Is it the art of convincing?

“Iska kuch nahin ho sakta. Isko tho baahar ka chadha hai.” This is what my maid was told when she took her grandmother to a general hospital, apparently after she was convinced that all was not well with her granny. Shock, disgust and anger raged within me.

Should I call it ignorance or apathy on behalf of the staff? I do not choose it to call ignorance. For, if the staff is ignorant then they have no right to be at the place they are at. But because they are, at an institution which is considered as lifeline for many underprivileged, they better well be informed.

Apathy, plain apathy coupled with insensitivity is what I feel has driven the staff to inform my maid what she has been. Much convincing that her grandmother is afflicted by old age illnesses (She’s in her 80s’) on my part drew only blank stares. Not to let it be at that, I tried to drill into her that her granny requires a doctor’s help, asap. She countered by saying, “Nahin didi, woh kuch bhi bina matlab ke baat kar rahi hain. Mujhe bhi pehchaanthi nahin. Baahar ka chadha tho aisa hi hota hai.” I realized that the ‘staff’ has done a better job than me.

But then I was angry not just with the attitude of the staff at the hospital. I was also angry that my maid, who’s studied till standard IX and who has also claims has undergone nurse’s training was talking such. So, what is it that made my maid believe the words of the staff at the hospital? Apathy, insensitivity or blind beliefs? Or plain convincing?