The Hospital Adventure

I decided to prepone my visit to the ophthalmologist as my eyes were hurting a lot on Wednesday morning. I finished my shift at 6:30 in the morning and went to Agarwal Eye Hospital. I was pleased with the ambiance and the first thing that I noticed where two giant LCD TVs, one was telecasting an eye-surgery and the other was beaming NDTV.

I was asked to fill in a form and pay Rs. 300 as consultation fees. Then I was asked to wait, I dared not look at the eye-surgery being shown on TV as it created a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach and I decided to concentrate on the pretty lady on NDTV. By 8:15 I was called and I was subjected to some tests in front of a machine. Some notes were made and there were some sighs of "Ooh Oh.." by the trainee doctors. I was not amused, I was asked to wait and then called into another room, where I met the senior doctor Mr. Agarwal, he was a genial man and reminded me of Peter Sellers in "The Pink Panther."

Some more tests and I was handed a note and asked to meet another doctor. This time two women examined my eyes and then they put some sticker on my eyebrows and some liquid to dilate my pupils. The sticker hurt my eyes a lot and I had to endure the pain for ten minutes. Then the sticker was removed and a really strange thirty minutes followed with my eyes being tested by a plethora of instruments. Then I read some alphabets on a chart, with a series of different lenses being put on my eyes.

I realized that I was reading m as the number 2. Then I was given a prescription for spectacles and asked to go to the optician. There I was shown a variety of frames and lenses and I chose a stylish Aviator frame. The final bill for the glasses alone Rs 3050/-. Then some drops were put in my eyes and my eyes stung like hell and the procedure was repeated thrice in an hour. Finally I got up and my eyes felt really funny and I could not find out the time from my watch. The drops were supposed to do that and I would not be able to read anything at a short distance for a day.

I was prescribed some drops and an ointment, and they cost me Rs 375/-.

At the end after spending almost Rs 4,000 and a receipt to collect spectacles the next day, I left for home.

Guys you know the people call me Gandhi, with my semi bald look and the glasses, well that's a consolation.

Cheers folks.