DARK CIRCLES.

My patients often call me late at odd hours of the night and they are surprised when I pick up the phone after a couple of rings, I answer the call coherently with day time like alertness. Of course, if there is an emergency, I rush to the hospital in a jiffy. It's not a big effort for me as I have trained myself to sleep like a dog in the night with my sensor ears, awaiting distress signals all through out the night. This parasomnia has a long history.

My brother suffered from Bronchitis during his childhood, It was really a testing time for us when he used to get his wheezing spells at around mid night hours or early dawn when the smog used to envelop our small town. I used to sit and massage his chest with balms and pray to God for an early relief from this attacks. Sometimes, I used to rush to call our family physician for giving him medicine shots. I was alert and always at his service during these nocturnal distressing spells. At the age of 12 years, my brother got fully cured of his ailment and my sleeping pattern improved, temporarily though.

Then, I entered HSC board and my studies assumed a nocturnal pattern, I simply could not concentrate during the day hours with the noise and distractions around. I decided to study from mid night till 6 am daily, I used to enjoy it under my faithful night lamp, the world was so different and quiet at this time. I then, used to rush to college at 7 am and rest during the boring lectures till 2 pm. A strong Nescafe with cardamom seeds used to keep me awake like an owl in the night. I topped my college in HSC board, way back in 1990.

My residency programme in Medicine was cut out for my night life, We used to be on call through out the night and frequently used to be woken up during night times when the patients would realise their pains and complaints. Sometimes, we used to sleep in the ward side room to avoid frequent excursions from the hostel to the ward. It was all fun though, we used to sip coffee from the nocturnal bicycle man and smoke cigarettes outside the campus. Of course, during emergency on call days,we hardly used to sleep a wink at all. Patients used to come from far away places at this odd times. We used to be fresh as daisies.

Now, My new born has to be looked after in the night, he also chooses to be a nocturnal person like me, bawling all through out the night. He has inherited this from his father! I help my wife all through the night happily.

My evolution as a doctor, had the recurring underlying theme of being awake and alert at night times.It will continue to be so in the future also.

I enjoy a good siesta though, in the afternoon for an hour or so.

So, when you see the dark circles around my eyes, You know the reasons.

The dark circles have illuminated a lot of lives around!