April 13, 2010

To Chance On A Dream...

I sat on the dentist's examination chair staring at the wall ahead of me as if there were some sort of an imaginary television playing a blockbuster movie...but my ears were listening to the sounds of drills, chisels and other equipment that only a dentist's office could boast of...apart from a carpenter's, perhaps! A lady walked up to me with a large paper bib and clipped it on me as she prepped up both me and the equipment that my dentist would use to perform the procedure that I had been there for. I watched her manicured hands moving effortlessly all over the place as she placed all the tools in appropriate positions. She seemed to me to be in her late thirties. Neatly dressed, short curly hair that stayed perfectly sprayed in place, make-up so neat that you would know she spends time to take care of herself. She looked me in the eye, her soft hazel pupils telling me she had done this ever so many times before, and said, "I will take an X-ray now" as she pushed some weird looking thing into my mouth. In less than a moment she went out of the room and was back again and said in the same matter-of-fact tone she had earlier - "The doctor will see your X-ray and start the procedure" in a heavily accented voice - an accent that I still am unable to place. French, may be, considering her dressing sense and flawless figure. But, her words did seem slurry and incomprehensible in places so I really do not know. I acknowledged with a nod as she walked away.


The dentist walked in and started his work. I lay there staring now, at the roof, for a change, trying to count the number of squares the false ceiling had. The local anaesthesia and all the tools that found their way in and out of my mouth had me drooling without control. Only ...there was no food in sight. So, that moment my dentist said, "Suction"...and that lady who prepped me walked back in. She forced down the suction tube into my mouth and cleared up all the saliva to allow the dentist to work and walked away again. He dabbed and pounded and drilled. Again in a few moments, "Suction" and there she was, Ms. Hazel-eyes. This went on a couple of times and I decided to re-christen her from Ms. Hazel-eyes to Ms. Suction. Or was the earlier name better? I really could not help but think about her role in the doctor's office. Had she once dreamt that one day she would be summoned by the word, 'suction'? I imagined her as a child. A little girl with unruly locks, running green grasslands in her pastel pink frock in the beautiful spring mornings of Italy. Oh, sorry France. Ah, wherever!


But, you get what I am saying? There should have been some moment in her life when she stumbled on something that she would want to crave to doing all her life. And today, from the look of it, she seemed very happy with what she was doing. I portrayed her in a different light, so you and me would see her as doing something so uneventful. But for her, she was an accomplished nurse at a dentist's office, who knew what to do and more importantly when to do it. She would have at some time in her life chanced on this dream that she would be a nurse and she achieved it. And, when I began to see her at every subsequent appointment my respect for her grew more and more.


I believe it is the same with all of us. We come across this one moment in our life when we know what we have to do and we dream about becoming 'someone'. Some of us grab on to those clues life throws at us and go all out to reach our goals ...while some of us get a wee bit unlucky and miss out on them. But there is always a moment in every persons life when you know what you want... the moment you chance on a dream!

13 comments:

Veena said...

Lovely writing Deepti! And so true. I definitely needed some motivation now.

Deepti Pawar said...

Thank you , Veena! You have chanced on your dream...and you are well on your way to achieving it, too!

sneh said...

Good one Deepti. Love reading your blogs.

Deepti Pawar said...

Thank you, Neha! I love writing for avid readers like you.

Tj said...

So very true... nicely written deepti :)

Deepti Pawar said...

Thanks Tj!!

Sreedevi Menon said...

Enjoyed reading your post Deepthi! Keep them coming.Just got my dentist appointment done last week, and honestly I never look forward to them.

You are right.It's a pain staring at those 'false ceilings'.

Padhu Sankar said...

Enjoyed reading your post Deepti. Well written

Haddock said...

Ha ha like that ......Ms Suction

Sunitha said...

I do wish everyone knew what they want in life. :) Nice post

shruthi said...

Wow...deepti..i'm completely speechless... so well written...!

kudos girl,
shruthi

RV said...

Great post Deepti. I visit dentist very often and completely adore the nurse who works there. btw, still a dentist visit is unpleasant and those little gadgets scare me to death.

Deepti Pawar said...

Thank you for all the compliments on the writing. I hope to keep you engrossed even more now on!