It's a weekday in Manila. Kent is at work. My eyes were hurting a bit and after my recent discovery in Singapore about the reduction in my eye power, I wanted to go for a complete eye check up. Mental notes about making these eye check ups a bi annual affair have been made and forgotten in the past 10 years. Until 2005, my parents where in charge of my eye check ups. A routine affair in my life since I was 6 years old. As I sit here in the Lobby of Asian Eye institute, Makati, the mind drifts as usual to the "Waiting in the eye hospital lobby" days of the past. Karyambadi Eye Hospital- The one and only eye hospital in Wayanad( I'm not really sure whether more eye hospitals have come up in Wayanad now.) A regular venue for my Appa-daughter dates and Amma-daughter dates. The place has seen me grow. Seen us as a family grow. From the day we came to know that I had Short-sightedness (-1.00 at the age of 6 was a big deal ), me and my eyes have been a high priority issue in our household. Karyambadi hospital has seen our evolution from personal travels in school vans(because we couldnt afford to have a personal vehicle at that time) to Armada(not the personal vehicle in the conventional sense,since it pretty much served as a students pick up vehicle) to Innova( Armada story continues). Visits with Appa used to be different from the ones with Amma. With Appa came the TIME magazine and Appa talk about dreams,skills,passion,books,interests,people,life,movies. It took me a while to figure out the role those talks played in making the Me that I am now. Me and Appa would occasionally head to the canteen near the exit for a quick coffee and some cream Bun. I think my visits with Amma started after 1997,after Appa went to Saudi for the second time. Those visits saw the different side of our family. 1997-2002 was a rough time. With the entire school to handle,Class 10 affiliation, To Do or Not to Do the Class 12 expansion, daily school problems. The endless list of things. But that didn't come in the way of my eye check ups. Pulling me out of bed before she headed to school on Saturdays, with Subhashettan or Thomman Chettan or Thankanchal at the wheel, we never missed out on our eye check ups. She would be managing school things on the phone while sitting with me in the lobby. Amma had hooked me onto my books by then.The experiments with contact lens was during that period. The Santa Clausy Dr Mohan. The cornea infections. The photophobia. The upgradation from my Soda kuppi(soda bottles) to frameless glasses. The soda kuppi name stuck though. People from school identify me with the soda kuppi,while people whom I've met during the past 5 to 6 years hardly know the soda kuppi me,except a few close friends. From 2005, i was an annual visiting patient at Dr.Aggarwal Calicut . squeezing in doctor appointments between movie trips to Calicut city with friends became the yearly affair. Eye Care on Sm street and Prashanth uncle became my trusted eye glasses and contact lens partners. My most recent visit to the eye hospital with Amma was to Narayana Netralaya, Bangalore in 2012. Although I was still the clumsy daughter,Amma could relax with me now.
The lark 's on the wing;
The snail 's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven—
All 's right with the world!
The snail 's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven—
All 's right with the world!
-Robert Browning
This Soda kuppi no longer give the ophthalmologists a tough time by memorising the alphabets on the Eye Chart and repeating it without actually reading it. While looking through the examination device at the picture of the little white house with the red roof in the green green grassland, I feel completely at home. The wave of familiarity washes over me and I can't stop myself from smiling.
