Chapter 350 Public Welfare

As a humble, ordinary person in Mumbai, there's only so much you can do.

Everything has to go through someone; ticket agents have to use personal connections to get things done, and the same is true for buying train tickets, movie tickets, renting an apartment, or getting married.

To achieve your goal, you must go through friends of friends, acquaintances of acquaintances, and relatives of relatives.

Without this network of relationships, you will not be able to get anywhere in Mumbai.

You can't skip all those faces and go straight to someone who doesn't know you, nor can you ask a stranger to meet your needs through a single phone line.

If we strip away all relationships and only talk about supply and demand, then what remains is the exchange of money and goods rather than the exchange of favors.

When you want to book a hotel room at the Taj Mahal or buy movie tickets at the mall, you inevitably ask around: "Does anyone know someone who knows someone?"

So despite all the bad things, people who have built networks and influence here still choose to stay in Mumbai.

Akash is a returned Indian. It took him nearly half a year to adapt to the lifestyle in Mumbai, which is no different from that in Manhattan.

They mastered life skills: how to bargain with grocery store owners, taxi drivers, and relatives.

My wife's Hindi gradually became fluent, she no longer allowed the servants to bully new people, and they learned not to attend other people's dinner parties before 9:30.

When we first arrived in Mumbai, they still followed the New York custom of visiting at 8 o'clock, and then we had to sit and drink tea, watching the hostess busy dressing up and going into the kitchen to cook. She was afraid of neglecting us, so she greeted us politely from time to time.

They found the best places to buy screwdrivers, bed sheets, gas stoves and televisions.

They are used to all kinds of emergencies, and if the maid doesn't come for a week, they do the housework themselves.

If the toilet tank is cracked, they have learned the trick: call someone to fix it, but not a plumber, but an electrician who is honest and reliable.

The electrician would bring a plumber with him to the customer's home. If he saw that the plumber was trying to cheat on the price again, he would send the unscrupulous person away and repair the water tank for them himself. He would use cement to glue the ceramic tank together.

It’s not that they will definitely not be cheated again, but they are no longer new here. They have paid a lot of tuition in dealing with money and have abandoned the American way of being so formal.

One night, Akash even tricked a taxi driver into taking him home just after midnight, charging him a higher fare for driving at night. However, Akash's watch was a few minutes slow and it showed 11:57 at the time.

He showed his watch to the driver, who charged him the pre-night fare. When Akash heard the boy correct him, he realized how cunning he had become in Bombay.

This city has no integrity at all, this is the only way Akash can comfort himself.

He could have continued to enjoy an elite life in Manhattan, working as his own programmer.

But the elderly people at home missed him very much, and my childhood friend told me on the phone more than once that there was great potential for computers in India in the future.

He came back, and career aside, just adjusting to life in Mumbai was sometimes frustrating for him.

Fortunately, the trivialities of life are no longer a problem, but the children's frequent illnesses have become a headache.

Mumbai's air quality is bad, the water quality is poor, and the food is unhygienic, which is a great challenge for children.

This country has more than one billion people, more than one billion thin, sick but alive people, who are troubled by various diseases.

Medical resources in Mumbai are tight, and if you want to receive timely medical treatment, you can only use connections to go to expensive private hospitals.

The public hospital is useless. Patients have been waiting in simple shacks at the door for two months.

God knows whether the disease completely devoured him when his turn came.

Akash was worried because his children had not yet fully adapted to life in Mumbai and might catch dysentery at any time.

I still remember that his eldest son Gautama contracted amoebic dysentery when he just returned to Mumbai. He suffered from diarrhea anytime and anywhere for two weeks. Akash couldn't bear to see his skinny little body.

Mumbai, India's most modern city, has food and water sources contaminated by feces, through which amoebic dysentery is transmitted to humans.

The children eat and drink fecal matter: mangoes, swimming pools, and taps filled with viruses.

In some communities, the sewage pipes and the parallel water pipes are even connected together, making it difficult for people to guard against them.

In this city, all pollutants are recycled, and fecal sewage containing viruses is poisoning children, but people are powerless to do anything.

In other places you either get sick or you recover. In Bombay you recover from one disease and then you get another.

Akash's family was plagued by illness every day, and the couple had developed granular pharyngitis. If you don't want to get this disease, you have to stop breathing.

Granular pharyngitis is caused by pollution, and pollution is everywhere in Mumbai.

Whether you are indoors, in a car, or talking to someone, your pores breathe the air of the city and your nasal cavity filters the particles of the city.

Pollutants in the air caused the connective tissue in Akash's pharynx to grow, causing him to have a runny nose and sneeze constantly.

Every morning after sweeping the floor, the broom was covered with a thick layer of dirt: dust, fibers, and feathers.

His children played in such an environment, breathing dirty air with lead levels ten times higher than the legal limit, which could cause developmental delays in them.

How could Akash not be worried? He was so anxious that he couldn't even sleep.

Time should flow especially slowly on Sundays. People would sleep until noon, have a hearty brunch, drink an ice-cold beer, hug their loved ones for a long time, and then fall into a deep sleep.

Akash had to get up early, he read through the newspapers one by one, circled and marked them with a pencil.

Those medical advertisements were his main focus. After so long in Mumbai, he still couldn't find a satisfactory hospital.

