SMELLS FISHY

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This is the story of a small village, one of the most prosperous, amongst all other villages in the vicinity. This village represented the stuff dreams are made of and everyone craved to eventually live in this village.


In this village, there were 3 doctors (Doc1, Doc2 and Doc3). These "original" doctors were born and brought up in this village, local "sons-of-the-soil". They lived together happily, taking care of the villagers whenever anyone needed help. They were loved by everyone and everyone was proud of them. They were considered icons of this prosperous village and served as an example to the rest of the villages.


Then slowly, as the "land of the dream" beckoned, more and more doctors came to this village to ply their trade. A few of them never made it big, a bunch of them cracked it big. The ones who cracked it big were "specialists", who mastered a particular branch of medicine.


Slowly, two specialists (One and Two) started encroaching the space owned by the originals. And why not, they gave better service for lesser fees. Whenever any patient visited the originals, they used to fall ill soon. But instead, if they visit these specialists, they never fell ill again or at least not for a long time.


Gradually, the reputation of these specialists overshadowed the love and pride for the originals. The specialists were icons of success and originals were the icons of failure. Villagers from far and wide used these examples in their day to day life to quote success and failure stories.


The originals were out of business and out of money. They eventually asked the villagers to get them some money so that their hospitals can survive for some time at least. They promised to work hard, charge less and give good service in return for the financial assistance. The villagers had no option but to lend a helping hand to their one-time pride icons.


But as soon as the money came in, the villagers started demanding a recovery plan. The doctors were threatened to shut shop unless a recovery plan was put in place and there were enough signs of the recovery plan working. The game was slipping away from the originals and something had to be done to restore parity.


And then, one of the super-successful specialists committed a mistake. It was something which was not as serious, but then the scavengers pounced on it. It was made to look way bigger than it actually was. The local news reporters played their part hype up the whole thing.


Suddenly it was found that the other super-successful specialists committed a mistake as well. The media feasted on these specialists with an aim to subdue these specialists and create enough space for the originals to grow again. Slowly, there will be equilibrium and all of them will graze in the green pastures of the village for next few years.


Until, the neo-specialists threaten the survial of the neo-originals and commit a mistake... 

1 comment:

RS said...

Enjoyed reading this... Very well written! Hats off!