The Girl with the smile

There is a family doctor whom we have been visiting for a long time whenever we have had health issues in the house. The doctor is a high profile doc. and has a great reputation. The hospital behind her dispensary is run very well and everything around looks spic and span. The nurses though not too talkative, look kind and helpful. Having so many good points to the doctor and the hospital’s credit means at any point, this dispensary is always full of patients who are awaiting their turn.

Most of the days there is a young serious receptionist who barely manages to give a smile and a middle aged grumpy one with a nasal voice who tries to sound friendly and nice. The job of the receptionist would be to schedule the patients for their turn and to bill the patients who have done with their consultation. Also they would look up the patient’s file and do some preliminary entry and get the file ready for the doctor. With all their serious faces, one thing that must go to the credit of both is that , they did their job well and they both were efficient. The bill got churned out quick and the files were ready well in advance.

One day, when I went to the dispensary for yet another check up , everything else seemed routine - except for one refreshingly pleasing sight ! In the place of the young and the middle aged receptionist - was a very young ( 20 or 21 years ) , short, receptionist with curly long hair and a nice smile. The line was as long as ever and to top it all this girl was "highly" inefficient. Patients were awaiting their turn with their files to get updated, and the patients who had finished checkup were waiting to get their bill ready. Clearly the girl was finding it difficult to handle the crowd.

But instead of getting bogged down, the girl seemed to enjoying it all. She was embarrassed of her not able to manage the crowd for sure - but she was laughing it off and apologizing with a smile and getting on. All of us patients were watching the long delay ( that seemed to get longer because of this girl ). One particular moment, there were 3-4 patients waiting for their bill to be done and 4-5 of them asking her when they had their turn with the doctor. And just when I thought the patients at the counter would get a little vocal - she looked up from her register - with an innocent look on her big round eyes and a nice apologetic smile on her cute face.

The next moment the guy , who was getting his bill prepared by her, melted. He asked her for the calculator and calculated his bill himself and helped her out with a reciprocating smile. She gave a grateful smile, cut out the receipt and the served patient made his way back. The tasks were the same as ever. But for once , there was something different happening in this dispensary. The patients walking out were shaking their head in disbelief and were smiling from one ear to another. All of us waiting too were smiling at and enjoying all the confusion around that this little girl was managing to create.

Uh ! Sure the files were not getting processed as fast as before but whoever said the girl was not doing her job !