The child's education was also a top priority, and Gautama had a hard time fitting in at the Gujarati school.

He is not fluent in Indian languages ​​and only speaks English.

His wife, Foy, switched on the television, which was usually when Sun TV started broadcasting the morning news.

Mr. Sur announced that he would establish a special public welfare fund in the name of Sur Electric, dedicated to investments in healthcare, education, social security, and other areas. The initial public welfare fund will be 500 million rupees.

"Huh?" Akash looked up. "Charity fund?"

"It is said that there are 500 million rupees." Fuyi was also a little surprised. She stared at the TV.

"Are these wealthy people trying to scam donations? They're the best at that."

"I don't think so, at least not Mr. Soul."

"Why?"

"Because he is Mr. Sur. Everyone in Bombay knows him and says he is a good man."

Akash was skeptical about such words, as he had seen many rich people in the United States who were two-faced.

At this moment, the TV camera turned and showed the scene of Ron signing at the charity fund establishment ceremony.

The huge cheque of 500 million rupees is clearly visible in the close-up shot.

"It's cash?" Akash exclaimed.

"The accounts of the public welfare fund will be made public regularly and subject to supervision by international organizations and domestic non-governmental organizations." Fu Yi repeated the announcement on TV.

"Wow, is this Sur also an Indian?"

In Akash's impression, only the elites who have received a good education abroad have this kind of philanthropic awareness.

"No, a real Indian." Foy was proud.

Philanthropy is a low priority in India, with few super-rich individuals keen on it, who would rather buy more sports cars.

Mr. Sur not only did it but also took out Rs 50 crore in cash.

This huge amount of money is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Many large companies may not have so much financial reserves.

The promotional video on TV continued, and Ron gave a speech in front of the camera.

This public welfare fund will first be used in the medical field, and the first step is to purchase three poorly managed private hospitals in Mumbai.

They will be reorganized into public welfare hospitals, with all medical treatment fees free of charge and only the cost of medicines charged.

Of course, if the pharmaceutical company is willing to donate free of charge, then this part of the medical expenses will also be waived.

Currently, pharmaceutical companies such as Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy have expressed their willingness to donate some dysentery and influenza drugs.

The new hospitals are named after Sur and are roughly located in the east, west and north directions of Mumbai.

South Mumbai is the most prosperous area with no shortage of medical resources, while other areas are in greater need of public welfare hospitals like Sur.

Akash and his friends were delighted to hear this. Their apartment was in West Mumbai, and one of the hospitals was even just a few blocks away.

The most important thing was that the TV was showing the decoration scene of the new Sur Hospital.

It's bigger, more spacious, and more advanced than before, and the footage is so good, it's almost cinematic.

If he hadn't told him, Akash would have thought it was a star-rated hotel.

"This hospital can open in two months? That's great!"

"It only takes us a little over ten minutes. Mr. Suhr said the hospital can accommodate thousands of patients at a time. Appointments can be made a week in advance, and resources are shared among the three hospitals."

"I no longer have to wait ten days or half a month to see a doctor. I just don't know if too many people will make it difficult for the hospital to operate, after all, many treatments are free."

"See, Mr. Soul has thought of everything."

Of course, medical expenses alone cannot support the operation of a hospital. After all, the salaries of doctors and medical staff are a considerable expense.

Therefore, the funding for Sur Hospital mainly comes from two aspects: one is other donations from the society, and the other is the profit from Sur Advanced Clinic.

The Sur Premium Clinic is not open to the public and focuses on high-end private medical care.

This is a for-profit hospital that employs the best doctors in India and even well-known medical researchers from abroad.

The equipment is on par with the world's most advanced level, and the decoration is also based on the configuration of a five-star hotel.

The clinic has a very high threshold for admission, and one must be either rich or noble, and appointments are required.

There is no need to worry about a lack of patients, because the hospital’s best business cards are its doctors and research directions.

Ron spent a lot of money to hire medical masters from home and abroad. In addition to high salaries, they also get profit sharing.

The Sur Advanced Clinic plans to specialize in two areas: liver disease and encephalitis.

Everyone knows about India's sanitary conditions. Bacteria and viruses are spread through sewage in sewers, and can also be spread through sex and the use of contaminated syringes.

India has a high incidence of hepatitis B and a high rate of virus carriers, and even the rich sometimes cannot escape infection.

Another difficult disease is encephalitis, which is mainly transmitted by mosquitoes. India's climate is extremely suitable for the breeding of this virus.

The clinic determined these two research directions entirely based on local conditions.

Of course, other common diseases are also no problem. Sur Advanced Clinic has the top medical team.

This hospital is located in South Mumbai and its clientele is the wealthy people of this area.

The Sur Charity Foundation has invested as much as 300 million rupees in the medical field alone, with affordable hospitals accounting for only a small part of the investment, while the bulk of the investment is in Sur's high-end clinics.

Akash can understand the existence of such VIP private clinics. After all, affordable hospitals always need funds to operate.

Well, using the rich's money to provide medical care for the poor. That's good, isn't it?

After the medical part, Ron began to talk about education investment.

"Mr. Sur, are you planning to open an elite school?" Akash became more interested.

His son Gautama needed just the right school, a good school.

(End of this chapter)