Vijay Chaiwala...

A well deserved break is what I am enjoying while typing this post…Today is a very very busy day for my Department, and it’s just now at 2 p.m. that I have got a chance to sit down…

I was wondering what should I write about today (the daily routine seems to have sponged out my energy and dried up all the ‘topics’ that usually swarms inside my mind..). 

Just about an hour ago, Vijay , the omnipresent chaiwala of the Main Blood Bank, AIIMS, came to me with his usual questions. Now Vijay (Vijay Baweja is his full name) has been an integral part of the Blood Bank of the Institute for decades now. No staff working at present knows how he came to this Department. He is not an employee of AIIMS, but I guess there is not a single person in the Institute who has not tasted Vijay’s cup of tea. He prepares tea from a small room in our Department. Vijay has survived many renovations, many policies and many an inspection by the higher authorities; Directors have changed, Departmental heads have changed, but Vijay remains unchanged. He is seen between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in AIIMS with his ancient aluminium kettle and bone china cups in hand, distributing tea to all the doctors and nurses, to security staff and technical staff, and charging the usual Rs 2/ - for ‘special’ tea and Re 1 for ‘ordinary’ tea.

Vijay speaks fluent English. An alumni of the Bhagat Singh College of New Delhi, he is a graduate. My boss says that he was a patient in the Psychiatry ward of AIIMS decades ago, and stayed back in the Institute only. I know that he is a schizophrenic, but never saw him becoming violent in all my years in AIIMS. Yes, he does withdraw to himself when he is not feeling well. 

Vijay has his habit of asking questions to everyone in the Department all the time. So we all avoid him. It’s because of his mental condition that he is obsessed with asking questions all the time. But I have always tried to answer his questions. You know what? Many a words which I have used in my writings in KHIRIKI were the result of Vijay’s questions. One day he asked me , “Doctor Saab, what is the meaning of cidade de deus?” Another day, he regaled me with stories of his childhood.Then on a heavy monsoon day a few months ago, he asked me,”Doctor Saab, do you like Monalisa’s smile?”

The older staffs in the Department have stories to tell about Vijay’s life. The most popular theory for Vijay’s constant presence in the Department goes as follows:
Vijay Baweja was born and brought up a rich family of farmers in Punjab. He was the youngest of two brothers and three sisters. Vijay was a very sensitive boy since his childhood. At the age of eighteen years, he was sent to Delhi to complete his graduation from the Bhagat Singh College. He did complete his studies, but something happened during his stay in Delhi because of which he started to lose his mental stability. He was admitted in the Psychiatry Department of AIIMS as a young man of about 21 years, and now, well into his late 60s, Vijay is a part of AIIMS, albeit unnoticed by many, but known by almost all the past and present staff of AIIMS. The erstwhile Head of the Blood Bank was kind enough to spare one extra room for Vijay, who started to serve tea to all the staff in AIIMS. The tradition continues till date. People say he had a home and a wife too, but they were all lost in due course of time. Now he stays alone in a single room near the Safdarjung Airport.

Vijay is continuously asking questions in English as well as in Hindi. A couple of doctors came from Korea a few years ago for training in AIIMS, and they were not very fluent in English. Vijay was the only person who could understand what they said!! 
He tells stories of Sati Anusuya, Raja Harishchandra, etc. without caring whether people are listening to him or not. My usual day in AIIMS begins with a crisp “GOOD MORNING DOCTOR SAAB” from Vijay, and ends with “ Have a nice evening Doctor Saab” from him. Unknowingly, Vijay has become an integral part of my daily life.

Today, before I sat down to write about him, Vijay came and asked me, “Doctor Saab, aap mahalo ki rajkumari, aish aur araam ki zindagi pasand karengi ya phir azaadi?” Only the Almighty knows what was cooking in his schizophrenic mind when he asked me this question!! But I have gradually started to realize why we cannot let go of him. He is just there, just like the sun and the sky……

I just pray that Vijay continues to brighten our lives with his unique sense of humour and questions each day. May he be in good health, and may the undying spirit in him never die….