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reclining chair. The nurse referred to it as the dentist’s chair, and adjusted it for me. She pulled a lever, it leant back. She pulled another one, and I was above the ground. I asked her what was on her mind. She didn’t say a single extra word.
    Meanwhile, the dentist appeared. As he came closer to me, I watched him slip his hands into a pair of gloves. He then strapped on a mask. Watching that made me sure that something terrible was in store for me. I was trapped in that elevated reclining chair. I asked the dentist what was going to happen.
    ‘We are going to bring your teeth out of your gums,’ he replied.
    ‘What?!’ I asked. And, when no one answered, I asked again, ‘How?’
    ‘We will have to make a small cut in your gums.’
    And he dropped a bomb into my open mouth.
    ‘You are going to cut my gums? No! Please! It’s going to hurt!’ I yelled.
    The dentist and the nurse ignored me.
    I asked them to call my father. They still ignored me.
    The dentist and the nurse were now almost ready to dissect my tiny, pink gums. The nurse adjusted the overhead light so that it fell right on my face. It blurred my vision fora second. The dentist picked up his tools and asked me to open my mouth.
    I was petrified.
    ‘No, no! It’s going to hurt!’ I kept repeating. My legs trembled. I wanted to get off that reclining chair and escape, but it was impossible to get off.
    The dentist said it wouldn’t hurt, because he was going to give me anaesthesia. As he mentioned that, he picked up a large injection. It had a long needle that would have been around four inches, if not five. He brandished that horrible thing right in front of my scared eyes.
    I froze. I couldn’t utter a single thing. I was staring at the injection.
    ‘Daddyyyyyyyy!’ I cried out. No, I screamed!
    It was probably the loudest and the longest scream of my entire life. I’m quite sure it could be heard much beyond that small cabin, the dental ward, travelling down the staircase right into the parking lot. In its long journey, my scream must have announced my panic to almost everyone present in that hospital, including my father.
    In no time, Dad came running into the cabin. He looked at the dentist and the nurse. They had left whatever they had been holding so far. Their hands were on their ears. It was all only too clear.
    The dentist looked at my father and didn’t feel the need to say anything. My father apologized on my behalf. I looked at my father and begged him to take me away. He patted myback and told me that it was important that I allow the dentist to operate on my mouth. He explained that if this was not done, I would be left toothless for the rest of my life.
    ‘I am fine with that! I don’t want this! Please, Daddy!’ I had begun to cry.
    ‘You won’t even get to know. It won’t hurt at all after you take this anaesthesia,’ the dentist pitched in.
    It took me a minute to frame my answer. ‘Oh God! How dumb! This anaesthesia injection itself is going to hurt, na!’
    The nurse smiled. The dentist looked angrily at her.
    The dentist turned to Dad and announced, ‘If you can’t convince him now, you will have to bring him next week, as I have other cases to look after.’
    I thought of telling him to postpone it. But, right then, Dad recalled that next week he would be out of station. So the operation had to be done that day itself.
    Half an hour later, with me on that dentist’s chair, our negotiations and peace talks had failed. The outcome of this failure was simple. We were at war!
    United, they stood. Alone, I sat.
    Dad asked the dentist to proceed with my operation. The dentist again picked up his syringe and filled it. I took up my attacking position. The moment the dentist came close to me, I punched into the air between us, narrowly missing the injection. Dad shouted at me and asked the nurse to pin down one of my arms. He then grabbed my other arm.
    The goddamn chair didn’t even allow me to jump off!
    I wildly