Patients' diversions at New Delhi's Apollo Hospital: a vignette

PARFIT GENTIL KNYGHTS: the days, weeks, and months that some patients spend in hospitals can drag on (no pun intended), and hence diversions are sometimes deemed necessary and certainly always welcome when opportunity arise. However, some patients in India inconsiderately resort to actions that infringe on the rights of others to a wholesome environment while hospitalized in a common ward. Smoking in bed was routinely engaged in by other patients during Virraj Sorhvi's stay at New Delhi's Apollo Hospital in 2007 and 2008: you could practically get away with murder as long as you kept your mouth shut with regard to any complaints you might have been harbouring against members of the hospital personnel. For God help you should you choose to grumble about any malpractice on the part of the staff or the so-called "consultants" (the Apollo Hospital's non-doctor "doctors")... — the security guards would immediately receive instructions to snoop around your bedside at all times, on the lookout for the slightest infractions, and to harass your visitors with intrusive questions. On the other hand, the camaraderie that tended to establish itself between patients, as with any people going under in the same boat, served to some extent as a counterweight to the officiousness of the employees. (Note that while the patient smoking in bed in the background of the frame attempts to hide his first two drags under the blanket, he finally brazens out being filmed and actually tells the person sitting in the chair in front of him to move so as to give the camera an unobstructed view of his third puff on the cigarette, which he then — in an act of bravado — takes boldly in plain view of all, exhaling the smoke with relish and defiance...)

All in all, however, it is good to heed the advice of Holly Cole, the great Canadian singer, repeated here in the voice of Liza Minnelli — as expressed in the refrain (and the title) of the song "Don't Smoke in Bed". I reckon this video won't be receiving any offers of sponsorship from the tobacco industry? No prizes from the Altria Group, no fellowships from British American Tobacco to promote responsible behaviour and social sensitivity? (But then, you never know.)

N.B. Watch the companion piece to this video, portraying the patients' other diversions, on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuI1CBZs_yg


♦ Virraj has been hospitalized continuously since 4 July 2005; he had undergone treatment (mostly by medical neglect) at this particular institution between 17 October 2007 and 28 May 2008. For the latest info, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/virraj

♦ video location: Bed № 4112, Wing A, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Sarita Vihar, Delhi-Mathura Road (National Highway № 2), New Delhi, India
♦ video date: Sunday, 20 April 2008 (13:39:00 IST | 08:09:00 GMT) — 1022nd day of Virraj's hospitalization overall (187th day at Apollo)

♥♥♥Greetings to the viewers of my video in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and other parts of the world!♥♥♥

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• new
• delhi
• indraprastha
• apollo
• hospital
• cigarette
• smoking
• indiscipline
• smoke
• liza
• minnelli
• patient
• virraj
• sorhvi

[sameegrl]

I thought that was Liza's voice...

He smoked openly in a hospital ward?? With oxygen in use in the ward??

[VirrajSorhvi]

you're right on every count

[sameegrl]

Well, that's a tad frightening, now isn't it! Can you say "Ka-Boom"?

[VirrajSorhvi]

I had no strength for ka-booming, but the hospital evidently thought tobacco therapeutic... (if it was in fact tobacco...)

[shart7]

Ha Ha, I was going to have some treatment at this hospital, Im from England !!!

Im Afraid that this has definitely put a stop to that plan.

[The391956]

I think only in the U.S.A that you can't smoke

in the hospital.

This India where it is probley allowed

[sameegrl]

Hmmmm...well then I suppose he wouldn't care all to much if he exploded if it wasn't tobacco, but rather have a grand need for potato chips.