The rains lashing down the city today reminded me of a similar day that occurred several years ago. Driving after work trying to reach home avoiding the traffic jams, I switched on the FM radio. There was a caller who was speaking to the radio jockey named RJ Darius Sunawala. The RJ was known for a chirpy, witty chat-master who with his talk kept all in a humorous mood and while he spoke it was like happiness all around. The caller said “RJ Darius, A million thanks to you for saving my mother’s life. These words are too less to express the gratitude that I have for you. Thank you very much Darius.” The RJ Darius was shockingly surprised to hear these words and asked him what had happened to the caller’s mother and how was he (Darius) responsible in saving her life.
The caller said that his mother was a die-hard fan of RJ Darius Sunawala and never missed his show on the FM Radio. She enjoyed it a lot and this kept her on a happy note all the time. A month prior to this call his mother had met with a brutal accident that made her stay put on the hospital bed. The medications along with scores of treatments were given yet her health condition never improved. It seems that one day she asked her son what the time was. Her son replied it was evening 7 PM and promptly she said “Darius Show on radio would be ON right?”. The son immediately was surprised and he immediately on his mobile switched on the FM radio and connected the headphones to it and asked her to hear to the RJ Darious Show. Listening to her favorite RJ conducting the show brought a smile which soon brightened her face and there was a glitter in her eyes. The son immediately went on to the internet and downloaded a load of all the previous shows of Darius and kept playing it to her asking her to hear it through the headphones. Lo behold all her health parameters improved in a couple triple of days and in the next few days she recovered completely. This was an unforgettable experience for the caller and RJ Darius too was overwhelmed by such a happening. I was really touched by this episode. Little did I know that I will experience a similar kind many years later.
My
friend Anoop, had a beautiful life of a IT professional and had it all – a nice
villa, a luxurious car, a loving wife, caring parents (both) and 2 wonderful children.
It was the October of 2022 when my friend met with a road accident. While Anoop
was sitting beside the driver seat in the car which was being driven by his
friend. Anoop’s friend in the process of saving a child who suddenly ran on the
road swerved off the road and hit into a massive tree. Though the driver
escaped due to the seatbelt, Anoop was badly injured in the impact and was unconscious.
He was taken to a hospital where he was attended to the head injury and treated
for the harsh bruises that he had got due to the splinters from the cars glass
and dashboard had struck his face. Over
the next week although the medical treatments were continuously made available
it was a challenge to first bring him out of unconsciousness. The response from
Anoop was feeble. With the skull draped in bandages and his face holding
patches over the sutures that were done, it was a sad sight to see him speak
feebly and in great agony. All the medical parameters still fell flat
indicating no concrete improvement as expected to happen to a man running at 45
years age. I happened to meet him with a few common friends in the hospital to
cheer him up and also show the solidarity awaiting him to get back on feet
soon. As we were in the midst of speaking to him, a call came to one of our friends’
hand-phone – the ringtone was the most wonderful melody sung by Kishore Kumar
(the legend of hind movie songs) called “Chookar mere manko kiya tuney kya ishaara”.
No sooner had it rung Anoop’s eyes flashed in the direction of the tune. It was
then I realized that he too was a diehard fan of Kishore Kumar Songs. Each song
we would sing word by word to our hearts content anytime it played. I then
asked his wife to download the songs of Kishore Kumar and play it from him to
listen throughout the day. His wife promptly went into action doing just all
that was needed and played Kishore Kumar Songs right through the day on his
headphone. The health parameters started to improve and in a fortnight he was
back to normalcy.
This had made me to ponder on “Could this be a better way to help patients and seniors recover from their ailments without disrupting any kind of treatment?” It was over the past few months that I have been working on seniors to understand how their geriatric issues can be addressed and how completely they can find relief to their ailments and disease. I was shocked by the results and outcome of the intensive research that my team had conducted. The research revealed that the most vibrant need of over 93% of senior respondents living in senior homes/ old age homes/ retirement homes etc is that “they yearn for someone to speak to them and listen to them”. A couple of colleagues and I tried being their bouncing boards. We spent time listening to them speaking to them, observed them and realized the way their energies changing. We understood that they just wanted people to talk to them. After 3 months of such conversations with the elderly we found that their health improved – the indicators being the medical parameters or hyper-hypo tension, levels in sugar levels in diabetics and their ability of mobility overcoming joint pains. But while doing this we also realized that although they wanted to speak to us there were a few things that we needed to keep in mind during the conversations they were:-
1. Never to talk about their past painful segments of life.
2. Never to speak about their children or relatives as this drowned them in tears stressing them further.
3. Avoid asking them on their health problems and health issues – they just don’t like it.
4. Avoid being sympathetic to them as pity puts them off.
5. They wanted people to respect them, respect their views and give honest/ genuine responses. Respect does not mean being a yes man but also disagreeing and reasoning it out with them.
6. They wanted to be treated as equals and want their advise, knowledge and wisdom to be treated worthy to be applied or practically feasible. Whether you apply it or not they want you to dialogue with the thought of how workable and pragmatic it is and how it can be made useful.
7. They want to still be worthy to people or companies or to the society despite their age. It is important for us to know how we are going to handle them keeping their sensitivities in place.
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