Nothing Magnetic About It

The last few days have been agony! Something I've learnt to be friends with, have accepted as a part of life-viz my back-ache-seemed to worsen by the day. And there was no respite from work. To make matters worse, a sudden trip to Chandigarh was planned, which necessitated my presence and though I tried to beg out of it-the chronic back pain was playing havoc this time-there was no mercy. Naturally, a train trip to and fro-the comfortable seats of the Shatabdi notwithstanding-contributed its mite and I returned from the trip ten shades worse. To cut a long story short, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI to the uninitiated) test seemed to become inevitable......

Now, this again has a history. More than six years ago, my worried mother had taken me to an orthopedic, a veteran in his field, in the reputed Fortis hospital but I had never gone back, as his prescription had read the formidable term MRI and despite all the persuasion from Mummy, I had outright refused. No way-I wasn't getting into that scary contraption that would swallow me up for God knows how long, I'd rather put up with the pain, thank you. As I said, all her entreaties fell on deaf ears and I carried on merrily, putting up a brave front each time the problem reared its ugly head. But pretty much acted like the proverbial ostrich in every other respect.

Well, so things went on till it became absolutely unavoidable this last week. Beggars can't be choosers; and Sunday morning found me shivering in my shoes at the very thought of getting into that avoided-for-half-a-decade evil machine! Sonny boy's comforting presence was a great help and young Manoj's timely call sharing his own experience soothed my frayed nerves no end.

But having emerged none the worse for the experience, I can proudly announce to the world at large that the whole exercise is a cake walk, nothing to be feared at all!The axiom there's nothing to fear than fear itself has been brought home to me in a rather telling manner!!