It was beautiful sunny day and I was lounging leisurely on the settee while talking this and that with my mother. Suddenly she exclaimed very excitedly:
“Oh yes Rabia I remember yesterday while reading the news paper I read this news which said that scientists have discovered after ten or twelve years of research that people with teeth problems tend to have memory problems.” She stopped for a second and then continued: “I don’t exactly remember it but yes it was something like this.” She delivered this news which as much cheek as it gave me a sudden attack of the blues.
“But Amma that’s terrible! You know how my gums bleed all the time and how my teeth have become weak…Oh no I’ll have Alzheimer with time” I whinnied and was most distressed…and when my Mother asked me right after that what I had thought about that fabric she had showed me the other day, I instantly replied:
“I wouldn’t remember, I have problematic teeth!”
I had prided myself in having the best, strongest and the healthiest teeth in the family. Ones that you crunched the walnut shells with until I grew into a young lady and gave upon my milk consumption and proteins etc. To top it all, I have a maddening craze for those super white, Colgate Ad teeth…I have a fear of giving a yellow or even the off white smile but unfortunately my bones are not really milky white. So I took it upon myself to defy the law of nature and brush my teeth with such ferocity as someone rubbing off some nasty stain from clothes with no Surf Excel at his disposal. My poor teeth couldn’t stand such show of efficiency and temper and eventually my gums have become too soft, they bleed at the slightest excuse. Now I use a brush used by little kids, with small, soft tendrils and even a dragon tail!
As I recounted these facts, I was reminded of my bouts of absentmindedness:
- I go open the fridge door and stand staring at its contents trying to think that what in the God’s name had I come to fetch. A good second or two lapse before the real reason comes limping to my brain and I grab an apple, or coke bottle or whatever it is I had come for. Imagine how many mips a mere silicon processor has done with before I carry out mine one.
- Sometimes I completely forget why I went someplace that I did, I go in the kitchen get a deep cool drink of water and come back settle myself comfortably on the sofa when suddenly at the exact same time I find the most perfect position to sit, someone’s voice rings out loud and clear: “Rabia ” or “Baji” “I asked for water?” God help me. Or at other times which is much more painful is that I go up to my room, splash my face with cold water, pick a comic or something and then come back down but as I step on the last step, my mom instantly reminds me that I was supposed to fetch her something or else from upstairs….aarghhhhh!
- At another instant I remember once sitting in the car and after putting the gear into Drive, I picked up my foot from the brake…but to no avail, the car didn’t even purr let alone start moving. I looked at Lubz and she at me, we were already late to reach the hotel as it was and now the car was giving us trouble? And then my brother who had gotten off at that point after driving us thus far came around and said, with a catch in his voice: “Baji…gaari chalanay kay liyay chabi bhi tou ghumani hoti hai na!” huh?…but not to undermine myself I did drive myself safely back home that night
- Also the worst condition is when I look and look, long and hard at a question in a quiz or an exam and I, for the life of me cannot recall what the answer to it is even though I had clearly fed it into my mind’s database. Very, very sadly at the most crucial of times somehow the pointer to my dynamic linked list is set to null at runtime…a fatal error, debugging requires a lot of time and time is what I don’t have
And all along I had thought this all happened because I was a notch too careless at times, lost in my own world and probably because I don’t take the vital vitamins and iron required by the growing, young people but no…. never had I thought that all my forgetfulness, sudden flashes of lucidity and then the fog of uncertainty are the result of the bacteria digging a hole in my premolar and because my poor gums have become too soft…. all because my natural DENTURES ARE FAULTY!!!
Now this was one problem I couldn’t help but sink my teeth into!
Well it’s also active because of this picture ‘butterfly dreams‘ which I picked up from …yeah where else: www.deviantart.com …it’s an amaing image and one of my personal favorites too…
YAY!!
