First clinic at Nagpada sold

With my new clinic (read older posts to see its inauguration details and pictures) doing well, I took the decision to sell off the premises where I used to sit earlier. I have finally sold that place off, and am now considering running the charitable aspect of my practice from a rental place in the same building where the clinic used to be. In this way, I am trying to have the cake and eat it too.

Let me explain this further: my clinic is (or rather, was) a very small 100 sq. ft. office space that served me well for over 12 years (I had purchased it in June 1996 and, after renovating it, started practice on October 1, 1996), was actually a very cramped place that necessitated the purchase of a bigger premises whenever I could afford to buy it. With the flow of cash also coming in from Nishrin's salon practice, this finally made it possible to buy the new premises near J.J. Hospital in 2007. As readers are aware, I began practice at my new place on October 21, 2007.

Thus, the older place became useful to segregate my charitable venture poor patients from the regular patients who can afford to pay my full consultation fees. The charitable venture was, in fact, started in memory of my late mother Mrs. Zubeda, who died of breast cancer when I was just 11. I have even received donations to continue doing this charity. These donations have come from some of my cousins whose lives my mother had touched in the past. Thus, you can see why I would like to continue the charitable work that I am already doing.

Leaving the premises was a clinical decision which has not had many psychological repercussions; however, the actual emptying of the premises was a physically draining affair with some pleasant spinoffs in the form of recovery of memorabilia that would otherwise have lain hidden inside drawers and cupboards. These include letters from friends: imagine two thick files of long letters written by snail mail from friends in this age of emails and mobiles! The two files are literally a treasure-trove of past memories. Other stuff included gifts and mementoes from well-wishers, writings done by me from the past, a sketch-cum-colouring book that I used to while away the time in the era before computers (in fact, how does B.C. sound for that? :-)), notes and academic stuff from the time when I was still studying to be a pediatrician, pictures and notes on patients that I have seen in the past, old books, toys, an antique casette-tape-recorder player (that I have gifted to my receptionist), etc.

It is said that life must go on, and it has. The sale was completed last week. As of now, I am work-less in the two hours from 16:30 to 18:30 that I used to sit at the old clinic. I have decided to resume those timings at a rental premises after Ramadan, that is, sometime from October 2008.

Funny when you think of it, but October features repeatedly in the above post: it was the month when I had started both my clinics, and it will be the month when I start my charitable venture as well ...