The saddest day in
Kashmir
It was 15th
of March 2012 when I left home for university early in the morning. I was
trying to remember things to do for the day work. Suddenly I heard an
unsettling bark. I turned to see back but…scratch..! The corner of my jacket
was in a dog’s mouth. I got frightened and lost my way and fell down. I saw
blood oozing out of my right thigh. I cried and shouted for help.
Hearing my cries, an
elderly man wearing Phiran rush
towards me and enquired. He rushed me to a nearby medical shop muttering and
murmuring because a dog bite can be dangerous for anyone’s life be it adult, an
infant or an aged person. Looking at my torn cloths Altaf the pharmacist asked,
‘what happened?’ A dog bit me.
“Oh you should go to hospital and treat it,
dog biting is very dangerous”. Said Altaf
On his advice I went back to my home. Changed my cloths and went to State Medical
Hospital Srinagar (SMHS), to anti rabies care centre. I saw a long queue of small children crying,
on a bench in a corridor waiting for their turn. When my turn came I noticed a
young doctor who asked me about the incident. I narrated all about the
incident. He prescribed some medicines, injections, ointment and told me to buy
injection, medicines and ointment from outside (private medical) shop.
I went back to hospital
with those prescribed injections and medicines. There a vaccinator loaded the
injections in an insulin syringe and injected 1ml on my right arm and asked to
wait for 15 minutes. After fifteen minutes a nurse with another syringe came,
injected 1ml injection on my both shoulders, after while male vaccinator with
another loaded syringe present before me ask to laid on a bed. He injected
surround the mark of dog bite. So it was like a needle work of an
embroider for me.
I left the hospital with wet eyes, limping
like playing hop scotch and reached home. At night I felt severe pain in my
right wrist and couldn’t sleep for the whole night. Next day when I consulted a
doctor again at Bone and Joint Hospital Barazulla Srinagar, he asked to have an
x-ray of right wrist. I did the same. He advised me to have plaster of my right
hand and asked to take rest for twenty days because my wrist bone was
dislocated due to fell down when dog chased.
This not only left me
in severe pain, anxiety and tension but even cost a middle class student like
me more than two thousand rupees which has been tough for me.
And the biggest tragedy
is that even today I see stray dogs all over the streets of Srinagar. Now I
stared to walk during morning and evening. So why is not the municipality doing
a thing about it.
Author: Abdul Hussain Muntazree
‘Kargil’
Student of convergent journalism
Central University of Kashmir
