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STORY TIME: For your eyes only
“Mom, I want my eyesight checked.” I had been telling my mother for the last couple of weeks or so but my dear mother just would not take me to an eye doctor. She wouldn’t face the reality that my eyesight could be weak. Actually she didn’t want her precious little daughter to become an ainkoo. However, today I was adamant and my father was also on my side.
After half an hour of debating over the ‘issue’, we were able to convince my mother that I should pay a visit to the eye specialist.
Should I have been relieved? No, not yet. There was a possibility that I would have to see from behind glasses for the rest of my life. Entering the clinic, I felt weird. I saw the doctor wearing thick glasses himself. Well, I couldn’t go back now. After all it was my decision to get my eyes checked.
When it was my turn to see the doctor, he asked me what the problem was. I told him that I couldn’t watch the cartoon shows clearly.
“What?” the doctor exclaimed.
My father joined the conversation and explained to the doctor what I actually meant. The doctor escorted me to a special corner to check my eyesight. After peering inside my eyes, he asked me to make some ridiculous eye movements. Then I was asked to read from a card hanging on the wall. At first glance, I was unable to read at all! Everything was blurred. Opening my eyes wide turned futile. I was really scared.
The doctor on the other hand was jovial as if he wanted everybody on earth to wear glasses. He put a hefty, cumbersome armour on my nose and put a pair of lenses in it. He asked me to try and read again. I was terrified to learn that this time I couldn’t even recognize whether the language was Urdu or English! This started off a process where the doctor would change the lenses again and again inquiring if that one was better than the one before. After an eternal fifteen minutes, the doctor was able to find the right combination of lenses for me. He asked if I was having my eyesight checked for the first time. My father answered in the affirmative. Now it was something that nearly made me faint. I gathered that my eyesight was really very weak. I imagined myself wearing chunky glasses in clumsy looking awkward black frames and my friends calling me Dadi amma. However, he inscribed something on a card and handed it over to my father.
On our way home, I was told by my father that my sight was not very weak. To be accurate, my number was only 0.5. Back at home, my mother was waiting anxiously. When she was told about the facts, she became furious.
“Didn’t I tell you to eat your vegetables? Now face the music!” She scolded. And then came the verdict. I would have to eat spinach and carrots daily (yuck!).
Finally getting my glasses I was faced with a host of new fears. I could imagine the kind of reaction I would get when I wore them to school. Some kids would call me Dadi Amma while some would call me a bookworm. Really, it is a nightmare if you have to wear the glasses. I wish all of you a good eyesight!
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