85 - ALL THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH.

A very quiet area, where only a few parked cars are the visible statements that people are around somewhere.  The traffic on the road is prolific of course.  And then I enter the Bombay City Eye Institute, and step into a very busy setup.

Luckily I have visited during the 'economy' time, so I will pay a subsidized fee, for my check up.  Everybody looks calm and relaxed.  Patients of all age groups are sitting on the seating along the walls,  tiny cabins have neat eye checkup machines, doctors donning a white coat are attending to individual patients in each of the small cubicles, and helpers in blue uniform are calling out names of persons who have to follow them to a particular point,  for a particular checkup.

I register myself.  Looking for an unoccupied seat, I walk around and note the labels on the cubicles.  There are eight rooms , then four more in a long corridor and the corridor parallel is the operation area, where footwear has been removed before entering.  Optometry, sonography, retina and uvea, perimetry and YAG laser, cornea and contact lenses, lensex OT, lasik OT, etc are the labels I noted down while waiting for my turn to be checked up.  All along the walls and the narrow corridors, seating has been provided, on which there were almost fifty persons in the various benches and chairs provided.  As a patient was called to any of the checkup cubicles, any standing person would quickly sit on the unoccupied place.  This 'musical chairs' game amused me and I too had to participate in it.

As I waited on a chair near a cubicle, I could hear the doctor's interaction with the patient.  'How much time do you spend on the PC?'  seemed to be the first question for every patient that entered.  But if she would ask 'How much time do you spend on the mobile screen?'  it would elicit a more popular response.  Anyway, I involuntarily became privy to the conversation as I waited.  The person worked on the PC from ten a.m.  to seven p.m.   The advice was 'Blink more often, do not stare at the PC for more than an hour, focus onto something at a different distance for two minutes'.   Advice that I too am grateful for.

Mine was a routine checkup advised by my diabetologist.  As I was called into the different cubicles, to check the lens, my spectacles, eye pressure, vision, the cornea, the retina,  etc, the common instructions were 'please put your chin on the support and rest your forehead onto the band'.  The reading room where the lenses are checked onto each person's eyes for near and far sightedness, had a screen which showed the alphabet as inverted mirror images, which were reflected onto a facing mirror, to be read.  I was enlightened about this,  that this creates twice the distance between the patient and the image display,  as the tiny cubicles do not have the length needed for correct diagnosis.  So now I am a bit wiser for having asked the reason for the mirrors.

Between tests, I had to walk around to find the unoccupied chair in the musical chairs' game, and I noted the displays about 'blade and bladeless cataract surgery',  the Hermann Grid by Ludimar Hermann that displayed lateral inhibition in 1870,  and another display titled 'turning the tables' illusion by Roger Shepard that displayed 'spatial relations'.  I found that information very interesting.

One family with two girls, approximately seven and ten, were discussing how the school teacher would now have to give them the front bench, all the better to see the blackboard with, after the opthalmologist's  opinion and diagnosis.  One mother has brought a very small six month old baby for a checkup.  Another middle aged couple, where the husband was the patient, and had bandages on both his feet, intrigued my curiosity, and while playing the musical chairs game, we exchanged smiles and I ventured to ask how he had injured his feet.  Being a diabetic, the nerves in the legs had to be stimulated with a warm water soak daily, and by default, he soaked his feet into just boiled water, without realizing, until the damage was done. 

It is not easy to share intimate stories with strangers, and I am grateful to anyone who enlightens me about their personal experiences, so that I can be aware and better informed of such dangers.

As I am guided to the outgoing desk to collect my report, I spot two boards on the wall of the hospital.  One has a list of   'donors'  and the other, of   'advisories', and I recognised only the last name, that of Shiamak Davar.  The least likely person that I would have expected to find in the Bombay Eye Institute and Research Centre.  

46 - FIELD TRIPS

Every school has to arrange for the students to participate in a field trip, at least once a year.  Some schools do it every month, but most just manage the 'once a year' mandatory responsibility.

Not so long ago,  our school picnics or 'field trips' were to "the Governor's Beach", at Walkeshwar, the Vihar lake with its Laurel and Hardy, and Humpty Dumpty statues, the Hanging Garden with its 'Old Lady's Shoe', the traffic garden, the Museum, the zoo, the nature park at Mahim,  and the aquarium. These trips were undertaken only in the supervision of the school teachers.  Students carried their own snacks and shared the food with each other at the picnic spot.  Teachers organised games and gave away prizes to the winners. 

