Shocks and Surprises (Part 2)

The story of how my new blog came into being is going to be a small one so let me take the liberty to throw in some more “adventures” of the day!!

Taking off from where we left off last time, I was now in my college waiting for another peril coming my way. Incidentally, it happened to be the day I had to go to the mandatory TB screening so that the hold over my Spring registration could be removed. As expected, other students who belonged to any of the 160 listed countries by the university were waiting in line. Amongst them were couple of Indian girls and a bunch of Chinese (couple of them later turned out to be Japanese but who can tell just by looks!!). Now, I may not speak or express it but I have a morbid fear of the needles and I was all nerves. I tried to calm myself by striking up a conversation with the couple of Indian girls. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi! You guys here for the TB screening? (kinda dumb opening line seeing the big TB screening banner on the door!)

Girl1: Yes, I think you need to fill a form first which they will give to you, so just grab a seat for now.

Girl2: You know (Girl1), this place is so gloomy that it scares me so so much, I hope they blah blah blah (incessant complaining about the system,the place and the screening).

I quietly picked the Diabetes clinic brochures and started browsing through them trying to avoid her bickering. Within a couple of minutes Girl2 was called up for registration. I turned back to Girl1 and tried to start a fresh thread of conversation. Few loose talks about the weather, rain etc. later:

Me: So how long have you been here?

Girl1: Two years

Me: What?!!! (in disbelief)

Girl1: What do you mean by “What?!” (in greater disbelief)

Me: I meant how long have you been waiting in this clinic! (Duh!)

Girl1(red faced followed by a blank look): I think I came in at 1:15.

Girl2(returning after her registration): That was just registration re. The nurse will call me for blood test now. I hate this part.

Girl1: Don’t worry, I will go with you and you hold my hand,everything will be fine!

Girl2: You are so great, I don’t know but I always get scared at blah blah blah blah (philosophically talks about friendship,pain, god and Ekta Kapoor- Ok, the last part was just my invention!!)

I found it a good time to open the long unread novel that I had downloaded on my phone about a human in a robotic society while they chatted away their troubles.

Not so long later, I was up next for the blood test. The elderly nurse called me up inside giving me a sinister “yes, you’re next!” look. I followed her inside and sat down on the chair while she prepared all her instruments carefully for the delicate “operation” that she was going to carry out on me. When she turned back towards me, she held a long, thick needle and three small containers for collecting blood.

“That’s one big needle” I said to her.

“No way!” she spoke with a no-more-sinister motherly smile “you are a big lad”

When I asked her about which hand she was going to draw the blood from, she replied whichever hand she can find the veins easily. With my near absence of adipose tissue, it didn’t take her long to find the right vein.

“See, that’s a big healthy vein” she said, evidently pleased.

But the moment she inserted the needle into the vein, a thin stream of blood splattered out with full force into her gloves, apron and face. I watched shocked and horrified and the shock made me forget the pain of the prick. But she remained calm and filled the blood into the three containers. When she finally opened the cuffs and placed the cotton I exclaimed

“That wasn’t so bad!” I spoke about the obvious absence of any pain.

“Not for me” she said finally said about all the blood on her “will now wear my goggles all the time, that was surely an unexpected first!”

We both chuckled and finally I was off from the clinic and just have to wait for the results of the test. But did this incident lead me to abandon my old blog? No way! But the day wasn’t over yet and their were bigger shocks in store for me!

…to be continued