The Outdated Bill

 THE OUTDATED BILL

Hailing from a country notorious for small swindling as well as super scams, certain experiences I had abroad have left an indelible print on me.

After a pleasant, long stay at our son’s place at Maui, Hawaii, we were home bound. Since it was our third visit and also as our onward journey had been booked by Korean Air, our son was confident that we would find our way and so did not accompany us to Honolulu, the international hub. We took the small 19 seater Aloha Airlines aircraft from Maui and landed in Honolulu airport half an hour later.

Loading our humongous items of luggage on to a groaning trolley, we proceeded towards the Korean Air counter. There we were told that the pilots of the said airlines were on a strike and so they were trying to put us on alternative airlines.

After quite a bit of running up and down tensely hampered as we were by our overloaded trolley, we were told that we would be put on Japan Airlines flight which in fact would would take off earlier than Korean Air schedule.

Leaving my husband with the luggage in the lounge, I snatched a single dollar bill from my purse and rushed to ring up my daughter-in law at Maui lest they hear about the strike and worry. There I found a long line of passengers waiting patiently for their turn at the telephone booth. I joined the line behind a fair young man whose nationality I could not fathom.

I was feeling nervous as I was not sure if I would be able to put forth my case in my Indian accent if I were to deal with an operator. The young gentleman saw me fidgeting nervously with the dollar note. He looked at the note and said, “The dollar bill you have is outdated. It will not be accepted by the phone.” I got panicky. Being an alien I could not make out an outdated dollar bill from a current one. I did not have any more one- dollar notes. I did not want to leave my place in the line to go back and change a higher denomination note.

Seeing me in distress, the young man offered to help me. He took my son’s telephone number from me. When his turn in the line came, he put in his own dollar bill (a crisp, current one), dialed the number, waited till my daughter- in law came on line and then handed the phone to me. I explained the situation to her and put the telephone back. By now the young man had finished his talk at the next cubicle. I thanked him profusely and went back to join my husband at the embarkation line at the Japan Airlines counter.

How often do we come across such good Samaritans in life! Such small acts of selflessness indeed make you feel that there is certainly a benevolent presence up there watching over you.

MY DENTAL IMPLANT-Part II

DENTAL IMPLANT-Part 1
‘Implant’ has been a word which has come into vogue more recently. Though nose implant, breast implant and tooth implant etc have been in use, dental implant (correct usage) is the most misunderstood term by the lay persons including yours truly. A case of the dental implant was said to have been  discovered in the cadaver of a woman in twenties from Mayan civilization with three tooth shaped shells placed in the sockets of missing teeth. What is more, the radiological study revealed that the bone had accepted the implant showing that the implantation had taken place when she was alive (ref Wikipedia).
Not withstanding this, the modern usage of the dental implants started in 1950’s. I was under the impression that implant meant our own decayed tooth would be cleaned and cleared and the empty shell put back. How wrong I was!
‘Dental implant’ is a screw made of Titanium which would be embedded in the jaw bone to which artificial denture or individual tooth or bridges could be screwed on. This relieves the wearer from removing the denture every time.
In my case, the whole dental set had to be screwed on to the implants.
It all started with the erosion of my teeth due to the prolonged effect of Rheumatoid Arthritis and its medications, in spite of regular visits to dentists and in spite of bridges, fillings and root canals carried out at regular intervals. Finally when the chewing teeth were gone, I started using the front teeth for the purpose which left them broken, worn out and altogether sinister looking. That’s the time I thought of implanted teeth. But I was shocked to hear that each implant cost Rs 25,000 and so gave up the idea.
I went back to the free dentist at our family welfare centre.
The dentist shook every tooth. Mournfully shaking his head, he decried the civilian dental work, “What has he been doing for your teeth apart from making you pay through your nose?” and gleefully removed 6 teeth on one day and 3 on the other and gave me a partial denture set costing Rs 54.
After about an year, finding myself not happy with the partial denture, lower one of which gave me ulcers and the upper one needed cleaning every time I snacked on some thing, I decided to go to an implantologist and risk the whole process.
Fortunately I found that a branch of the state of the art chain of dental clinics run by prestigious health care organization located very close to my house.
When I approached the dental surgeon, he had a look at my teeth (the absent ones), tut-tutted the work of the welfare centre dentist and explained the steep expenses involved in the implantation process, each implant now costing Rs30, 000. He promised to get a senior citizens’ discount and left me to decide. With the permission of the finance sanctioning authority aka the husband I decided to take the plunge.
The implantation was done in two phases. In the first phase, I was first asked to get an OPG ( ortho pantomograph), a two dimensional radiograph of the skull in the special place which caters for such special radiology and it was e mailed to the doctor. He saw it and fixed the date for the implantation of the upper jaw only. I was asked to get a fresh blood sugar report on the morning of surgery. The prosthetist met me the previous day and took the impression of my mouth for measurement.
On the scheduled day when the process began, the surgeon invited my husband into the operation theatre to witness the process which he kept explaining at every step.
When the numbing injections, six I presume, were given I felt only the first two and afterwards I was just an inert recipient of the whole thing, It was only my husband’s account later that told me what was done.
First of all one ‘mobile’ tooth in the upper jaw was extracted. For implanting, a slash was done in the gum and flap was held back by a retractor. In the recipient bone that was exposed, 6 holes were drilled following the OPG closely parallel to the direction of the teeth. Ice cold water was being sprayed continuously and suctioned off. Six implants were placed one in each of the holes.
The ‘implant’ was imported from Israel. It looked like the lead jutting out of the wooden part of the pencil. It was encased in a metal spring. After placing the implant in the hole, the spring was wound out. The flap on the gum was closed and sutures put which were removed 10 days later. A period of 4 months’ gap was given for the implant to  osseo-integrate at the end of which the ossification would have taken place and the implant would have merged with the main bone (which was possible only with titanium which for reasons unknown does not get rejected as foreign material). The swelling of the mouth was rather dramatic with all blue and red color making me look like monkey God for four days. No pain was felt during this period thanks to the painkillers and other medications.
After about a month,when I went to the doctor for the second phase, he sympathised with me, "If only you had come to us one year earlier, we could saved your teeth" and promptly extracted 7 teeth from the lower jaw and put the sutures , leaving me in a totally edentulous state except for two teeth one at each end of the upper jaw. 40 days were allowed for the healing of the extraction. Later one more OPG was taken, one more blood test was done fresh and the process of implantation was repeated for the lower jaw with 6 implants. The swelling for the lower jaw was not much. Ten days later the sutures were removed. A three months gap was allowed after which the denturing part would be done.
The intervals between the steps in the procedure are taken totally at the discretion of the implantologist.The payments are also taken in instalments.
So having lost the God given smile, I am waiting for the dentist given smile at 76 years of age.

