LOUDER, PLEASE

After sitting comfortably on the chair, I took the receiver of the phone to make my first call. There was no dial tone. I had just been in the office to start the day’s work. Starting itself is on a negative node, I thought. Better to register the complaint and get it repaired. Telephone was integral to my work. I got up from my chair and proceeded to the room next where my friend sat. I could register the complaint from his phone. Sitting in front of him, for courtesy sake, I requested  his permission to use his phone.

“This phone is dead.” He said. “What happened to yours?” He asked.

“It seems all the phones are dead today. I came here to register the complaint of my phone”, I answered.

“No, No”, he said. “I have now only used your phone to register the complaint of my phone. It must be all right. You just try again and see” He expressed his disbelief.

“Okay”, I said and got up to return. He came along with me to ensure that what he said was true.

Again, I took the receiver of my phone and put it against my ear. Still, there was no tone. I told him that. He took the receiver from my hand and put it against his ear. Then he looked at my face. After a moment’s thought he said, “You put it against your other ear and see. It is working”.

I didn’t approve of his suspecting the quality of my left ear. Till this time, I had never felt any complaint on it. All the same, I put the receiver to my right ear. Instantly, the light went off from my face. He was true. The tone was loud and clear. I put the receiver back against my left ear. It was again dead. No, it was alive. My left ear seemed dead.

Having won his case, my friend left the room throwing an anxious look at me. I pondered over what could have gone wrong. I put the tip of the middle finger of my left hand inside my left ear and rotated it inside a little and then pulled it out suddenly. If there be a water drop, oil or dust, it could come out with the pressure of air from inside. I put the receiver again back to my left ear and then to the right. Position remained same. Some thing was wrong with my left ear.

Till I left the office on the previous day, I had not felt any hearing problem. After returning home, in the night, I had indulged in drinks with a neighbour friend. A little over drunk I was. I had put more ice cubes than was ordinarily required. I was enjoying its coolness in the battering heat of the summer. After my friend left, I had felt a sudden and severe pain in the inside of my right thigh. Severe was it, as if a nerve was broken. I had twisted and turned in pain on the bed for some time and later got recovered from it. Could that have any thing to do with the impairment of my ear? I wondered. I decided to consult an ENT specialist in the town.

The doctor removed a little wax from the ear and then checked my hearing capacity with a tuning fork. There was no improvement. He prescribed a liquid of which three or four drops were to be put in the ear three or four times a day. He asked me to come again after three days. After three days, he removed some more wax from my ear and then again tested my hearing power. There was absolutely no progress. Then he referred me for a detailed check at a nearby ear and eye clinic and bring their report. It took several tests and a week to get their report. With that, I again went to the doctor. He studied the report well and put a full stop to all my hope by announcing that my left ear had been impaired permanently.

“Your right ear has 80% hearing ability, where as your left ear has only under 20%”, He explained.

“How much would be required for a pass?”, I queried, half jokingly and half seriously.

The doctor laughed but did not reply.

“Wouldn’t there be some medicines to improve the hearing?”, I stressed on the serious part of my question.

“Medicine can not improve. It has become a permanent disability”, he tried to convince.

I was feeling a low whistling sound all the time in my left ear since it went dead. Like a sound that you could hear when your ear is kept close to the mouth of an empty flask. I told him of that.

“It happens in such cases”, he dismissed it.

Then I remembered the night incident. One should tell everything to a doctor to have a clear picture for him. I told him of the severe pain I had after the icy drinks.

 “That has nothing to do with this.” he replied.

“Then what could be the reason for it?”, I asked.

“There could be a block in one of your blood vessels to the ear”, he made an assumption.

“Can’t it be identified by scanning and operated upon to set right?”, I was still in hope.

“Sometimes, but not certain”, he replied. “It is risky”, he warned. “Thank God, the block is in the vessel to your ear only and not in the vessel to your heart”, he pointed out the positive aspect to make me happy.

I left. But I decided to take a second opinion on the issue. There could be someway out.

I went to another ENT specialist who was also very renowned. I placed all my reports obtained earlier after the test and requested for his opinion.

He went through all the papers and said, “I don’t have a different opinion. What he said was true.”

“Why do you worry over it? You have the other ear functioning well. When that also fails we can think about an alternative.”, He tried to pacify me.

“How about trying some medicine to remove the block, if at all there is any?”, I suggested.

He looked at me for a few seconds.

“Okay. Let us try then”, he quipped and prescribed some tablets.

“At least he has shown a positive attitude. He was not like the other man. There is nothing wrong in trying a chance with medicines. Doctors should not disappoint patients..”, so and so I went on thinking as I walked to the medical shop.

But I wanted to know how much hope I can put on these tablets. He had told me to take them for two weeks and again meet him for further course of medicines, if required.

After buying the tablets, I asked the salesman as to how good it was to remove the blocks in blood vessels.

“No sir, it is not for removing the blocks. It is just for removing the anxiety from the mind. Psychiatrists often prescribe them. I don’t know why the ENT specialist prescribed it. There could be some reason. Who knows?” He disposed me with that and continued with his job of searching medicines for the next man.

I threw the medicine packet on the way side. “What did the doctor think of me? That I am mad or something?”, I was annoyed.

I did not visit any doctor thereafter and decided to put up with this infirmity for the rest of my life. “Let it be. Many are without even some very vital parts. This is nothing. At least I have another ear and would not be totally deaf”, I consoled myself.

It did not change my life in any way. But, at times I would have to say “louder, please” to people. I realized why God had given two ears. One should be there even if the other fails. Same goes with eyes too.

But there were some difficulties in the beginning. While driving, I would hear the horn of an oncoming car as that of coming from  behind and vice-versa. It would be difficult to exactly judge from where a sound was coming. I began to talk a little louder, louder for others but normal for me. While sitting in a bus, I would have to act as sleeping if the person left to me started talking. While traveling with wife, I would tell her to sit at my right side. Once when she happened to sit on the left side, I had to turn my head 90 degree to the left several times and when I finally felt neck pain, I requested her to sit silent. At home, I would have to sit closer to the TV to hear at others’ level.

After my retirement, I engaged my self as a consultant on service tax and central excise matters. With my experience in service, I was competent to present cases in the Courts. Last month I appeared in the Court on behalf of a firm. As I started presenting my arguments, the Judge interrupted in between and said, “Louder, please”. I was stunned. Those were my words, always.  I looked at his ears and found a thin cord running behind his left ear lobe. A smile began to spread over my lips, but I controlled it. Raising my voice, I proceeded with my arguments.

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