When it comes to Glaucoma, these hooligans are replaced by a more common rogue: our memory. Having to instil eye drops every day for years can be a little difficult for everyone. Not only do people forget, some of them do not respond to these drugs despite using them diligently.

The wild life presents an interesting variety… Some animals like the wolves hunt with a bang. They chase their prey viciously and kill instantly. There are others like the African Viper snake that hangs by its tail from trees utilising its green colour to resemble vines. It eyes its prey and stays there very silently and stealthily until it finally catches its prey unawares and makes a meal of it!

“What rubbish! It obviously sounds too good to be true.”, I sceptically told my neighbour, Mrs. Patil. I had become a sort of guardian angel to Mrs. Patil over the years. Every other day, she would excitedly come to me with some new offer or scheme and I would nonchalantly bring to her notice the loopholes that had fallen through the cracks. This time Mrs. Patil had come to me with a newspaper advertisement of an eye hospital. “For heaven’s sake!” I said, “How can you trust any Tom, Dick or Harry with your cataract?” And so, as usual, even though I had promised myself I would stop doing this, I found myself accompanying Mrs. Patil to this new eye hospital, she was going gaga about. I had wanted to get rid of my glasses since a long time, but I was sure that I would not be experimenting at a new place.

Arshiya was a big fan of Facebook. She spent hours on the computer liking, commenting and updating. But she was a bigger fan of something else, her baby girl Aasma. And so, Aasma soon achieved celebrity status at the age of 2 months when her mom enthusiastically uploaded pictures on Facebook every other day. Arshiya proudly beamed as her friends debated on whom her baby resembled more and gushed about how she was the prettiest baby they had ever seen.

“It’s my turn to give Nana her eye drops today!”, yelled Anthony, aged ten.

“No it’s my turn…” his five years old brother vehemently shot back!

Nana overheard her grandchildren bickering and braced herself as she prepared to get into the judge’s seat to sort out the ‘lawsuit’ that would soon be brought to her. She was pleasantly surprised when the kids did not turn up even after fifteen minutes. As she strained her ears to hear if they had stopped bickering, she overheard their peals of laughter. She smiled to herself and went back to her nap.

“We will need to get your babies’ eyes checked by a Paediatric Ophthalmologist.” Smita’s heart sank as soon as she was told this by her doctor. The last week had been one heck of a roller coaster ride. It all started with her Gynaecologist telling her that they would need to perform an emergency operation for her to have her baby prematurely. She had not even held her baby in her arms when it was whisked away to the NICU. Sometimes, the doctor gave her hopes when he said their baby was improving. At other times, she simply dreaded the doctor’s visits fearing they would tell her that her baby was no more.

“I know how it feels like, Chatterjee.”

“No Sharma, you would never know. You know how Shakespeare said: ‘Having nothing, nothing can he lose’? It’s the same with you. You would just never know.”

People were used to seeing the two silver haired men occupy the same bench every evening in the park. Sharing similar thoughts on almost everything from politics to sports, Sharma and Chatterjee seldom argued. But today Chatterjee was in a sullen mood.

Hi Ma! Oh, don’t pinch yourself; this really is your baby talking to you… I overheard how people were confusing you about my eyes and what I can see…
“I have heard that babies are as blind as a bat when they are born!”

“Did you know that babies see things upside down for a few months?”

“Oh no! I have heard that all a newborn can see is just shadows!”

Ma, you must be wondering what it is that I can actually see when you wiggle that shiny rattle at me. Here are the facts on what I actually do see…

GIFT OF SIGHT

"Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see."
-Helen Keller, famed deaf blind author.

We have many such Helen Kellers even today. There are more than 12 million blind people in India out of which about 4 million are corneally blind which means that their corneas are the cause of their blindness. The cornea is the transparent clear front surface of your eyes. It plays a major role in seeing by helping the light rays converge as they enter the eye.

“Yessss!” squealed 19 years old Surbhi as she hugged her mother with joy. Surbhi had long suffered from the agony of being called “double battery” and “specky” for as long as she had worn glasses. She had always dreamed of this day when she would be allowed to wear contact lenses and bid adieu to her spectacles forever.