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Colin is the author of Chasing Rainbows in Chennai

Is It Safe? (India)

ColinT
2005-04-24 10:17:33

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Many people from the West now indulge in "healthcare tourism" � visiting India for healthcare in order to avoid waiting lists or costly services back home. I thought that I would get in on the act. I didn't visit India for this purpose, but found myself requiring dental treatment while here.

Like many westerners, I am always a bit dubious about receiving health treatment in India mainly because horror stories abound, some real but most imaginary, about standards of hygiene and care. Some other traveller had recommended a dentist, so I attended just to check it out. I looked through the window and all seemed to be in order. It was fairly clean, had a waiting room, and had various certificates of qualification framed and hanging on the wall. So I told myself that I would visit for treatment the next day based on my in-depth analysis and evaluation of the place. It's amazing just how much comfort can be gained from just glancing through a window and seeing a few chairs and pieces of paper.

Most people who I know hate going to the dentist and I'm no different. And it doesn't help very much if you have seen a film from the 1970s called Marathon Man. In the film the American actor Dustman Hoffman is kidnapped, drugged and then wakes to find he is in a dentist's chair with Laurence Olivier, who plays a former Nazi officer, standing over him with drill in hand. Olivier wants to know where a hidden stash of wartime treasure is located and is convinced that Hoffman knows. But he doesn't have a clue.

Olivier continuously asks in his German accent "Is it safe?", referring to the diamonds. Hoffman doesn't know what he means. Olivier does a bit of tooth drilling to jolt Hoffman's memory. And rest assured he's not replacing fillings. He's deliberately drilling into the nerve of the tooth. Viewers can empathise with the pain as Hoffman screams and squirms in the seat. "Is it safe?" ...