Teeth Trouble - Part 1

I am having tooth ache since last night. Thinking back, during college days, I was wearing braces for 2 years but to no avail. You will know why as you read through the post.

A normal human being is expected to posses 32 teeth (or is it?). But I was blessed with 40 (or more!!!). My father used to say, "God has opened your mouth and has thrown a handful of teeth inside". The fact is that, he was not exaggerating. I used to have that many teeth!

I once threatened our house maid at night with my teeth and that was the last day that she came to our house. She didn't even bother to collect the balance 15 day’s salary that we had to pay her.

As I grew older, and joined engineering college, I got to see girls dressing fashionably, waxing their hands and legs and wearing make-up. Something struck me and I decided to get rid of my extra teeth.

I called up my dad and informed him of my desire. It was those good old days when we had to wait in a queue and call our parents from the telephone booth inside our hostel. There were few of them and the STD rates would be less after 9 at night. We will start queueing up outside the booth from 8 and wait for our turn. When I speak to my dad, I will spend less as the conversation would be short and crisp. But when my mom speaks, I will have to write the balance and pay the booth guy the next day.

So coming to the point, my dad was instantly ok with my proposal to get my teeth right (He had the biggest responsibility of finding me a guy, you see!) and came down to Chennai to take me to a dentist near Saidapet (For those who do not know places in Chennai, it was around 15 Kms from my college hostel).

The dentist was so sweet and had a bunch of students who were working under him. He examined my teeth and came to a conclusion that at the beginning he will have to pull out some teeth (Obviously!) and then put on braces and that it will be alright in 1 year. He also suggested a surgery for my jaws but my dad wasn't so keen so we didn't bother much about it. The whole process would cost 10000 bucks. Thinking of my future and considering the amount he has to spend for my marriage if I don't get my teeth corrected, my dad accepted. Then started the Ramayan. I had to pull out 8 teeth, one in a week. My dad was travelling all the way from my home town for taking me to the dentist every week. I told him not to come every week and I will manage myself.

After that, my roomie, let’s call her B, took me to the dentist. We used to go and come by train. My dad insisted on someone accompanying me. One such weekend, when we were coming back, I fainted in the train and she had to wake me up by sprinkling water on my face...

As the blog is getting too long, I will continue in Part 2.

Do drop in your comments!