The Unspoken Words

The room where one's wide-teeth smile disturbs us the most and makes us ponder of white glossy teeth is none other than a dentist's waiting room.

So when I sat whining like a whale holding one side of my swollen face I envied the models in the charts that decorated the wall.

I was busy chatting with a friend over watsapp, checked if any interesting updates were in Facebook, deleting mails, drawing some drab in DrawIt, and listening to some strange Tibetan flute music. In short I was doing nothing productive!

Soon getting bugged with all the flashy colours in my mobile I switched it off and started looking around. I gazed at others who were waiting to meet the dentist.

There was a mother of two with her kids running around amusing a teenage boy sitting close to his mom trying to hide his newly formed acne, a salesman, an old couple and few more alongside the corridor.

I was engrossed for a while in the kids playing where I realized they were indeed twins. The boys bore so much resemblance that their like-coloured dress was only confirming my recently deduced fact.

I wondered how I was when I was  a kid  and hardly remembering any memory from childhood I turned towards the teenage boy.I was curious to know how he was handling his acne. I had just one in my teenage and I remembered creating such a fuss that my parents prayed I never get one again.Those were the years of  unrelenting energy and oodles of happiness for flimsy reasons. I had passed all of that with great élan looking forward to the world everyday with more energy and enthusiasm.

After some petty talks with the attendant I once again continued my useless thought process. I looked at the salesman .He looked tired every inch. He should have had a tough day , given it was almost four hours past noon. He had a huge bag and his neatly polished shoes seemed dirty with the recent monsoon showers.I wondered how these men just talked their ways to convince doctors and held on to their jobs with interest. Was it interest or need of the hour that made them take the ever-travelling job I wondered!

After  a while  my attention turned to the old couple. They were a couple in their mid sixties or seventies and sat very close to the other and the lady held her man's hand always. It was more that each was a support for the other I felt.

The woman sported a huge bindhi, stunning diamond earrings had neatly combed her hair and wore a deep orange sari. The man wore spectacles and the wrinkles in this forehead were very few for his age.

  

I wondered how many in the room were waiting like me for a tooth extraction - a wisdom tooth at that! I felt sad for myself that I was losing my first sign of wisdom but the excruciating pain could no longer be borne by me. I wondered if I had grown wiser or duller. I had given up all my favourite foods for a while now as even a small bite of a soft marshmallow tasted like a steel plate. After a while I closed my eyes and waited meditating on all that my mind had absorbed until now. I suddenly jerked and woke up as if from dream and looked at the old couple once again. I had noticed something strange with them. They were every inch man-woman next door but with a cliché. They hardly talked to the other.

They sat too silent I felt.

 The teenager, the kids, the mothers and everyone would at least utter a word now and then but the couple hadn't. It was almost for an hour that I sat waiting but I hardly seen the couple talking. Realizing my gaze at them the woman smiled at me - and I smiled in return. It was the most awkward smile of mine and I regretted smiling that way. Still continuing to ponder how a man and his wife managed to be un-communicative.

In a while the attendant came with couple of sheets, prescriptions for the old man and he explained thrice to him the significance of taking the tablets before their next visit. The attendant had huge respect for the man for some unknown reason. Though the information was for the man, the woman took more interest in listening to the attendant. The woman and man held the prescription paper and looked at it for a while, shook their heads together. They gathered themselves and started to walk slowly taking care of each step. There was some strange affection they shared and it looked like one understood the other perfectly well.

 I felt like running to them and have a tête-à-tête - just to check if they ever talked. What could keep them together if they never talked, how would they communicate, how did they manage to have kids (if they had) and more. In short my levels of imagination had crossed the normal level and running riot with questions popping about the couple. Their car's chauffeur came to help them to the car and I still hadn't come to terms with their non-talking habit.

In a while it was my turn to meet the dentist and I sat in the patients chair reluctantly for the next forty-five minutes open-mouthed. There were numerous tubes making their way in and out of my mouth. The tranquillizer had made me numb for a long time and I hardly knew if I ever had a lower jaw. Each time I closed my eyes and opened it to the bright flashy light above the dentist's head I wished it was just a dream and nothing more. When all the procedure was over and I jumped from the seat to the floor I rushed to the attendant. While he was keener to give me instructions about the food I should eat, I blurted enquiring about the couple who seemed to be in my mind all the time. He simply chirped “Priya... The man has lost his hearing capability recently and his wife cannot speak. Yet they are the most beautiful couple in the world. They hardly need any communication! "