Monday, October 06, 2008

The litmus test

So I was at my optician's for a check-up. The place looked like it was a straight out of an Ikea catalogue.

Me - Wow. The place looks totally different.
My optician - Yeah. We renovated recently. Nice, eh?
Me - I like it. It's a very cool and modern look.
Optician (proudly) - Oh yes, we even upgraded the system (computerised eye-testing equipment). Come, see!

I followed him into the eye-testing room and indeed the system looked quite cool too. I made myself comfortable in the high chair, and he turned on the system. After the usual checks, the system started displaying slides on colour blindness.

Me - Cool! The old system did not have colour-blindness tests!
Optician - Oh yes. This one is much better. Latest technology too!

So I started reading the numbers off the slides as they appeared. 3, 5, 19, 57, 8, 9... it seemed never-ending. The colour blindness tests I'd taken before had never featured more than two slides. But each of these slides had different swishes of colours and patterns, with the numbers nicely embedded in them. I think I must have breezed through some 12 slides, when I almost fell off the high chair.

The 13th slide.

Holy cow.

The swishes were there all right, the colours were there all right, the patterns were there all right. But where the heck was the number??

Me - Uh...
Optician - What happened?
Me (heart pounding) - Uh...
Optician - See the number?
Me (wondering what new-age eye-disease the high-tech system had caught) - Actually... no...
Optician - You don't see the number?
Me (heart pounding faster) - Err... no... what... does... this... mean?? Anything to worry about?

He looked at me for a while. After a dramatic pause, he spoke.

"Good." he said, turning off the system, "That one doesn't have a number. In fact, I'd be worried if you saw one."

Me - :|



22 comments:

Unknown said...

hehhehe...
A big bang on Optician's Head!!!
Bhai ko dara diya usne!!! :P

Soham Shah said...

I hv got partial color-blindness ..

I would hv seen the number on the 13th slide !!

The Soul of Alec Smart said...

Hey Sayesha,

I'm delurking after a long time to say that you're tagged! See here: http://a-dark-comedy-called-life.blogspot.com/2008/10/irresistibles.html

How do we know said...

ha ha ha!!

fee said...

what's life without a little drama now and then?
good to know all's well sayesha...tk cr..

Tarun said...

Bahi tum ko Optician ne mamu bana diya ... :P

raghu said...

thats why we say indian granny's stare at eye and make you stare at tv and repeat the score method is foolproof :P

Prithi Shetty said...

:))

Wah kya Optician hain !

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
A G said...

lol...does your optician have a blog? :D

-Ag.

Anonymous said...

Actually that numberless slide is (an intended) part of the Ishihara color test (as it is named, after the scientist who designed the method).

Nice post nevertheless!

Stupidosaur said...

Good title. Colour blind person will flunk the school chemistry exam based on litmus papers. Can't tell acid from base.

Stupidosaur said...

So you wear specs/contacts eh?

Sayesha said...

#paaro,
Hehehe! :)

#Soham,
What's partial colour-blindness?

#~nm,
:)

#The Soul of Alec Smart,
Cool! Will take up the tag in the next post. :)

#How do we know,
:)

#Preethi,
That's true... it's the little nautankis that keep us alive, isn't it? :D

#Tarun,
Hehehehe! :P

#raghu,
Eh? Didn't get you, sorry. :(

#Prithi,
:D

#Amulya,
Aha! I know what happened here! :P

#A G,
Sheesh! Maybe he's blogging right now about how he made mamu of Bhai? :P

#Vinod V,
Oooh, I didn't know that! Thanks. :)

#Stupidosaur,
Pata tha tu aayega ek smartass comment maarke jaayega! Aur yeh raha thermometer! :|

#Stupidosaur,
Arre tu gaya nahin abhi tak? Hehehe! Answer is yes. :)

Prats said...

Aila!!! Kaan ke neeche dene ka tha na bhai us yede ko... Aapko dara rela tha!!!

Soham Shah said...

Basically There r two types of color-blindness ..

1) Total : Here, a person cant even differentiate between colors .. He sees everything black and white .. No color at all ..

2) Partial (I'm having it) : Here, a person can differentiate between colors but he finds difficult to recognize some shades of green-Red-Brown-Yellow .. Thing to notice here is SOME SHADES .. Not all

From my point of view, I cant differentiate between signal lights .. Red-Green_yellow same for me .. I just rememebr that when the upper light is on, it is red .. Middle light is on, it's yellow .. Bottom light is on, it's green .. I can see that light is on but cant recognize the color .. it looks all same ..

I hope u understood !!

mathew said...

wait why this blog now has got a yellow template?

santasizing...Fantasizing said...

Poor you!!
didnt you just want to hit him with his color blindness machine:-)
thats hilarious...:D:D:D:D

Nidhi said...

Googly tha bhai :D

Aapne dar k hi sahi ;) shot to maar hi diya ;)

SRK said...

looks like everyone got (medal) colour blind... so, I'm yelling GOLD now...

Stupidosaur said...

Hmm yeah. Maybe I've done DOCTORate in smartass comments. So go ahead bring out your tongue and thermometers ;)

mythalez said...

"aankhon ke saamne dhoka" :P