"I guess I would need only 194mg of the paracetamol"

Kabani had fever and cold since morning. She was aware that there was no definite cure for that. Kabani had once committed herself to finding an answer for this, but still had a long way to go. Her mother accompanied her to the hospital. As they waited before the cabin of the physician, she asked her mother, “Am I too old for a pediatrician?”.

Her mother's reply was a gentle smile followed by, “ssshhhhh!”

Kabani was waiting for her name to be called out. It was a long wait in the Out Patient Department of the hospital. She was going through the posters put up on the walls of the corridor.

“So many of them! The world is still an unhealthy place...”, she thought. Some had meaningful and useful information with interesting slogans, while others had horrifying photographs of people suffering described using some scientific terms. Kabani was happy she understood most of them.

“Thanks to the school library.”

The place she was living in had been deprived of primary health and education for quite a while, but its a different place now. Kabani was among the many high school students who benefited from the health centre and school library set up by the community.

********************

The doctor was quick in what he did. He scribbled a few names on the sheet. “My hand-writing is better than his!” Kabani told her mother with a sense of achievement. Suddenly, she felt greater than the doctor. She was asked to take cetrizine and 250mg of paracetamol after every meal.

Kabani had reservations with the prescription, “Oh, this cetrizine is going to make me sleep now. Doctor, I guess I would need only 194mg of the paracetamol!”

The doctor knew what exactly she was talking about, he smiled.

“Unfortunately, we still don't get tablets having 194mg of that!”

*******************

That is the world I would like to see in a few years -

A girl child, in the countryside (no longer "remote"), is educated and is interested in doing research and fighting diseases. She has access to primary health facilities and doesn't hesitate to ask questions.

Even the medical system has improved. Each patient is different and the medicines have to be prescribed as per their exact requirements (having some computational models to give an exact estimate of how much of the drug is needed). Too much of a pain now but may be in the next few years it could be possible. Deep understanding of how our body functions (esp. brain) would be possible. Through dissection we can understand our heart but not our brain!

--buddi

PS: Slightly broken up thoughts, hope they make sense.