Vaccination exhilaration

 It started on a quiet Sunday afternoon. 

I was lazing on my sofa when my vaccination API provider told me that Covaxin slots opened up somewhere. I did not want Covaxin. But, right before I junked that message, I had a brilliant thought about checking the portal anyway. So, I logged in as quickly as I could. And when I scrolled down the portal, there they were. One hundred slots for Covishield at a nearby hospital. 

There could not have been a better opportunity to get vaccinated. In a jiffy I weighed the pros and cons of missing the first half of my working Monday for this. I could afford to. 

So, I booked my slot. The story begins now. 

Like a truly dramatic person, coupled with the thrill and excitement of getting vaccinated, I dreamt of running into someone at the vaccination centre. So, I spent my Sunday evening grooming my face and picking the right clothes to impress. That I would look like an exhausted zombie in clothes that I would pick in a hurry after yoga in the morning was something I did not foresee. 

On the day of the vaccination, I was ready to leave home at 8 AM. My vaccine slot was going to begin at 9 AM. I knew that every second counted. Every second I let pass would delay my vaccination by those many minutes. You see, I wanted to go back home and log into work as soon as I could. So, I left. 

There was rain and there was wind. The perfect companions for my voyage. A peppy "Tan tanatan tantantana" joined me on the car radio. Pumped, I drove at acceptable speeds towards the centre. It was a very smooth and pleasant drive. 

I reached the hospital soon enough. But, I was conscious of time. I kept my calm even as the parking ushers made me park in the second level basement. The vaccination centre was on the fifteenth floor. What kept my nerves calm was to see that they hadn't opened the lifts to the fifteenth floor. I was the first to take the lift when it opened. But, that satisfaction did not last for long. As soon as I reached the fifteenth floor, I saw a couple already sitting there. 

Thankfully, the ushers had not started distributing tokens. So, I could still be first. I picked the most strategically located seat from where I could see the usher announcing tokens before anyone else. Yet, my tension increased when an Uncle came to sit right next to me. My direct competition. Something about him made me dislike him - his arrogance and ignorance to sit beside me without leaving a seat in between. So, in NO way was I going to give up my pole position to him. Or, anyone else.

When I noticed the usher change his body language, I knew he was going to ask us to form a line. So, I shifted in my seat to get up the moment he announced it. When he did, I sailed to the desk. First. I know I charged towards the desk, but I did it so smoothly that I doubt anyone noticed the race track I was picturing in my head. 

I got the first token for the day - 101. I entered the vaccination hall. Still first.

I picked a seat in the second row of the auditorium to sit in. That was an annoying decision. Soon enough people asked me to move my legs so that they could brush past my legs to the other seats. So, I changed my seat. I took the seat right in front of the processing desk in the front row. That was a good call, because I was right there when the nurse called my number. I chose the nurse sitting on the left, rightly. The other nurse, sitting on the right, was stalled in her work.

So, I kept my lead. I finished my payment, too. But, the vaccine administrators were not ready. They asked me to wait. It was me and another person. The Uncle slipped to third position by then. This was the home stretch. No slots, no numbers, no preference. It was the law of the jungle. The free market. I snooze I lose. So, I kept my senses up like an assassin - scanning every movement that might preempt the call.

So, when they did, I made sure I was first.

Excitement soon became nervousness.  You see, it was all games until now. I thought of this event as an adventure where I enter through one door and leave through another. It was only when I saw the nurse load the syringe that I realised what was about to happen - it would sting. But, I had to be first. 

So I stayed strong and got jabbed. 

I won. 

It didn't matter that I had to spend 15 minutes after the jab. That was a cool-off lap. It didn't matter who left before me. They were risking things. I played it safe and I played it right and I won. 

On my way home, I bought breakfast and a lot of things from the bakery.

The heat of the race only got to me in the evening. I fell ill and lost all of Tuesday.

I lost Tuesday, but I won my 33% immunity.  

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That was the story. Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoyed it and hope you will recommend to others. This has been an attempt to articulate the adventure that getting vaccinated in the city can be. But, perhaps, it also shows that anything can look like an adventure if you can bend your mind for it. 

 

 

Gray

It was evening time. The sky had just turned purple after a short dusk. I was in a building with a very familiar corridor. It was where my Bombay Peddananna and Sunitha Peddamma stayed. Yet, the house we entered was not really their house. The house looked like someone's house in Rohan Mithila. This house was dimly lit - nothing but a yellow lamp in the corner. As I stepped on the door frame, I realised I was there for a family gathering.

