Boothnath, Ria and me

I was watching this very sweet Sunday kid's movie with Ria - Boothnath. We were seeing it together for the third time.... Its about a grandpa ghost, Amitabh Bachan, trying to save his home which used to be the centre of happiness till his son walked out, angry at his adamant father. The grandpa ghost tries to scare a little boy who comes to live there with his mother but eventually befriends the little rascal who alone could see Boothnath, the spirit that had been haunting that house for the past decade or so. Well, talking to spirits is not quite acceptable in normal parlance and time would have it that Boothnath had to leave... Now the real son had to do the last rites for Boothnath's salvation... But that son was angry to the core as his father would not forgive him and he could never forgive his father!

Now now, let me get to the end of it all than run the entire movie here...

There is this very deep statement that Sharukh Khan, who enacts the role of the little rascal's dad, says to Boothnath's son who is waiting to sell the bunglow and erase all trace of his now dead father... Kabhi kabhi kuch kaam adhoora reh jaata hai... Sometimes some things remain incomplete, he says leaving it to us to understand what he leaves unsaid and his pleading eyes convey... that all of us would, sooner or later, repent when we have not done what we really could....

It was this profusely loaded statement that brings the son back to the pooja arranged for his father's atma's mukti or salvation by people who was in no way related to them other than the genuine bonding between the little boy and the grandpa ghost. As the music in that part of the movie expressed, alas its all too late! Neither could the son see his now dead dad nor could the father console the now grieving and repenting son...A tearful prayer eventually frees the soul...

Just look at that emotion...anger... Passed down from father to son....A peircing emotion that kept two souls away from each other not just for a few years... but forever!

Each time I look back from this movie, it pricks me hard. I had this emotion playing villain in my life several times. What I silenlty learnt, as the tears ran down my cheek and I saw my Ria sobbing just like me, is that children feel in the absolute same way as we do. Why, we were once children, weren't we? We never liked to be shouted at. Then what right do we have to shout at them, leave alone boss them, demand from them?

Im sure you will agree with me that we all live just once. As a child, a mother, a sister, a brother, a friend, a lover, a winner, a loser, a nobody or just somebody. But we live.... Oops! Am I confusing?

Back from Dr Sunil's Eye World

Ria is extremely happy now that her eyes are clear and she is  ready for school. Dr Sunil has prescribed only two eye drops for the wee bit of redness to leave her eyes.

We were advised to go in for the eye correction during the summer vacations as it would give Ria more time to relax and refresh her eye. The sequence therefore was school closing on 31 March, Surgery on 8th April and now all set for a new academic year after a neat month and a half!

Ria's case was not as complicated as the many cases Dr Sunil showed us from his research album. It was interesting that he made a collection of the pre and post conditions of most of his patients in image formats. He explained why the eyes were behaving in peculiar fashions and the different remedies too. Educated and trained with Gold Medals at Mumbai University and further at Glasgow, UK and Cambridge, Dr Sunil was the first surgeon to perform a live demonstration of no-injection key hole cataract surgery here in Kerala in 1999. A thorough learner and a good teacher, he has started an academy for optometry that provides various Diploma Courses recognized by the NCVTE.

His passion for teaching is evident in the way he explains everything in detail. The precision care recommended for eyes and everything to do about it, is palpable when he explains.We would have one more review post two weeks of school,  as Dr Sunil would like to see how Ria's eyes are accomodating to long distance attention to blackboards.

After the four weeks rest with minimum TV, no books and no extreme lights, Ria's eyes are better now. She can now happily play on my mobile while I drive her up and down to all her happy destinations. One of which we are just back from; Dr Sunil's EyeWorld, Making vision Perfect.

Ria's sun-glasses

When Ria, my nine year old was just six months, we spotted that her eyes were squinting. Both of them, like black marbles in a white pool of jelly. I noticed them particularly when she looked up as she drank from me.

We first thought all kids' eyes were like wobbly jelly. Soon we realized that No its kind of not okay. Consulting the doctor he confirmed that she was definitely squinting in both eyes and we would have to wait longer for her to respond to digital vision tests. All the doctor could do was peer into her eyes with hand held devices while she squirmed in my arms, all of just 2 or 3 kilos at six months.

Ria was terribly underweight. Her premature arrival into this world could have been one of the reasons for her eye muscles to have weekend whilst she came out of me naturally, in a hurry to be more precise.

However, she picked up like a normal kid soon and when she turned three we took a chance on ayurveda for strenghthening her muscles as all others advised correction surgery which we were not ready for on such a tiny soul.

The three week courses every six months at Sreedhareeyam, an eye research institute at Koothattukalam in Kerala, was very effective. The right one turned almost normal and the left one seemed to be cooperating too.

Now, at nine, we took her to Dr Sunil's Eye World in Kalamasserry, Ernakulam for her correction surgery. In less than an hour on the 9th of April, she was gifted with a normally oriented left eye. "Thanks for fixing my eyes," she told the doctor and team that worked on her as they tapped her back to consciousness.

A fortnight more, the sutures in her eye would be gone and the redness in her eye would leave too. Ria is recouping from her surgery behind a pair of smart pink rimmed sun glasses and three different eye drops and her dear friend Arya who drops in to chat and read for her every once in a while.

What she liked best was the funny machines and the green gowned people in the operation theatre and the lights around her till she dozed off and forgot all about it. She didn't like the pricking of her tiny arms for intra-venus support and no she didnt like them clipping of her long eye lashes.

A book worm that Ria is, she will have to give reading a short break. She can however watch TV from a safe distance. She can eat, drink and be merry too, everything under the protection of her smart pink rimmed sun glasses to keep away dust and harsh lights.

After the next two months of summer holidays, my little princess would be sporting a fine new look to school and life. Good luck to my little princess!