Like It Happened Yesterday Read Online Free PDF

paddled my legs in the air. A few cotton balls, along with a few dental instruments, fell over the big arm of the chair. And I screamed my lungs out. It was not only difficult, but almost impossible, for the dentist to inject me. He kept shouting that if I didn’t stop, my struggling might end up in the needle breaking and getting stuck somewhere inside my gum. But that didn’t bother me. I screamed out louder in response. We were caught in a tussle. It was three versus one—the little me, to be precise.
    The three of them were shouting too, telling each other what to do.
    Dad then asked the nurse to pin down both my hands. He twisted my arms and brought my hands together, behind the back of the chair, and asked the nurse to hold them down in that position. He then went to the other side of the reclining chair, to hold down my legs. He sat on my knees and weighed down my thighs. My legs were now in his full control.
    I gathered up all my energy and continued to protest. The tight grip of the nurse had almost stopped the blood circulation in my wrists. I was now sweating. I felt suffocated—but I didn’t give up. My eyes had grown big and red. But my idea was not to settle down, and keep continuing my fight. But in no time, I was exhausted. I was breathing heavily. The three of them knew this. They could see that, every moment, I was getting a little more tired. When my revolt was reduced to intermittent screams, the dentist came closer to me.
    My father and the nurse continued to hold me tight. The dentist told them that he was finally going to inject me. I collected all my leftover energy and, now, instead of moving my body, I started shaking my head left and right.
    The dentist was now extremely irritated. So was my father. The nurse kept shouting, just out of my line of sight, ‘Kya kar rahe ho, beta! Aise mat karo.’ [What are you doing, son! Don’t act like this.]
    The dentist went out for a moment and brought his compounder with him. Mercilessly, he commanded the compounder to hold my head and restrain any sort of movement. He also instructed him to hold my face in such a way that my jaws would remain wide apart. So this was now four versus one.
    The compounder attempted to do what he was told. But the moment his hands crawled on to my jaw, I bit him hard. His hands tasted of Dettol, the disinfectant. I immediately spat out, and the spit landed on the dentist’s apron. The compounder yelled in pain. The dentist shrieked out of frustration. Dad continued to shout at me. The nurse kept saying, ‘Beta, beta …’
    After a half-an-hour-long battle, my body gave up. I wanted air to breathe, a lot of it. I had fought like a braveheart. But I was now exhausted and had resigned myself to fate. I closed my eyes when I saw the syringe inches away from me. I felt the tears from my eyes and the sweat on my face mingling together.
    The next thing I felt was an intense pain that surged up from my gums to somewhere behind my nose. I could feel the dentist emptying his syringe somewhere inside the tissues and nerves behind my nostrils. There was pin-drop silence in the cabin. After taking the injection out of my mouth, the doctor wrapped a plastic body cover around me.
    I remained calm. Two streams of tears rolled down my cheeks.
    The anaesthesia was quick in its work. I could soon feel a heaviness in my gums. I opened my eyes and looked at Dad. He told me it was all fine. I looked at his hands. They were still pinning down my thighs. I looked back into his eyes. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to say anything.
    I closed my wet eyes and remained calm for the rest of the procedure.
    After about twenty minutes, the dentist tapped my shoulder and told me, ‘It’s all over. You can get up.’
    I opened my eyes, but, this time, I didn’t make any eye contact with him. I had heard what he had said, yet I didn’t move. I ignored it and him.
    The nurse let go of my hands. My father got up and came closer to me. He