The first face I saw as I stepped in was my late Leela Peddananna's. He was holding a glass of rum in his hand, as he usually did. He was in his typical inebriated, jolly, calm mood childishly making fun of us. I heard someone laugh on my right. I realised it was my father. I saw many more people, but I did not notice them. I knew they were all the usual suspects - all the aunts and uncles I had to say hello to.

At that moment, I felt a longing in my heart. I wanted to be elsewhere. There was a woman who I wanted to meet. She stayed close by. I knew this woman. I knew her in real life, too. Someone vaguely present in my memory. In the dream, I felt very strongly for her. But, I don't remember her face. I remember her being short, lean, with straight shoulder-length hair. I wanted to meet her.

So, I picked the most opportune moment to leave. I ignored everyone who wanted me to stay for a while. I went to meet her. Outside, I noticed the building was also like Rohan Mithila, with a massive garden in between the blocks. There, she stood waiting for me.

The floodlights, combined with purple of the sky, made everything hazy gray. We ran through that gray. We sat down together for a while and spoke in the mist. I could feel the touch of this person, feel her embrace when we hugged and when she leaned onto my hand. I remember feeling peaceful and calm in my head at this point in the dream. 

But, I knew that this was a dream. I knew that this woman who feels real is probably a puff of smoke in my head. I didn't want that moment to end abruptly. So, I told her that I had to go back. She walked with me until my Peddamma's house. She stood outside the door and said bye. 

I opened the door, and as I stepped into it, I woke up. 

Half-real

Last night, I dreamt. I was in a movie, and then I was out. I was sitting in the theatre watching the movie. Then, I was inside the screen grasping at the people and the objects in the movie as if they were real. There was a lot of movement. I could feel my head spin. Then, I was back in my seat.

In the movie, there were three people standing on green soil. Soon after, a force collapsed them into one-dimensional beings. An entire world was squashed into one graphene-thin tile. The three white people with blonde hair suddenly turned into an image of black people with black, shaggy and braided hair. They shouted about oppression in their street patois. 

Their words became louder. At this point, I was standing right above this tile as it spun in vacuum. There were stars in the distance, occasionally blocked by the face of the tile. I was confused about what was happening. This scene bore an uncanny resemblance to the scene from Superman, and yet it was different. The three people stared at me from inside the tile, continuously shifting their weight between their legs. I stared at them curiously. And just as I was about to reach out to touch the tile, another force struck the tile hard at its corner. 

The tile went hurling into space at an unimaginable speed. At this point, I was back in my seat. My friends were sitting beside me. On the screen I could see the tile spinning and rotating, trailblazing to the left. The screen seemed like a window on a spaceship opening itself to a cosmic event. Courtesy this spaceship, or the deft cinematographer, I felt my stomach churn. I was sitting, but I was travelling with this tile at its dizzying speed. My mind was racing, matching the movements of the tile. 

Every upwards rotation knocked my mind up. Every downwards rotation knocked it down. Every spin made my mind contort and twist. The tile started emitting lights. Bright lasers of blue, white and yellow blinding my eyes. An eerie, faint music accompanied all of this. "He would trip real hard on this movie," I remember thinking to myself. "What a great scene," I remarked. This mind-quake continued for a few seconds. It felt like I watched a brilliantly edited scene that left me feeling fulfilled. It was cut not before it left its mark and not after it served its purpose. I felt one with the tile. 

By the time it was over, I was upside down on the ground. My friends insisted I got up, but they did not reach out to me. I did not move. I shouted about how amazingly well done the scene was. I pitied them for not living the scene and for not joining me on the floor. I pitied everyone in the theatre for being glued to their seats. 

When I woke up, I could feel my brain twist and turn. I felt like I lived through this reality. I felt fresh and adventurous. I reached out to my phone so that I could tell my friend about this dream. At this point, I remembered a lot more about the dream. I knew who the three people were, why they were standing on green soil, what force struck them and why they were hurling through space. I knew why I felt connected to them. I knew why I was in a threatre (or in the spaceship). 

I reached my phone. I started typing my dream to her, right before my mind continued to twist. An unprecedented feeling of drowsiness swept over me. My fingers were moving by instinct. I could feel sleep paralyse my body and numb my mind slowly.

When I became conscious, I was standing in my school wearing my school uniform. After a few curious incidents and lots of locomotion, I was once again in my room. I opened my eyes to my steel cupboard which dully reflected the purple-grey of dawn filtering through the windows. I was confused. I was unsure about where I was. I half-hoped this adventure was finished. 

All of this happened and at the same time only some of it did.