A.Salam Hospital

Being out on Moradabad Road in Sambhal means we deal with a lot of dust and noise from the passing trucks. A.Salam Hospital isn't one of those glass-fronted buildings you see in the big cities. It is a solid brick place that has seen a lot of people come and go over the years. I usually open the front gates early in the morning when the air is still a bit cool. Most of the people who come here are from the nearby farms or the smaller streets in town. We have a lot of basic rooms and a main hall where people sit while they wait to be seen. The furniture is a bit mismatched, mostly wooden benches and a few old chairs we’ve picked up over time. It gets very hot in the summer, so the ceiling fans are always running at full speed. I spend a good part of my day just talking to people and figuring out what they need. There is always a lot of activity, with families coming in together and kids running around the courtyard. It feels like a very human place to work. We don't have a computerized system for everything; a lot of it is still written down in big ledgers that sit on the main desk. The road outside is always busy with tractors and buses, which makes the whole building vibrate sometimes. It’s a tiring job, but it’s what we do. We just keep the place running as best as we can. Every evening I sweep the front porch.