Past
Waiting at a traffic signal on my bike, I happened to look at a person with a earphone on him. At first I thought that he was either talking on phone or listening to music.
Suddenly this primitive(!!!) thought came to me. I felt he was wearing a hearing-aid. My eyes started searching where the wire was jacked into. Obviously looking for a boxy device. But finally figured that it was just a mobile head-set that had a strange white color and feel.
Some kind of a keen observer I am.. or may be I was staring and may invite a different response in US. Let’s give it a honest thought.. at least am going to be.
How many of us have thought of a person being visually-challenged for wearing a spectacles?
Now I know why people around me think I am weird at times and many of my spectacled friends must be fuming in rage:-)
Spectacles are widely accepted as fashion add-ons and come in wide varieties and shapes. But it’s a common fact (at least as far as I have seen) that, in traditional families searching for a groom might look down upon a groom wearing a hearing-aid.
But the same cannot be said about a guy wearing spectacles. Few of my Tamil friends may even say "maapillai Bhagyaraj maathiri superaa irukaaru" meaning the guy likes like actor Bhagyaraj (in a nice way I mean) .
It must be interesting to know that the spectacles started as a device to help correct vision some 2800 years back ( I wonder if Jesus was wearing it in human form). That’s a long time to evolve while the hearing aid is comparably a recent phenomenon say a few hundred years.
This oldness to the spectacles may explain the slow progression of a defect correction device to something that does lot more. Today's spectacles can protect your eyes against UV rays, dust etc. as well as helps you in styling in latest trends.
It also gives you a sense of hiding behind a curtain when you have something you don't want the world to see
- hide a sore eye because of getting hit by wife (not for me)
- swollen eyes because of a mad booze party the previous night (high possibility)
- weepy eye due to watching a mega soap on TV (may be a depressing movie like "Mahanadhi")
- squint or differently-sized eyes(few top film stars do)
But all is not lost on the other side too. Hearing aids these days come in extremely miniscule sizes and shapes that are impossible to figure out.
Finally I hope hearing aids evolve both usage wise (can think of as a extended mobile phone feature) and acceptance wise - best indication would be acceptance of a bride/groom wearing hearing aid with the spectacled ones.
Now my grumblings are over.. homework time.. do post as comments.
Exercise 1 - Think of a trendy name (not that it sounds bad but just to be on the same ground as goggles/sunglass/spectacles etc) for a hearing-aid
Exercise 2 - Like my idea of making it a mobile phone feature throw some new ideas to make it more acceptable and trendy
Future - Spectacles with hearing-aid
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