He knows the place so well, but today he took a wrong turn. Then he said, "What have I done? What have I done?" Anyway, we arrived at the clinic five minutes before eleven. Luckily, we were on time. In the waiting room, there were two patients before me, so naturally they went in ahead. I waited for my turn. Ten or twelve people came after me and, one by one, they were all called to go and be examined. Now it was 11:45 and I was still waiting for my name to be called.
I went to the Indian lady at the desk and said, "My appointment was for eleven o'clock. These others all came after me. Why are you keeping me waiting?"
She said, "Everybody's case is not the same. That is why we are allowing others to go through."
I said, "Even if their case is not the same as mine, my appointment was for eleven o'clock. You should keep to the schedule."
Then one man who was there in the waiting room had to say, "Nobody is perfect."
"True," I said, "but I came here to perfect my knee."
At that moment, another lady came and asked me to pay in advance for my MRI. It came to \$600 and I handed her six one-hundred-dollar bills. She did not give me a receipt. The last time, they gave me the receipt as I was leaving, so I thought that this time they were planning to do the same thing.
Now it was two minutes to twelve. Meanwhile, Pulak was waiting for me outside in the car. He did not know that I was having so many problems.
More time passed by and I became disgusted. I went up to the lady at the desk and said, "I wish to speak to the doctor who is running the clinic."
She said, "The doctor is not here, but the manager is available. She is the one who took the money from you."
I said, "What kind of clinic is this? The manager is also the cashier?"
When the manager came out to speak to me, I said to her, "My scheduled time was eleven o'clock. Now it is after twelve. What is the reason why I am not being called?"
She said, "No, it says in the appointment book that your time was 11:45, not eleven o'clock." She was holding the book in front of her, so I challenged her.
I said, "Show me!" But she would not show me the book. She was so furious that she just stormed away.
The next person to be called was a man of my age. His name was Eric. I think they examined both his legs. He was in the examination room for about thirty minutes.
Finally, at 12:30, I got the call to go to the MRI room. When I went there, I immediately approached the technician and said to her, "Can you please tell me my scheduled time for today?"
She made the schedule appear on the computer screen. There it was written: "Chinmoy Ghose — Thursday, 11:00 a.m." I saw it with my own eyes.
"Is it written eleven o'clock?" I asked her.
"Yes," she said. "It is eleven o'clock."
At once I left the room to find the manager. I went to this room and that room looking for her. When I found her, I said, "Come with me and see." Then I brought her to the MRI room.
"Look, look!" I said. This time the manager was really furious. When the poor technician saw the condition of the manager, she became frightened and started trembling.
Then she did me a big favour: she told a lie. She said to her boss, "I only showed him the day. I did not show him the hour."
I interrupted, "I saw the screen myself. Definitely my appointment was for eleven o'clock. I have seen the proof."
The manager did not even condescend to give me a reply. She left the room.
Then the technician began getting ready for the test. I felt sorry for her because she had been badly frightened by the manager and now she was upset. Just three days ago, she had been so polite to me. Now, very abruptly, she barked, "Lift up your leg!"
Inwardly, I replied, "Lift up your consciousness, for God's sake!"
When you go for an MRI, they strap your leg very tightly so that you cannot move at all. The very first time I went for one, about six years ago, they informed me afterwards that I had moved and the test was ruined. That is how I lost \$900. Then, when we eventually got the film back, it showed that I had not moved at all. I knew all along that I definitely did not move and, right after the examination, the technician reassured me that I had not moved.
This time, the technician was not tying up my leg. I said to her, "Why are you not tying my leg? If anything goes wrong, I will be the one to lose my money." But she was not talking to me because she was so upset.
Three days ago, the test for my right knee took twenty minutes. Today more than thirty minutes I had to spend in that machine, and it made such a horrible noise from beginning to end: tuk tuk tuk. Usually, the noise goes for a few minutes and then stops for a few minutes. But this time it was continuous.
I thought, "This is how she is trying to disturb my consciousness!" Then, after ten minutes, I was only worrying that she would come and tell me that I had moved my leg.
When it was over at long last, I was about to come out of the room when another patient came in. That lady said to me, "A young man like you is waiting for you in the car." That is how she described Pulak, as a 'young man' like me!
This poor lady was so unbalanced physically that twice she fell down as she was moving about the office. The technician grabbed her. I felt so sympathetic because I also have trouble with my legs. Meanwhile, the technician was telling me, "You go, you go!"
I said, "I have to put on my shoes." She would not allow me to put on my shoes.
Then I went back to the main desk to get my receipt. A different lady was there. I said to her, "Before I went for my MRI, I paid the money. It was \$600 cash. Could you kindly give me a receipt?"
She opened up the register, but there were no hundred-dollar bills inside. There were only a few tens and twenties. She was hesitating to give me a receipt because there was so little money inside the drawer.
I saw that she was suspecting me, so I said, "Bring the manager! She can verify it. I must get the receipt."
That manager was, by this time, in another room, hiding. She refused to appear.
Now another worker arrived. This was the lady who originally gave me the eleven o'clock appointment. She said to me, "Oh, you are the one who lives on 149th Street." The funniest thing is that she knows of me. Her husband used to live on my street, and he is an admirer of mine.
She was standing by the desk with an innocent smile. I asked her, "Please tell me, was my appointment time eleven o'clock or 11:45? Today everybody has been arguing with me that I have made a mistake, but the computer screen shows that I am right."
She was only smiling at me because she remembered that she gave me that time. What could she do? Then I said, "Even now, they do not believe I am telling the truth. The lady at the desk does not want to give me a receipt, and I gave the manager \$600 cash before I went in. The last time you gave me the receipt after the examination was over. Now I am leaving. Can you ask them to give me a receipt?"
She said to her colleague, "Give him the receipt. I am asking you to do it. I know he is not telling lies."
Luckily, she was there to save me! Otherwise, what liars they all were! It went from one lie to another. Shame, shame, shame! And the main rogue, the manager, was caught because the technician made the mistake of showing me my real appointment time on the screen. What is more, this rogue had to hide in her room when it came time to collect my receipt so that nobody would know I had handed her the money personally.
Then I asked for my film. It is like an x-ray film. They had it there in a large, brown envelope, but they would not give it to me. They said they were going to send it to the doctor. It is my film, I paid for it, but they would not give it to me. I said, "Fine, fine." Who wanted to argue with these idiots any longer?
Some were idiots, some were rogues. One idiot was the technician. The rogue was the manager. She should have changed the hour on the computer screen. Then I would not have discovered the truth!
What an experience I had!
When I left the building and entered into Pulak's car, I told him the whole sad story. Then he had to say, "Guru, I had a feeling that maybe you were having a problem."
I said, "If you had come in, you would have seen how I had to fight with them at every moment."
14 November 1996From:Sri Chinmoy,The Canvas of Time, Madal Bal, Czech Republic, 2019
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/cat