The actual inauguration was held on Sunday the 21st of October, 2007. To be honest, we had to rush through the last three or four days' work of renovation to meet the deadline for the opening. I tried to send out phone invites and also invitation cards to as many relatives, friends, doctor-associates, other colleagues and contacts, as possible. In the end, this effort involved cooperation from my children, my wife, a few of my close friends, my employees, the internet (since many of the invites went by email), the phone service (which, gratefully, did not let me down most of the time, though the landlines were more reliable than the mobiles), the postal service (since over 75 invites went by post - this one was a dampener, as later on, I learned that at least 14-15 invitees got their invitations after the event was over!) ... and some others too.
On the penultimate day, I sat down to run through the list of all the things that had to be done/were done:
-sending out invitations and following those that were sent by post with a phone call wherever possible
-checking and cross-checking the invites to see that I didn't miss anyone or to confirm that the phones had indeed been made
-calling up the people who were going to erect a "pandal" (a sort of shaded verandah on the sidewalk outside my clinic) and tell them to erect it that very night
-confirming with the icecream supplier the order for 500 ice-creams
-running after the carpenter, plumber, painter, varnisher, electrician, glass-vendor, mason, etc. and seeing to the completion of their final work in time for the opening-installing a fish tank (the vendor also brought water in two large plastic bags from his home and filled the tank! He brought the fish on Sunday morning at nine o'clock and made the tank complete!)-seeing to it that the florist keeps the floral festoon ready to apply it to the front of the main board the next morning
-seeing to it that the board maker fixes the main board and the side board outside the clinic's main door... plus a zillion other tasks!
In the event, is it a surprise that a few people did get left out, a few tasks did remain incomplete and a few mistakes did occur? :-)
Here are a few pictures of the clinic on Sunday morning, before the guests began to arrive:
Let me share with you all the major event that happened in late October: the inaugural function of my new clinic. In this post, I will tell you about how we got to acquire the place where the clinic came up. My wife Nishrin and I had, over the past year and a half, been looking for a large premises, at least 350-400 sq. ft. floor area, to be able to start her parlour and a small place within that for my new clinic. Our search had started at Mazgaon over two years ago, but its scope widened to areas like Clare Rd., Byculla main road, J.J. Hospital area and even the Bohri Mohalla area where Nish currently runs her parlour from a rented premises. Things weren't moving, and in the meantime, realty prices began to zoom up like mad. We had funds to the tune of 22 to 25 lacs, which, later, we hiked to about 30 lacs, but there weren't any decent premises available in that budget.
Our search narrowed down to a 350 sq.ft. place near the J.J. traffic signal, and before we knew it, that owner refused to sell the place and backed off. Sometime around mid-May, a broker approached us with a proposal from another party which had a main road shop close to the J.J. signal, but was a bit smaller, at around 250 sq.ft. Negotiations started with the party asking for 40 lacs net, and promptly broke down as we simply did not think the place was worth that! Remember, we had to give an unspecified amount to the landlord - this would be anywhere from a fixed amount of 5 lacs to a fixed percentage of the amount we paid to the owners. Thus, we would have to shell out an additional 7-10 lacs for the landlord, and we simply did not have that kind of money.
Our thinking got to the point where we almost gave up the whole idea of buying a place in these cost-inflated times. Then, we got used to the idea that that place was really good, and we would not want to give up on it; so we began to discuss how to raise additional capital. Loans would have to be taken, there was no question. We put a counter proposal of 35 lacs including the amount to be paid to the landlord.
This was not fair to the owners, since they too did not know what the landlord would be seeking. Hence we gave them another figure: 30 lacs Net, take it or leave it. In the final meetings, this figure was re-negotiated to 32 lacs net. and then the talks with the landlord took place ... this was between the landlord and the owners. The former asked for 10, and finally settled for 7.
Thus, the deal finally cost us 39. We paid a brokerage of 0.60, and spent another 4.5 on the renovation of the place. The clinic has thus cost us nearly 44 lacs, give or take 25000 rupees. To raise this huge difference between what we had (30) and what was needed (44), we took loans from doctors, relatives, and friends, plus a 3 lac loan from a bank to part meet the cost of the renovation.
We got possession of the place on 31st July, and began work on the premises by mid-August. The work went on for over 2 months, and the place was finally ready on Sunday 21st October 2007 for the official inauguration.
More in the next post.
I know I haven't been around for a long, long time, and to all readers, past and present, I can only offer a limp apology for this absence. Several things have transpired in my life since my last entry. In a nutshell:-
- All thirty fasts got over, Ramadan got over and my family and I celebrated Eid with the usual fanfare.
- We, that is my wife and I purchased a shop near J.J. Hospital, a premier area in South Mumbai, then I was busy getting it shipshape for a doctor's clinic, and finally, on the 21st of October, we had it inaugurated at the hands of my parents, and invited over 500 guests to "view" the new clinic, to bless and guide us, and to join us in our happiness.
- My younger daughter went on a 4-day trip to a resort in nearby Vasai from the 26th October to the 29th. The house just isn't the same with one member missing.
- Today, I finished registering my 50th patient on the new Computer-based patient registration system installed in the new clinic; the software is developed by a private software company called Maze Designers and Developers (from Vadodara), and is blessed by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (the I.A.P.) - the official organisation of the Pediatricians of India.
- My elder daughter went on a one-day picnic with more than 150 other adolescents last Saturday, that is on the 3rd of November. She had great fun.
- My wife is now busy with the wedding season. Dressing up brides, giving them hair-styles, hair colours and hair-cuts is part of the preparation that she participates in.
- On Writing.com, an internet writing site, I am unnecessarily drawn into a controversy that touches upon not just my writing skills, but also my leadership qualities, my religious affliations, my sensitivity or otherwise in certain matters, and so on.
Having said all this, let me add that several other things have also happened, but they will have to wait for another post. The most important among those is that my father took ill and was admitted under a physician at a Hospital last week for 4 days. He even had to go into the ICU for one night on account of his deteriorating condition. However, now he is well and at home.
