(I was on a visit to CMC, Vellore, for about 10 days; hence the irregular blog)
Thousands of patients from across the country, especially the eastern and north-eastern parts, come to a south Indian town everyday just to consult a doctor. It may sound weird, as it tends to prove that proper healthcare has not reached to the nook and corner of India, being a third-world country. True it is. But how does CMC, Vellore, differ from the rest of the medical institutions in India? Just because it provides best of the medicare or is there something different at the core of it?
I tried to figure out an answer to the question, as hospitals like Apollo, Asia Heart Foundation, government-run AIIMS, Tata Hospital among others are also doing great jobs as far as quality treatment is concerned. CMC, established and being run by Christian missionaries, has more of a heart of service to people than the commercial venture of a multi-speciality medical hub. Besides the latest technical nitty-gritty of medical science, the college also teaches service to mankind. Probably that is the reason a gold-medallist paediatrician like Binayak Sen, one of its alumni, could venture into the remote parts of a backward state like Chhattisgarh in barefoot to set up camps and small medical units to serve the village poor.
Probably that is the reason people from all religions can pray together at the chapel inside the hospital or light a few candles there not for one’s own relatives only, but also for humanity at large. At its heart, CMC believes in service in the true sense of the word. I have hardly seen a person cry even when the condition of his relative admitted there is critical. They pray to Jesus; most of them like the Hindu way, touching His feet. Religions mingle at CMC, the sea of humanity meets at its steps. When i donated blood there on August 21, i felt the same sense of helping another person — who i would probably never know, never meet. I was touched at the way the hospital, one of the biggest and busiest in India, renders service to people 24x7.
