Welcome back to my blog! :)
Today, I’m diving into the journey that finally made me say goodbye to my glasses and contact lenses, and embrace a clear, hassle-free future!
So, bad eyesight runs in our family. Both my parents wear glasses, my three elder sisters wear glasses, and don’t even get me started on my cousins and aunts and uncles—basically, every family gathering feels like a convention of AMSA - "All Mizoram Spectacles Association". :P
With that kind of genetic lineup, it was only a matter of time before I joined the club. Eventually, when I was in class 5, it was my turn to embrace the family heirloom, lolz.
I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. Aunty Rich, our dormitory warden, dragged my scrawny, hesitant ass to the eye doctor. Later that night, I returned to my hostel at St. Thomas, wearing really thick glasses for the very first time in my life.
Life was tough for a 10-year-old kid in Kolkata back then because if I wore the glasses, everybody made fun of me with the classic "four eyes" insult, and if I didn’t wear them, Aunty Rich would whack my butt with her infamous dreaded cane.
And believe me, back in the late 80s and early 90s, being called "four eyes" was a painful insult—definitely not something you’d brush off easily. But fast forward to today, wearing specs has become so normalised that it’s almost a fashion statement. The generation gap is real! What used to feel like a curse is now no big deal, and kids these days wouldn’t even flinch at being called "four eyes".
By the time I was in class 8 at Montfort School, Yercaud, wearing specs was starting to be a problem because I was active in sports and games, especially basketball. Nothing ruins your ball game faster than trying to defend a dribbler with just one hand because you’re busy shoving your glasses back up your nose with the other hand, or getting fouled while going for a layup and watching your specs fly across the court—or worse, break into pieces.
At one point, I even tied shoelaces to the frames of my glasses around my head to keep them from falling off mid-game. We call this "Jugaad". :P
But after one particularly horrible incident where I crashed into another player head-first, the upper rim of my specs made a deep cut on my left eyebrow, leaving me bleeding and having to undergo five stitches as a memento.
That was the last straw. Our sports secretary, Brother Varghese, marched me to the STD booth once I was stitched up, called my parents in Mizoram, and convinced them I must wear contact lenses during matches for my own good.
From that point on, I was officially part of the contact lens club. And let me tell you, life with lenses is a whole different ball game.
On the bright side, I didn’t have to worry about glasses fogging up every time I sipped hot coffee or ventured into an air-conditioned room. I also experimented with coloured lenses (grey, blue and green) and I even took a passport photo wearing one of them and used it for a bunch of official forms like entrance exams and college applications. The best part? Nobody noticed, lolz.
On the downside, I had to treat my eyes like a delicate ecosystem—everything had to be squeaky clean. You'd think I was preparing for surgery every time I had to put my lenses in or take them out.
Wearing lenses was like a mini ritual: wash, dry, check for lint, hold up to the light, check if it's the correct side, place on the finger, blink a few times, insert, blink some more. And of course, there’s always that one time where you blink too early, or some small speck of dust was on the lens, and boom—you gotta do the whole ritual again.
And sometimes, for absolutely no reason at all, your lens would just decide to slip, leaving you frantically trying to fix it with your unclean hands, or by blinking like a maniac if you're in the middle of a conversation. Nothing says “awkward” quite like being on a first date with a Tinder match while you’re blinking furiously and trying to see her properly. It’s no surprise she never returned my calls after that. :'(
I guess we can say, I did not see that coming, badumtsss! :P
Just kidding—I’ve never been on a blind date because I’m already half-blind without my specs or lenses. :D
There’s this funny video of me on YouTube from when the Mumbai police came to our Mizo Sunday Church service, after my blog post about inviting the police for tea went viral (some of you may remember that incident). Anyway, in the video, I’m standing next to DCP Tamboli and continuously blinking my eyes—like I’m on some kind of trip! The reason was, my damn contact lens decided to go rogue right at that moment. Of all the times to slip, it had to be while I was standing in the limelight! Arrgh.
But the worst part about contact lenses was when I ate anything spicy—especially Raja Mirchi, aka Bhut Jolokia or Ghost Pepper. As much as I loved devouring that fiery goodness, deep down I knew the aftermath. No matter how much I washed my hands post-meal, if my fingers touched my lenses, my eyes would go up in flames. I had to keep that in mind.
