Teacher Of Humanity

And his son found out later.

- Lesleyd Biswas

In the centre of the room, there was the patient’s chair with all paraphernalia while in one corner of the clinic, his son-in-law Sohan Singh worked on fixing and filing teeth embedded in one mould or other so that the dentures fit in comfortably in the mouths of his old toothless patients.

I casually asked him, “Doctor Sahib, I have a simple question. You are uniformly good and behave well with all your patients, but you are extra kind and considerate to me. Why this special favour?” Dr Mohinder Singh smiled.

Dr Mohinder Singh was a dentist. To visit him was to take a lesson in humanity and human relationships. His small two-room dental clinic was in the heart of the Shastri Market on the way to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It was a highly congested area in which even two-wheelers wriggled out of the traffic with difficulties, turning right and left, requesting a lady here or warning an old man there to give him a passage. No four wheelers were allowed to operate there.

Since Dr Mohinder Singh charged a very low amount of fee for all dental problems – root canal treatment, filling of cavities, fixing of crowns on broken or partially damaged teeth or even in preparing dentures for old men and women – his clinic always remained crowded by patients of middle and lower classes.