 Then in the late 1999s,  school trips were taken to the Silent Hill resort, the Snake park at Pune, the Lonavla wax museum and to grand amusement parks like Essel World, Tikujini Wadi, Fantasy land, Great Escape resort,   and Imagica at Karjat.  At these spots, the professional groups would supervise the children, with teachers as part of the group.  The students were served a packed breakfast on the bus on the way to the spot.  Lunch would be professionally managed and served by the park management.  The students would enjoy rides or the water park facilities at the amusement parks.

The latest field trip craze is now Kidzania.  It is a kids'  city, built on the second floor of a mall, the R city mall at Ghatkopar.  My school had just arranged a field trip to Kidzania and I am now recalling my experiences to the mall and at the spot.

The buses ferried us to Ghatkopar, across five flyovers and a very bumpy road with potholes galore.  A ride that lasted 50 minutes, fortunately with no traffic jams.   The Panvel flyover was the worst of the lot.  With this bad state of Mumbai roads, we need to travel in some sort of space vehicle, that would ensure smooth transport like they enjoy on the moon's cratered surface.  The flyovers have been enclosed with  perforated partitions that act as sound barriers for local residents, about ten feet tall in some places, making the drive across the flyovers, claustrophobic and boring, with no view of the scenery on either side of the road. 

But in the places that the view was open to be seen, it was a mixed feeling. The view of the defunct Mill grounds at Parel, where so many rapes have been reported, has a spooky aura even in broad daylight.   Mostly tall skyscrapers are visible, or the roofs of low lying homes or slums.  Most of the multi storeyed buildings had balconies with barred or grilled facades, that looked like jails.  Washed clothes were hanging across balconies and windows, as though specially arranged for passers-by to view.  The slums were smothered in large blue plastic sheets, weighted down with stones and tires, as a precaution by the inmates to block out the unseasonal rains.  The tops of the roofs, that were visible, intermittent among floors of old building, were very littered and dirty.  The top floors had obviously thrown trash onto the overhanging shades of lower floors, creating a very sullied scenery for people driving along the higher level roads.  Chembur and Cheda Nagar slums were an unbelievably congested human abode.  Open defecation was being done in full public view,  and two nallas were stinking grossly, as our bus passed by them. 

A few appealing views were also seen.  A large clean payground, with youngsters enjoying football was a welcome sight.  Wherever the roads were lined with huge trees, peepal, neem, rubber, clean and green and so refreshing to the eyes.  As our bus approached Ghatkopar west, long lines of richshaws were visible, aeroplanes could be seen closer to the ground as they were landing nearby,  and one very pretty and well maintained nursery with colourful pots and flowers,  and then the bus depot and lastly our destination.

Each student was made to wear a tracker and given 50 kidzoes, a currency that lets students participate in various activites like making doughnuts, making coke, chocos, Parle biscuits, etc,.  Each glass doored room is an activity centre, run by top brands that have been roped in by Kidzania.  Adults are allowed to view the activities through the glass doors only.

The entire set up, helps students to perform tasks, earn money, then spend it  to participate in enriching educational activities.  There is a dentistry with a proper rubber model and equipment to perform tasks on the model's teeth.  Students can learn dance at the Shiamak academy and perform in the small but well equipped auditorium.  Every activity is a real life programme. A newspaper can edited and printed, all by the students and the Times of India brand.  Yes bank lets students credit the kidzoes in their official account, with a proper credit card too.  Lunch is also served within the premises.  The entire enclosure has an artificial sky, two large plastic trees and is air cooled.

As we teachers waited around while the students participated in the activities on offer, we reminisced about the simple games that we grew up with, which kids nowadays have no clue how to play.  We recalled the fervour with which we used to play, seven tiles, mud and water, marbles, hopscotch, tippry, L-O-N-D-O-N and rounders.  One teacher narrated how she would not be included in her brother's kite flying sessions and would be satisfied with flying a plastic bag.

During the return trip, through the bus window,  large advertisements were visible along the road.  Just before the ITC grand central hotel,  the road is dotted with factory outlets of shoe and bag brands like Nike, Delsey, American Tourister, etc.  As our bus reached Byculla, the majestic clock tower of the Zoo was a soothing sight.  And this reminded me about the new inmates, the penguins.  I wonder if they are in good health, as nothing has been posted on the news recently, about their status.  Soon the tall spires of Gloria Church rose into view, marred with shattered windows, covered with yellow and blue plastic sheets,  with repairs underway. 

The other side of this flyover, offers a view of the Byculla market, where a very large garbage disposal area is visible, public toilets come into view and then the tops of the roofs that shade the wholesale market area.  A very pathetic sight for so many vehicles that drive past daily.  I suggest that the municipality of this area beautifies the roof tops in some way.  Either by growing a lovely lawn across them, or painting some socially relevant message all over, to beautify the view.  Because, every journey undertaken is not only for reaching the destination, but also to be enjoyed along the way.