Aastha Hospital

This place in Kandivali West is basically where we spend all our daylight hours. It’s situated in a part of the city that never really stops moving. People are always coming and going. The hospital itself is pretty straightforward. There are no marble floors or high-tech screens in the lobby. We just have the usual medical equipment and some desks for the paperwork. It gets a bit dusty because of the road outside, so we’re always wiping things down. Most of the staff live nearby, so we walk or take a rickshaw to work. The rooms are plain and we keep things clean but it definitely has a lived-in feel. It’s a local hospital for local people. You might hear the traffic or people shouting on the street while you’re waiting. We don’t have fancy uniforms; we just wear what’s practical for the job. Sometimes the power flutters and we have to wait a second for the backup to kick in. It’s just how things go in this neighborhood. We see a lot of the same families over the years. We keep a ledger of who comes in and we try to stay organized, even when it gets hectic in the mornings. There’s a small shop nearby where we grab lunch. It’s an honest way to spend the day, just looking after folks who come through the door in Kandivali. We don't bother with much else besides our daily duties.