrasound results. I had decided I would go alone and I would attempt to get a rickshaw like Ch and I had done on Monday. I didn’t want to pay for the cycle-shaw so I walked the first few hundred meters to the Badapur auto stand – they saw me coming a mile off. At first they said no one would take me to Apollo (the hospital) then they were charging me 150/200, finally we settled for 100 for one way. It was still more than the usual price of 50/70 but I just needed to get there. However after we had agreed on the price and he had a greed to take me, he proceeded to take a 15 minute break where he smoked, got all his friends to peak into the rickshaw at me, cleaned his windscreen…basically did everything under the sun but bring me. I was getting annoyed so asked him when we would leave, he said soon, and man got in the rickshaw, got out, and I said can we go, the man got back in the driver started the engine and we were finally on our way.
I was flustered already when I got to the hospital but the day got worse, when even the hospital tried to rip me off. They were insisting I pay to see the doctor, for him to tell me the test results. I had already seen the letter and could tell it said that they were negative so I did not want to pay for the doctor to tell me that there was nothing else wrong with me. Luckily the insurance had emailed me to say they had spoken to the hospital and I should encounter no further payments. So I stood my ground and refused to pay. She said the doctor would not see me until I paid and I said I had no idea what to do in that case, as I was not going to pay. She then said I could go in and see him, and discuss it with him. So I went into his office, he said everything was fine, but I would need to return next week for a follow up test, just to check. I was so relieved that he had not asked me for payment that I ran out of the ward and the hospital, to try get an auto home. Unfortunately this meant that I forgot to get the extra malaria tablets that Ch needed.
When I got to the rickshaw stand, a driver started calling to me and I realised that it was the same guy who had brought me. I was a bit annoyed as it would have been nice to get someone else, but part of me also thought it was sweet that the had waited. Actually he had not waited as the meter had clocked more km than when I left, but the gesture was there. I spent the whole journey trying to justify ways and reasons to pay him the correct price of 70 rather than 100 again, but I could not think of a way, if I was willing to pay 100 to get to the hospital I should pay 100 to be taken back. I was further angered, however by the fact that when I gave him the 100 he asked for more. I said ‘ No 100 there 100 back, you had an extra person in the shaw, you took ages to take me and made me late, no more’ the other guy in the auto smiled, took the money and told his friend to just be happy. They had still managed to take more money than was necessary from me. I was grumpy, grumpy for the rest of the day!!
I was flustered already when I got to the hospital but the day got worse, when even the hospital tried to rip me off. They were insisting I pay to see the doctor, for him to tell me the test results. I had already seen the letter and could tell it said that they were negative so I did not want to pay for the doctor to tell me that there was nothing else wrong with me. Luckily the insurance had emailed me to say they had spoken to the hospital and I should encounter no further payments. So I stood my ground and refused to pay. She said the doctor would not see me until I paid and I said I had no idea what to do in that case, as I was not going to pay. She then said I could go in and see him, and discuss it with him. So I went into his office, he said everything was fine, but I would need to return next week for a follow up test, just to check. I was so relieved that he had not asked me for payment that I ran out of the ward and the hospital, to try get an auto home. Unfortunately this meant that I forgot to get the extra malaria tablets that Ch needed.
When I got to the rickshaw stand, a driver started calling to me and I realised that it was the same guy who had brought me. I was a bit annoyed as it would have been nice to get someone else, but part of me also thought it was sweet that the had waited. Actually he had not waited as the meter had clocked more km than when I left, but the gesture was there. I spent the whole journey trying to justify ways and reasons to pay him the correct price of 70 rather than 100 again, but I could not think of a way, if I was willing to pay 100 to get to the hospital I should pay 100 to be taken back. I was further angered, however by the fact that when I gave him the 100 he asked for more. I said ‘ No 100 there 100 back, you had an extra person in the shaw, you took ages to take me and made me late, no more’ the other guy in the auto smiled, took the money and told his friend to just be happy. They had still managed to take more money than was necessary from me. I was grumpy, grumpy for the rest of the day!!
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