Yen kannadi kathai..

I started wearing glasses in my 3rd grade...I still remember that day..being a kid..it was like a dream come true........aha...I can have my own glasses to wear everyday....I dressed up very nice in my pink frock, and we left in my dad's yezdi to the store. The store is in rajaveethi, opp. to St. Michael's school. I remember the place I stood when I tried my glasses....and every single thing I did that day...I still peep into that building whenever I travel through that street. Right now, there is Tamilnadu merchantile bank in the next door of that kannadi kadai .........

I was in bliss, when I went to school, hey, I am wearing glasses....Everyone in my class looked at me different, obviously as I carried a big fat glass in my face and looked totally different than I looked the previous day...I thought my fellow classmates are jealous of me.....I felt very great of my glasses and carried them with pride.

.......and I think thats the last time I felt proud about it...

When I grew up......I hated my glasses

1. Everyone addressed me as 'athanpa valathiya kannadi potrukumae athaan"........."spex potrukumae antha ponnu".....
2. I unknowingly turned when anyone called 'kannadi'
3. I compared each and everyone's glasses with mine to see which looks thinner.
4. My kannadi covered up most of my face in all the school pictures
5. The frame and glasses were so heavy that when I removed them, I feel some part is missing in my body
6. I felt very good when talking to people with kannadi, and felt jealous over other girls who can show all their cheek
7. My eyes went deeper and deeper
8. All school dramas would get me a teacher role and nothing else...........( I played as a teacher in 9th grade and headmistress in 10th grade.......)
9. ....intha maathiri aayiram kaaranam............I hate my kannadi.

Finally.............I managed to convince my dad and buy those contact lenses....Holy crap! 2000rs for that pair (1995)........however I was immensely happy...

aha....kannadi kathai mudinchuruchu............I throwed the glasses and started caring for my contact lenses, not knowing that my kannadi kathai wont stop there.....

• I met this guy in a tuition center with my friend, who happened to be my friends friend.......we talked for such a long time........we even met after few times while we were wandering down the gandhipuram streets....(namma oorla athana downtown...:-)........And when I met him in my 11th grade in the new school.............he talked to me as if he is meeting me for the first time..........I am like....." hey! we met in that tuition center...u remember.......inga...anga....uhmm...nothing worked........theriyavae theriyaathunnu sollitaan..............ellarum ennai vinodhama paakaraanga.......I felt like crying...

Next day, he said, he sat down in the night to think why I behaved so different (?!...adacha! loosu-nnu nenachutaan pola).........then he realised that the girl he knows is me with glasses......Yes, I changed contacts in those holidays ..........and this caused all the confusions...

He even mentioned his apology in his autograph notebook.........but whomever thought that I behaved crazy the other day may still think I am ..............

• I could not stop the habit of turning arond when someone calls kannadi. cha! naamathaa ippo kannadi podaliyae...ippavum yean kannadi-nnu kooparaanga.........slowly realised, that not everytime people called me........there had been occasions when people referred to the seeing mirror or similar stuff and I've been hurting myself thinking its all about me..
• I still need glasses in the evenings, as those contacts wont stay in my eyes for more than 8hours...(these days they have breathing ones with tiny holes in it)
• Travelling in bus or train is a tragedy, as it takes more than 8hours and there is no break to change to glasses...
• Riding a scooter is not easy....and may need some extra glasses (Oh! glasses again)..
• The deep eyes which was created and covered by the glasses now show me up like below poverty line
• I cannot wear glasses only during lecture like my other friends do, as I had 3pts in power
• Now, I've to pack both my contacts and glasses during travel...
• ............and for much more reasons............kannadi stayed with me forever....and like a old friend...it denied to leave me..

Much to my relief, I did LASIK in 2001. Though the experience would be another story, it was worth all that............Cool ! I paid 30,000rs to get rid of my old friend, the manbumigu kannadi

The doctor said, I've to wear those black glasses for two days to escape the sunlight....and I weared those kuruttu kannadi for the first few days..........then had to wear glasses for atleast a month to stay away from dust....innum oru maasam en kannadikku goodbye!

When I got back to US, I had to travel to school morning and evening facing the sun .......and you guessed right !....I've to wear sunglasses.....

Then I got a job, which company located facing opp. to the sun, and so I dont have to wear sunglasses while driving back and forth to work..

Oh ! btw, Did I tell you that this company manufactures excimer lasers, which include that 193nm , which is used for Lasik.........and yes, I've to wear kannadi, for most part in my lab...or I will burn my tissue and may need another kannadi for the rest of my life......

Incident happened during 1986-present