Dear Prabhakaran,
Received your letter last week. Glad to hear that all is well over there.
We await the rains. The other day there was a report in the newspaper – ‘Monsoon has cheated.’ Hopefully the Monsoon subscribes to the same newspaper and comes to know of our complaint. It has all rights to think of us as ungrateful lots; whatever it does, the attribute remains the same. I have never heard someone bless the Monsoon and adore its greatness.
Last Tuesday, I was out in town with the aim of fixing a problematic teeth. Hail the genetics that gave me such terrible teeth – soon after the hole in one has been filled and closed, a new one succumbs to the rascal bacteria. I wonder what it is that I eat that these bacteria thrive on. In any case, since I was walking along the street with this agenda, I noticed an interesting feature around the corner from Badusha steels. There is a boy who has now turned dentistry into a street-side business. Sans the fancy steel tools and medical liquids, he has realised the potential in the business of pulling out loose teeth in the mouths of passersby. People perhaps harbour a fear of a dentist’s monstrous tools scrapping and drilling in their mouths, or perhaps have no time amidst their daily struggles to pause for the sake of their teeth, or perhaps think that the fanciness of dentistry is unnecessary if a tight slap can send that lose tooth shooting out of their mouths. The boy seems to have chanced upon a venture throbbing with possibilities. My molar throbs with pain as I write this. The bulb of clove I fit between the teeth for temporary relief has now given up.
Rumours say that the boy finds one’s problematic tooth in seconds, clasps onto it and persists until the tooth gives up its roots and migrates with his fingers. As simple as that, for a fraction of the dentist’s fee. More people are now opting the services of the determined young boy on the streets than the professional who sits in his ivory tower dental clinic after years of education on how to pluck out a loose tooth.
This time I’ll continue to consult Dr. Mathew. But I have decided that if another of my tooth begins to act up, it’s fate will lie in the hands of Mr.Roadside dentist.
Regards to Shanta and the others. Until the next letter, Bye.
Alleys 