Through the looking glass

Through the looking glass.
(With due apologies to Lewis Carrol)

A few weeks back, the inevitable happened. Something which I was trying to avoid all these days. The ophthalmologist declared me a Presbyopic!! And since I also couldn't read the vision chart hanging on his wall, I required glasses for distant vision too, he said! This meant wearing glasses all the time. I couldn't imagine myself with a pair of spectacles hanging from the bridge of my nose. Not that I fancy myself to be a Sharukh or Salmaan, but the thought of an appendage to my body gave me jitters.

And then began the process of choosing the right frame. What my wife liked was rejected by my daughter and vice versa. What I liked was unanimously rejected by them both. Finally we settled on a compromise frame which all 3 of us agreed looked reasonably decent on my face and made it more presentable than what it actually was.

A week passed by, I finally got my glasses from the optometrist and wore it for the first time. I got a feeling as if everyone was staring at me. I imagined mysef to be  like some extra terrestrial animal, a creature from Mars, perhaps. Then gradually as my eyes got accustomed to their new life companion, the world seemed to be a new place. Unlike ‘Alice’s looking glass’, objects and faces were brighter, sharper and clearer. I was now enjoying my new found vision. I didn't need to squint my eyes when reading the contents of medicine strip. I didn't have to hold the newspaper at an arm's length to make the words appear clear. I didn't have to wrinkle my forehead and massage my closed eyes when talking to patients. I was free from all these mannerisms which had unknowingly creeped in me over the past few months.

But over the next few days, I discovered a few hindrances of wearing glasses. The moment I stepped out my car during daytime, the glasses fogged and took some time to clear. It also happened when sipping piping hot tea or coffee. I had to open the umbrella even if it was drizzling lightly or else the water droplets on the glasses blurred my vision. Things which I had taken for granted were not the same any longer.

Weeks passed by. I realized that humans by nature as a very adaptable species and it applied to me too. It has been more than 3 weeks now since I wore my glasses for the first time. Reluctance has now given way to acceptance... and acceptance to dependence.

Driving the journey of life.

I love driving, especially long drives on roads I haven’t been on before.

A road journey is somewhat similar to the journey of life. Driving a car with steering wheel in the hand can be likened to living a life, trying to control the events, steering it in a direction of one’s choice. 
To quote William Henley from his poem Invictus, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. This is how I feel when I drive. My car becomes my fate. I can control it; I know where I am heading. I can accelerate and overtake, or decelerate and fall behind, watching others pass by. I can take risks or play safe. When the roads turn bad, I slow down, just as a bad patch in life holds one back. And we wait for the road to improve like we wait for the bad times to pass away and good ones to roll again. "This too shall pass away" I think and drive on towards my destination.
This quote by Norton Juster with a slight alteration sounds apt here, “The most important reason for driving from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and I took great pleasure in doing just that”
Of course just as it happens in life, things can get unpredictable, undesirable, hostile situations can crop up, circumstances beyond one’s control. It’s all about handling such situations and emerging out stronger, chastised and experienced. It not only about me and myself but observing others too, taking care not to get stepped on and not to step on. Once the journey is done and destination reached, I sit back, relax enjoy the present and reflect on the way driven. It's my game, my rules.
Nothing can epitomize the journey of our life more than a long drive to a destination. 

As Ernest Hemmingway wrote “It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it’s the journey that matters, in the end”.