An anecdote from the tooth decay experts diary

I had an appointment with a dentist today to start with a root canal treatment. After the preliminary testing to check if the nerve is alive or the tooth is dead, he asked if I was in pain. I replied in affirmative, but he wouldn’t believe me. He said no you don’t seem to understand what you feeling it is not pain, cause it is not possible that a patient won’t scream when a needle touches the nerve. I said I have had two root canals before and I didn’t scream on either instance. He hurried inside and after few long seconds of painful wonderment and holding back of tears he came back with a cylinder shaped ice and touched it to my tooth. I said there is sensation. To which he said your symptoms are not matching you don’t have pain but feel sensation with ice. Your teeth can either be dead or alive.

I should commend myself for having maintained my composure. I said I felt pain when you touched the needle, throbbing pain that made me cry but I did not. He still dismissed my claims to pain and said he will anyways give me anaesthesia before starting the root cleanup. Mild anaesthesia for me is like empty threats, never works on me. The needle touches the nerve again, I still don’t scream but motion him to stop. He now realizes that I am not faking an Oscar winning performance of resilience, he will never get that scream out of me and injects something directly into the tooth which gives instant relief.

I am not a masochist; I do not enjoy pain, physical or otherwise. But then I don’t scream, I usually don’t react that extremely. Accidents, distress, root canals, disasters by tailors and hair dressers, horror movies (these make my insides shiver, but my face manages a calm composure, I don’t know how) nothing has ever made me scream in horror. But sometimes I guess you got to scream to be taken seriously. Monday got an appointment with the doc again. Tomorrow is Sunday, it will be a good thing to spend the day practicing screaming, who knows the practice, someday, might bring me an Oscar.

It is more than three months since you have passed away. With the passing days I miss you more. There are times when I wish I should have been able to do something, to cure you, like a miracle maybe, so that you could still be around. I don’t know what is it that I want you to be around for, maybe to see me get married, play with my kids, be proud of my achievements. But you were always proud of me. I counted you among my blessings and you topped the list.

You were so unlike other fathers. You gave us those rare things that so many kids don’t get, trust, respect and freedom. We were always allowed to make our decisions, whom to befriend, what to study, how late to stay out at night. You never tried to live our lives. We never had to ask for permission to go to movies or a picnic or see a guy. Having you for a father I could never understand the restrictions other girls had to face.

You could be so naïve at times. During college when R would come to drop me home in the night, once you had asked me to ask him inside for tea. I had told you nobody is getting invited at 11.30 in the night for tea. That was your gesture, hospitality for someone who had brought your daughter back home safely. I can never forget that incident; everything was so simple and uncomplicated for you.

There is so much to do and so much to live for. Hope you will always be there with me.

Hum kis gulley jaa rahein hain, apna koi theekana nahi

Viyer wanted to know how Spiderman 3 is. Told her it is a Hollywood meet Bollywood kind of a movie. She said yeah she had read reviews, only thing missing was running around trees. No worries they are trying to rectify that in the next part.

They are looking for Bollywood-based directors. Talks are on with Himes Bhai (music composer turned singer turned actor might turn into director), but they are not too happy about his insistence on replacing Tobey Maguire and adding a cap to spidermans’ ensemble. So they had also considered YashRaj Banner, but a problem here too, they (YashRaj) insist on writing a part for Uday Chopra as a side-kick to Spiderman. They want 4 songs to be picturised on Uday, while spiderman will be fighting crime, who of course will not get any footage.

They also checked out Karan Johar who is all willing to be part of the spiderman family, after all he loves New York, but his only clause is he wants to cast Shahrukh Khan. All SRK will do is woo MJ and in the end after few profound dialogues and expressions will get the girl. KJ has some novel idea about a party song too, to be composed by Shankar, Ehsaan, and Loy of course, with guest appearance by AB Sr. and Jr., Kajol, Rani, Saif, John, er did I miss out anyone.

With Rakesh Roshan having already made his own Super hero movie, he is not interested. So they have kind of run out of options what with other directors making watchable movies.

RECIPE FOR BHEJA FRY

INGREDIENTS

1 Bheja of a regular, logical, hardworking employee
1 project specially created for frying Bhejas
Few stupid ideas of a brainless (see the irony) boss
Some silly suggestions by the same brainless boss
Irrelevant feedback by…………………………….

METHOD OF PREPARATION

1. Marinate the Bheja in the project for a day, for better results keep it air-conditioned at about 16 degrees.
2. Next day approx. after 24 hrs, check on the Bheja, it should be numb.
3. Saute the numb bheja in the few stupid ideas and let it simmer on low flame for hours.
4. When the bheja turns golden brown and is ready to explode add some silly suggestions and let it cook for some more time, this time on high flame.
5. If not satisfied with the rate at which the bheja is getting fried, keep adding silly suggestions.
6. When the bheja is completely fried––u can make out by the crackling sound––then turn the flame off and serve it garnished with irrelevant feedback.

I was standing at the bus stop.

From the house across the street, two very old and frayed people came out.
A man and a woman. Holding hands, the woman clinging to the man.
They made to cross the road, but held back for the bus to pass.
Then with hurried steps they crossed the street.
The woman started walking in my direction.
With hurried steps the man crossed to the other side and went back into the house.
It took me few seconds to realise.
The old man had come out just to see the old woman safe across the street.
How beautiful!