MY DENTAL IMPLANT-PART II

MY DENTAL IMPLANT-PART II

At last the day had arrived. It was 5 months to the date since the upper jaw had been implanted and 3 months since the lower jaw had been done. Ample time had been provided for the ossification of the titanium implants which were 6 in the upper jaw and 6 in the lower jaw. The latest OPG( Orthopantomagraph) had  revealed that the implants had fused well with the jaw bones and I was now ready for the next session of torture, I mean (with due apologies to my implantologist) the second phase of the project ‘dental implant’ namely capping the implants.

For this, the doctor had to expose the implants by removing the soft tissue covering them and then screw on the stainless steel caps on them. Stainless steel is used for this purpose as it is a very strong metal ideally suited for load bearing and also because it is bio compatible with titanium. As the process involved lot of incisions, the local anesthesia  had to be used. The lower jaw has a single nerve running through it and hence two injections one at each end were enough to obtain the required numbing. But the upper jaw had all the implant sites connected to different nerves and hence as many injections had to be given in series as there were implants. So, before the numbness set in, I could feel the impact of all the 8 jabs- the most painful part of the whole operation. This sent my heart beating superfast. But the doctor assured me that it would come down. A bit of relaxation learnt at ‘Art of living’ helped to restore my heart beat to the normal pace.

Since the tissues covering the implants in the upper jaw were thin, they could be punched out and the implants exposed. But the soft tissues covering the lower implants were quite thick and so the gum had to be cut open in the front to expose the implants and sutured later with simple sutures.

Once the implants were exposed, the stainless steel caps called healing caps were screwed on the threaded implants flush with the gums. The tightening of the screws was done manually, but one implant slightly deep in the mouth and not easily accessible had to be tightened with a cute spanner! The function of the caps is to see that no soft tissues grow on the implants while the rest of the jaws is healing.

Surprisingly, the blood loss was quite a bit during the process as compared to the first phase and so the blood had to be constantly suctioned out.

Once the steel caps were in place and the sutures put, the doctor prescribed the usual antibiotics and pain killers and asked me to come a week later when the prosthodontist would take over.

More of that later…..

Continuous use of cold packs brought the swelling down and I had my normal face by evening.

