A Spectacle Story

 

One of the things that Neeti dreaded were spectacles. Ironically, she preferred Pa with his glasses on, he looked very handsome that way. Mummy was always pretty, glasses or not. She had seen Mummy and Pa with spectacles since the time she had learnt to recognize them. But she prayed to never have to wear one herself. At least not till the time she was in school. 

 

Children with spectacles was not a very common sight in the 90s. But if a child had to put on one, it was a big deal. More for the neighbours, relatives and those around than for the child and her parents!

 

“That’s why I have not got a cable connection at home. I don’t want my kids to pop their eyes out”

 

“She must be a very studious child that her eyes are strained so much already”

 

“Her mother did not feed her enough carrots and coriander it seems. Otherwise, who gets vision issues at such a young age!”

 

The analysis was simply endless.

 

Mummy and Pa took Neeti and Drishti for an eye check up every six months. Their ophthalmologist, Dr. Nair, had already prepared them to not be shocked to discover that one or both their girls have myopia. It was very likely to be a part of their genes. Neeti always felt nauseous before that visit. Last year, she had memorized the Snellen Chart at the clinic. 

 

“Even if there is something wrong with my eyes, Nair uncle will never come to know if I blurt out the letters confidently”, she assured herself when they visited the clinic during her fourth standard summer holidays.

 

As usual, Drishti did not go first.

 

“Let Didi wear that weird thing first”, she threw her regular tantrum on seeing the trial frame.

 

Neeti never fought it. Drishti had some kind of veto power in getting to decide who goes first, for anything and everything. Somehow the decision always changed according to the situation! 

 

She sat on the chair quietly, with a nervous train of thought running through her mind -

 

“Sushila Miss’s handwriting is too small. No wonder everybody in my class has to walk up to the blackboard to copy down what she has written. So it’s not just me.”

 

“Those billboards on the way to school are clear enough when I squint a little. That should be normal, I guess”

 

Her self-assurance talk was interrupted by Nair uncle, “Neeti, read the last line beta”

 

Alas! She could not see a single letter in the last row. Maybe she was too anxious or had forgotten what she had memorized last year or SHE REALLY NEEDED GLASSES!

 

She cried, but not aloud. She never did that. She did not want to bother Mummy and Pa, who she knew would have been already a little worried by now. Their darling also had to to reach out for that aid on the bedside like them, the first thing when she woke up.

 

“Let’s buy you a nice frame of your choice”, Pa tried to cheer her up. “Let us start some eye exercises as uncle said and I am sure you will not need glasses for long”, Pa assured her, rather himself. Even though he knew that would not happen.

 

“I have heard about some strong ones that do not break even if they fall off while you are playing”, Mummy assured.

 

Of course, none of these excited her. She was already worried about her classmates’ reactions when the school reopened.

 

“Huuuuuh!! Neeti, what happened? You look so weird with spectacles”

 

“Studious Neeti! You are anyway every teacher’s favourite. Now they will like you even more! Hah!”

 

“Neeti, you can choose not to play during the PT period with us. Your glasses might break”

"BATTERY! CHASHMISH! BOOKWORM!", some mean girls in class already bothered the only girl with specatacles,Smriti, in Neeti's class. At least till fourth grade.

 

“I am not confident to put them on! What if they slip off while I am cycling or running!”, she sadly said to herself.

 

Her imagination was endless. Some of it turned out to be true, some of it not. Not that it did not make her sad initially, but she got used to random pieces of advice and mockery by uncles and aunties and some notorious bully kids in the neighbourhood. After a few years, Drishti joined her too at the spectacles shop. But Neeti would try to stand up against anybody who said the same mean things to her sister.

 

Months passed and then years. Neeti grew and so did the diopters on the prescription after every visit to Dr Nair. Neeti’s glasses became an inseparable part of her. Obviously, because she could not see clearly without them. But still she started loving them. People somehow perceived her as very studious and sincere, which in reality she actually was. 

 

After her teenage years, even that did not matter! Now it was a part of her personality. Something she took care of, something she always chose carefully to match her style. She did have a brief stint with contact lenses for occasions when she felt like not wearing an aid, at least with a lehenga or a party dress.

 

By 30s, even that was not required. She stopped caring less about what others said and more about what she was comfortable with. After having kids, she did get LASIK done. More for convenience rather than for looks. She still dons her glasses often, even though she does not need them any longer!

 

“Hey, why do you still have them. You should get rid of them now”, commented a friend.

 

“I feel more confident when I have them on! It’s still a part of the image I have of myself”, Neeti chuckled while reaching out for her zero power glasses hung on her shirt.