I also had to keep in mind how long I wore my lenses each day. Ideally, you shouldn't wear them for more than 12 hours continuously. And so, whether I was doing something good, like mitthi in tlaivar, or something bad, like clubbing till the crack of dawn—I had to plan ahead. Either I’d wear my specs all day and switch to lenses only in the evening before heading out, or I’d pack my lens solution and case in my bag like a survival kit
And so, when my friends and I would hit up legendary party spots like "The Club" in Bengaluru, "Velocity" in Mumbai, or "Someplace Else" in Kolkata, while my homies were busy smuggling in a bottle of booze, there I was, sneaking in a bottle of contact lens solution. :D
Now it's been 32 years since I first started wearing specs and contact lenses. I did consider getting LASIK surgery back when it first came out, but it was insanely expensive at the time. As the years went by, I just shrugged it off with a "meh". My glasses and contacts had become such a natural part of my life that I didn’t see the point in changing things.
There were only two reasons that made me seriously consider LASIK surgery: War and Disaster.
1. War – Picture this: we’re in the middle of a civil war or some post-apocalyptic nightmare. Society has crumbled, all comforts are a distant memory, and my specs and lenses are nowhere to be found—probably destroyed in the chaos. The enemy surrounds the village, and there I am, squinting at blurry figures, not knowing if they’re allies or foes. I can't shoot back because I can't see squat! Worse, I need to run, but I have no idea where or who to run towards. Classic horror movie scenario.
2. Disaster – Now, let’s imagine a natural disaster—an earthquake, a tsunami, or even a global pandemic (oh wait, we had that one). My glasses are shattered, lenses lost, and I’m stumbling around like Mr. Bean trying to survive. I’d have no idea where to scavenge for food, where to find shelter, or who’s waving at me from across the road. I wouldn't last a week, tripping over debris and walking into trees like a blindfolded contestant on a game show.
And so I finally decided to go for LASIK surgery last month, but not because of the two reasons above.
What made me change my mind? VR. lolz.
Yup, Virtual Reality. That device you wear on your head to transport you to a whole new world and experience.
Here’s the thing: Even though VR is the next big thing in tech, it's still not advanced enough to magically adjust its visuals for people like me who are "sight-impaired." The problem? Correcting focal length for VR ain't easy. Each person has a unique prescription to deal with issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and a whole bunch of components, like spherical, cylindrical, and axis corrections. Yup, it’s complex.
Sure, companies like Oculus (Meta) have been toying with Varifocal displays that can adjust lenses on the fly, but this tech is still under research, and we’re far from the day when it can handle all our different eye needs.
So, if you’re someone like me, your only options for VR are either popping in contact lenses before entering the virtual world or awkwardly trying to shove your specs inside the VR headset—while praying you don’t scratch the VR lenses (or your glasses). And they hurt your head like hell too.
There are also a few VR companies that offer to custom-make prescription lenses for your headset, but they're super expensive, and they basically turn your VR into a “you-only” device. Plus, every time your power changes, you’ll need to shell out more cash for new lenses.
THIS is exactly why I finally decided to go for LASIK. With more of our office work suddenly shifting into VR, I had to ditch the hassle once and for all!
And when I say "suddenly" above, I mean it. That’s the nature of working at Ronin Labs in this fast-paced digital industry—everything is constantly evolving, and if you don’t adapt, you get left behind.
Just three years ago, "playable ads" were our biggest revenue stream. Then, poof—clients lost interest. Two years ago, it was all about the "metaverse", but that hype fizzled out faster than NFTs. Last year our cash cow was on "AR filters". But now, as you might have heard, Meta is shutting down all third-party face filters and AR effects on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, along with the tools to create them, this coming January 14th, 2025.
So, where’s our focus now? VR. We’re diving deep. One of our MR (Mixed Reality) apps is already live on the Meta store, and another is in the works. The way things are going, I’m betting I’ll be spending more time in a VR headset than I do in the real world.
And that’s exactly why I chose to get LASIK—to prepare for this virtual future and save myself the constant struggle of wearing contacts or cramming glasses into a headset. It was time to clear up my vision, literally!
In my next post, I’ll dive into the actual LASIK procedure itself—what it was like, how it felt, and whether I came out seeing stars or... you know, just seeing clearly for once! So hope you visit again for that.
Until then, cheers everyone.