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AUTO SATYAGRAHA

Once upon a time, haggling with the driver of a jutka (a horse drawn carriage) used to be the favorite macho pastime for the Bangalore males. This haggling would safely take place after the passengers reached their destination, thus putting the driver in a less advantageous position.

But as motorized vehicles particularly auto rickshaws, took over the roads of Bangalore, the participants in the business also changed. Now at least some of the women folk can be found questioning the auto driver, consulting the chart and generally thrashing out the issue of fare and route.

The Chennai auto drivers have a standard demand, “Meter mele randu rooba pottu kudu”

(Give two Rs extra over and above the meter fare).Though Bangalore auto rickshaws do not follow this, they have many other methods of harassing the passengers.  Prepaid auto drivers not only have a way of conniving with the booth keepers, they also

claim that they have been cheated by the passengers by quoting a nearer drop point and thus forcing them to drive extra. If the passenger happens to be a stranger to Bangalore or  if she is not a routine commuter, the driver takes her by a round about route and tries to charge extra. This is also facilitated by the fact that Bangalore roads have a way of switching over to ‘one way’ overnight.

Unless the passengers (mostly ladies) are aggressive, the driver really takes them for a ride and manages to get away with his subterfuges to make an extra buck.

But recently, we were very happy to hear that an auto driver met more than his match in one of his passengers.

The lady in her early ’70 s was, basically a Kannadiga and was educated in Andhra and had settled down in North India. So she was naturally fluent not only in all the South Indian languages (except Malayalam) but in Urdu/Hindi also. Single and fiercely independent, she had developed a tough, no nonsense attitude to survive in the man’s world. Moreover, having founded a school and heading it, she was used to getting lot of respect and implicit obedience from the people under her.

On one of her visits to Bangalore, she clad smartly in handloom Salwaar Kameez happened to take an auto from Jayanagar to High grounds. She was not aware that it was mandatory for auto drivers to display a framed certificate giving their names, number, auto number, address etc with a photograph and to hang it where it was visible to the passenger.

As they approached city market area, she found him taking a route to which she was not used to. So she asked him in Kannada, “ Yaake suttu daari thegondree. Nayraage hogbaudittu” (Why did you take the round about route? You could have taken the straight one ). The driver brought the auto to a dead stop, turned back towards her and said curtly, “Ileeri, kelage ileeri” (Get down, get down from the auto). From his face and accent she could make out that he was a urdu/Hindi person and so she said, “ Kyon, Maine tumhe gaali diya kya? Main nahin utroongi.” (Why, did I badmouth you? I won’t get down). The driver said, “suttu, suttu boltha hai. Gaali nahin to kya” (you say suttu, suttu. Isn’t it a gaali?). The lady continued in Hindi,” I am a bonafide passenger who has hired your vehicle to take me to my destination. It is your duty to reach me there. Otherwise, either take me to the police station or give me the police telephone number. I shall see that you are fined and put behind bars.  (At this time she was not aware that the police tel no. is same all over India.) But I am not getting down.”

The auto driver nonchalantly got out and sat on a road side parapet. Five minutes passed, ten minutes and even fifteen minutes. Neither of them budged an inch, neither the passenger in the auto nor the driver sitting on the parapet.

A man who was watching all this from a distance approached the lady and asked her as to what the trouble was. She explained the whole thing to him and asked for the police tel. no. Another lady who was waiting nearby for the city bus also corroborated her story. The man walked over to the auto driver and asked him in Kannada, “Why are you so adamant? The lady is bent upon reporting you to the police. Once you are taken to the police station, they deal with you mercilessly since you are failing your commitment to a lady and it is a lady who is giving the complaint. You better yield and take her in your auto.”  The driver said, “Ask her to take another auto and go.” The lady told the well meaning ‘middle’ gentleman, “Tell him I am willing to take another auto and go provided this fellow agrees to my conditions. First, he should flag down the new auto for me. Secondly he should carry my suitcase and put it into that new auto. Thirdly, he should forgo the amount displayed in his meter (Rs 24) for the distance he has brought me.”  All this was conveyed to the auto driver. By now he seemed to  have come from his high horse a step or two down probably due to all the talk about police, fine and ‘behind bars’.

He called an auto, (he must have given him a cock and bull story to the new driver about a break down), carried the lady’s suitcase and deposited it in. Then and then only the lady got down from the first auto and continued her journey by the second.

With the audacity displayed by the auto rickshaw drivers. it becomes imperative that all the ladies show gumption and hold their ground. Are they capable of doing it?

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