Look up,
they say! Be optimistic, they say! Think positive, they also say! But what
happens when this” looking up” makes you come down a cropper? Does every cloud,
however dark, hide a silver lining?
Recently I
was literally following this “look up” maxim to the “T”. Deciding to give in to
the cajoling of the head of the house (HOH) , i.e. husband dear and darling
daughter(DD), I ventured out for a brisk
evening walk with them. I had donned my walking shoes, put on my headphones,
and sailed forth at an energetic pace. It was getting dark but I was determined
to enjoy my walk! The HOH and DD quickly outpaced me and, bent upon enjoying my
walk, I too continued, chin up, making the most of my walk, in tune with the
latest music.
One round of the rugby ground’s periphery was
over and I was blithely one-fourth way of the second round when I suddenly
stumbled-stars danced before my eyes, my spectacles flew and my front teeth met the uneven gravel path
with a sickening crash! I had literally come a cropper and lay splayed flat,
face down, on the walkway!!
Some
intuition made my DD turn back suddenly to sense something amiss. It was pretty
dark by this time but some sixth sense must have made her turn around just
then. She rushed to help me but I brusquely asked her not to touch me. My front
teeth had borne the brunt of the fall and felt completely and strangely numb
around my mouth – numbness so profound that it seemed that my teeth had been
knocked out with the impact, or got fused into my nose. The sensation was
horrible. All the other bruises which I may have got did not seem so important
but I did want to make sure that I had not broken any bones – my knees, or my
elbows.
I gingerly
balanced myself on my palms and knees and held the sidewalk boundary stones to haul
myself up. DD retrieved and put back my specs on my nose and immediately rang
up the HOH who was striding far ahead. He came rushing back and took in the
awful sight of rivulets of blood flowing down my gums and lips. By this time I
was pretty sure that though my bones elsewhere were intact, all my front teeth
had gone – I couldn’t feel them at all!
What was to
be done at this time of 8 pm? The nearest hospital, Fortis, referred us to Max
hospital which was pretty far, so my husband immediately drove us to the
emergency ward of the Army hospital dental Centre. En route, DD rushed home to
get my essentials plus lots of ice cubes to soothe my injury. Throughout the
entire drive to the hospital the three of us looked aghast at this sudden and
unexpected turn of events.
Face still
numb, I placed myself in the dental patient’s chair, waiting with bated breath.
What would they do? Remove all the four front teeth from a face which God had
already made in somewhat of a hurry? My nose had been further flattened and the
furrow between the nose and upper lip had disappeared. I was now looking like a
true disciple of Shree Hanuman (by the way, it was a Tuesday too).
The doctor, (bless
him), tried to shake the affected teeth to check their mobility. With bated
breath, we waited for his verdict. He pronounced that there was a crack in the
root of one of the incisors. The rest were okay (Yippee!) but would require a
splint and a wait of six weeks when a Root Canal would be done. I’ll let you
into a secret-one of my upper incisors had always jutted out slightly, giving
me a Bugs Bunny look from a certain angle when I smiled. That tooth had
automatically aligned with the rest to give me a perfect smile! A cosmetic
procedure had been granted by circumstances, suddenly, with some pain.
My fingers
are crossed, waiting for the 6 weeks period to be over so that the splints can
be removed and I can dazzle the world with my perfect smile. This cloud
certainly had a lovely and unexpected silver lining so I’d advise everyone to
look up – you never know what good things are in store.
The Gulmohar, which in some months will be a riot of Orange is bursting forth small tendrils of its new foliage from branches which the sunless bleak winter had laid bare.
