I had a strange dream yesterday night. Well, not quite that strange given the kind of circumstances that we find ourselves today, with all that is going on and all that you are now thinking of is how to get the vaccine.
We scan the news channels for any latest news of vaccines to
take some solace when they say the availability of vaccines will be ensured in
the near future and browse through numerous third party sites that seem to
offer alerts on vaccine availability only to find that when you ultimately try
to schedule an appointment on the CoWin, you either do not receive the OTP or
if you are lucky to receive one, only to find that all the appointments are
already booked !!
Needless to say, with all this going on in your mind, when
you go to sleep, the kind of dreams you have seems to revolve around vaccines
!!
So here I was having finally got an appointment and up early in the morning standing in a queue at a private hospital. I craned my neck to glance in front to see the number of people before me, and to my shock, I could not even see where the line started !!
There were hundreds, if not thousands of people
lined up before me and it was the same case behind me as well.
As I stood there, hundreds of thoughts started flooding my
mind. When will my turn come ? What should I ask them ? Is it going to be
painful ? Can I drink water immediately after the jab ? When can I take food
after the jab ? How long should I wait before returning home ? I took my last
vaccine when I was 12, and I never thought I would have to get a jab again in
my life. Its been more than a quarter of a century since I took my last jab, it
almost feels like it was in my previous birth !! Would it be painful ? I
remembered all those false assurances I used to give my little son while taking
him for vaccination. Be still, baby, it won’t pain … just a pin-prick … like a
mosquito bite… don’t cry… hold him tight… there you are….here good boy don’t cry
now…its over… take this chocolate… and that’s it… he was happy munching his chocolate within
minutes. Well, nobody’s got a chocolate ready for me today…
Then a bunch of healthcare volunteers appeared holding
crates of vials and syringes.
“The stock has arrived just now”, I thought…
Suddenly there was an announcement on the loudspeaker… “There
is an unprecedented crowd today and our staff will not be able to vaccinate
each and every one of you”….
“Here goes”, I thought, “looks like my number will not come
today. Let me save my thoughts and apprehensions for another day and make my way
back for now”…
The announcement continued, “Today all of you will have an opportunity
to be the ‘Vaccinated’ and the ‘Vaccinator’…”
“What ?”, I thought , “is it like being the Hunter and the
Hunted ?”
The voice continued, “Our volunteers will distribute the
vials and syringes to you and each one of you can give the jab to the person in
front of you in the queue…”
“Horror of horrors”, I thought, “not only am I going to get
a jab from an amateur , I also need to pass on the good deed to another person”
As I received the vial and syringe from a volunteer, I looked
behind me to find a man in his late forties or early fifties holding the vial
and syringe in each hand and grinning from ear to ear. The word, ’Smiling
assassin’ made sense to me now. One look at him and I recognized the type. Always
willing to volunteer…thinking they are the experts in everything they do and thinking
they are doing good to the other when they are actually causing more harm.
I gulped down hard and managed a wry smile back at him.
I looked in front of me and saw a young woman in her early twenties.
“Poor thing”, I thought as I looked at the syringe in my hand.
Before I could think of much, I felt a sharp pain in my right
arm. I twisted around in agony, suppressing a scream. His right hand was plunging
the syringe into my arm and the vial in his left hand was empty. He had done it !! And my arm was in excruciating pain !!
It was my turn. Now that I knew how bad it pains, my hand trembled thinking of how I was going to give the jab to the young lady in front of me. What if she screams? It would be such an embarrassment. I wanted to ask for help. There were a few nurses walking around helping people and giving demos on how to give the jab.
I shouted, “Is this supposed to be an intra-muscular or an
intra-dermal injection?” (Not that it made any difference to me).
A nurse came up next to me. “Please make it fast”, she said.
I took the syringe in my right hand and was about to prick
the person in front of me.
“You need to take the medicine in the syringe first”, the
nurse said.
“Oh, sorry”, I pulled plunger and took the medicine into the
syringe.
“Now you need to release the air out of the syringe”, the
nurse continued, visibly irritated by my total ignorance.
I held the syringe with the needle pointing up and slowly
pushed the plunger to release the air out. Then holding the syringe with both
my trembling hands and with my eyes shut, I pushed the syringe into the young
lady’s arm, waiting for the scream.
But there was no sound. Waited a bit longer…still no sound. Wow,
either I was a great jabber or the lady was really brave !! I slowly opened my
eyes and looked at her. She had an impassive face as if nothing had happened !!
“Wow”, I thought, “this is one brave lady”… then I looked at
the nurse. Her face was not all that impassive…rather it was seething with
anger… she glanced alternately at me and then at the site of the injection…
I followed her gaze… the needle of the syringe had only pierced
the sleeve of her dress !!
I gave a sheepish smile. This was embarrassing…I apologized for
having made a hole in the dress.
The nurse snatched the syringe from my hand and then she pinched
the young lady’s arm to create a bulge and pushed the syringe in.
“Now that’s how you give a jab”, she said, “Now go ahead and
press the vaccine in”, as she placed my thumb back on the plunger.
I obliged and heaved a huge sigh of relief that it was
finally done…feeling ready to go home after a victory in battle, when the
loudspeaker turned on again. “Congratulations everyone. This was the first doze
of this vaccine. See you all in the afternoon today !! This vaccine
needs to be taken three times a day for three days to complete your first
course of vaccination”
I fainted….
