AFP via Getty Images An Indian tuberculosis patient looks on as he rests at the Rajan Babu Tuberculosis Hospital in New Delhi on March 24, 2014. India must stop its doctors prescribing 'irrational' treatments to cure tuberculosis, medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said March 22, warning the practice is increasing drug-resistant strains of the disease. AFP PHOTO/Chandan KHANNA (Photo credit should read Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)

In one corner of a huge, dimly-lit emergency room (ER) in a public hospital in India, a young doctor is struggling in one of the most miserable conversations of his life: communicating the death of a patient to their loved ones is, after all, a skill doctors take time to master. Loud crying has erupted from the adjacent room -- the seasoned doctor there seems to have communicated the difficult message.

Outside the ER is an ominous mob of dozens of people, discussing animatedly the fragile health of a friend undergoing treatment. The security guards are on their toes. Their discussion about when the authorities will end the three months' salary-drought was interrupted by the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) asking them to watch the crowd.

An ambulance screeches to a halt and who looks like a pizza delivery boy is rushed inside on a stretcher with blood gushing from a huge wound on his head. His arrival makes a surgical intern visibly excited, as he had been waiting the whole day to "practice suturing". His senior is quick to chastise him: "Our profession may rely upon people's misfortunes, but you don't need to make a spectacle of it." Meanwhile, the surgical resident braces herself for yet another sleepless night in the Operation Theatre.

"Rumour has it that Dr X has just one work agenda: Don't call it a day until the bulge in the pocket parallels the bulge of the paunch."

Suddenly loud noises emanate from the main cabin: the CMO has apparently lost his cool over a patient who subtly offered him a bribe in exchange for a false injury report. The nurses promptly start buzzing -- they know there is another CMO (Dr X) for whom such offers are like manna from heaven. Rumour has it that Dr X has just one work agenda: Don't call it a day until the bulge in the pocket parallels the bulge of the paunch.

Meanwhile, in the labour room on the upper floor, three doctors are unburdening their wallets and pooling together money to help their patient. A woman in labour needs two units of blood and her husband, a restaurant waiter, does not have the money to buy it.

In one OPD a doctor is harshly berating a patient for not "seeing straight ahead" during an eye exam, while in the ward downstairs a doctor is waving away the profuse thanks of her patient by humbly saying, "We are what we are only because of you."