20/15 vision

Oh yes it was that time of the year (and in my case that time which comes once in 7 years) and I had to finally schedule an appointment with the eye doc. So I chose yesterday. It was Tuesday, a nice day, a day after Monday.

I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Like I said it has been over 7 years since I went to the eye doc (the last time I went was for getting contact lenses affixed to my eyes, which is a long story that will have to wait for another day) and I was not sure what exactly lie in wait for me. I reached the doc's office well in time for my appointment and was told to wait. I waited for over an hour and in the process realized why people that visited a doc were called patients. We had to be patient and wait our turn. No point complaining about it. I finally got my turn and shuffled nervously into the doc's room. The doc looked cool enough while he reviewed my past reports and I managed a weak smile. He then proceeded to test me with a hundred different lenses one eye at a time. I realized that he no longer uses the alphabet and that I had to instead read out numbers. I guess this has something to do with the fact that with the alphabet he needs to have one set for each of the possible 50 odd languages that exist in India whereas the numbers, well the numbers are more or less universal.

After a long time switching lenses and trying to make me contradict myself, he finally chose a pair that seemed to have a particular liking for me. Relieved that the ordeal was finally over I managed to beam happily at him but that was shortlived. He announced that he would like to dilate my eyes and proceed to ring the bell for his assistant. The assistant came, shoved my head back and proceeded to squirt some liquid into my eyes. I was then told to wait. I then waited for about half an hour, most of which time was spent with my eyes closed (obviously because the liquid squirted into my eyes was hurting a lot) and some of which was spent looking at the world around me with liquid squirted eyes which made everything look pretty interesting.

Finally the doc called for me and proceeded to do something with a piece of equipment which basically was thrust into my face and which looked pretty empty but suddenly projected a three dimensional picture of a house at a distance. It then proceeded to take several photos of my eye which was surprised by the sudden apperance of a house. This was repeated with the other eye. Then the doc proceeded to tap away at his computer for some time while I sat twiddling my thumb.

After a period of contemplation he told me that I will need to change my glasses and that I was a victim of the Computer Vision Syndrome. Aha! I knew I was a victim of something. He then gave me a pamphlet on the syndrome. Well, simply put the "syndrome" was brought about by the fact that I was staring at a computer screen for long hours without blinking. He also advised me to use some eye drops at regular intervals to keep my eyes lubricated.

Thankful to get out of this in one piece, I left the place as jubilant as I could look with eyes that still had blurred vision due to the liquid being squirted into them.