Lazy eye/ Why I Can Never Ever Watch 3D Movies wah

Read blogger Aduhi Chawngthu's latest blogpost about how she watched Spiderman in 3D and how it felt like the flying things were going to hit her at one point. And I am forcibly reminded again of how I can never get to experience what 3D movies look like (Squirm with guilt, Aduh)

I have Amblyopia, or Lazy Eye (I prefer the latter term, sounds kinda cooler), a condition in which one eye loses the ability to see things clearly. I can only barely distinguish shapes and colours with my left eye, and when I try on 3D glasses, all I see is a red image with a hazy blue blur somewhere in the corner of my left vision.

Apparently, when I was a child, I had a fever. My hands didn't feel just like two balloons but I got severely cross-eyed. Some doctor managed to cure me of it, but my sisters still like to talk about the fact that at one time, my identification mark was, "left eye on the right side". Still crops up occasionally when my eyes are tired and my friends like to point out, "Awi, kha a kalh, a kalh leh lo! A kalh leh chiah!"

Anyhoo, my parents and I thought all was fine and dandy until the time I complained of severe headaches when I was in class 5 and we went for an eye check-up. The doctor revealed the fact that I could only see clearly through one eye, which startled everyone, most of all me, because I had been having very clear vision. But it seemed that while my left eye is lazy as shit, my right eye has been over compensating like mad, hence the headaches.

"Your daughter will become blind within three years", proclaimed the eye doctor, "unless she wears an eye-patch for seven years and force the unseeing eye to see!" So I wore an eye patch. Like so. Unfortunately I wasn't as cute as the little girl there. And trying to navigate the world and especially school seeing just hazy outlines and colours was pretty harrowing for me. For one thing, I'm naturally clumsy, and the patch made me lose my depth perception, so I kept on falling down stairs, tripping and bumping into things. Also I fell way behind on my school work since I couldn't read anything. And I looked like a dork. So I gave up the eye patch, and nothing my parents said, not even the threat of blindness could make me take it back. And Lazy Eye is curable only with patching.



The doctor was wrong, though. It's been many many years since her prediction but my vision is still the same- left eye lazy, right eye workaholic. Also, since I've  never known what it's like to see the world through two functioning eyes, I've never felt deprived or anything.

And then they had to invent 3D. So now I feel a little bit miffed. And I also have a tiny headache too because I've been straining my eyes a lot lately.

So damn you, you prejudiced-against-visually-challenged- people-3D inventor!

Nah, not really. I still have my books, my 2D movies and the ability to see the funny side of most things, so I'm pretty good. And thankful. And to everyone with two functioning eyes, go watch the 3D version, Aduhi makes it sound pretty awesome. Ta!