I feared I suffered from prosopagnosia

6 min read.

The incident about my fear of suffering from face blindness, recounted hereinbelow, is very recent one, and so are the other two anecdotes. All three occurrences took place during the country wide second lockdown.

Rain or shine, I have been walking and jogging throughout my life, including in West Africa and South Asia.

It was on a Sunday afternoon we had lunch, and while the wife was in the kitchen, I put on my coat and trainers, and left for a walk. Unlike many couples, we do not go for a walk together. Some people in the vicinity insinuated that we might not be seeing eye to eye with each other. That is not the case. We have lived together for donkey years. The reasons for not walking together are a few.  The foremost one is that she takes a walk at a slow pace, while I do the speed walking. The timings are different. Furthermore, I leave the house sloppily dressed, she would, notwithstanding the gloomy clouds of Covid-19, step out of the door spick and span exuding cheerfulness. 

I was walking and pondering over the prospect of having covid-19 vaccine. Observing the social distance, I exchanged greetings with the passers- by.

I crossed the two side streets on the left and continued my walk until I reached the mini roundabout. That is the point where I perform about-turn. 

While returning, when I reached the first side street a South Asian woman hove into my view from the other corner of the lane. I wondered who she could be.

Beside us, there is not any other Asian family in and around our street. It was possible that a new family might have moved into the area very recently.

Absorbed in my thoughts, I crossed the street. I did not look on the right side again. Hardly had I walked a few metres when I heard my wife shouting at the top of her lungs:

“I’ve made tea for you. It’s in the tea cosy.”

I felt rattled suspecting that I might be suffering from face blindness. It might be the after-effects of the lockdowns and self-isolation.

In the evening I told my wife that I could not recognise her in the street, and that I might be suffering from moderate prosopagnosia. She elucidated:

“No. No. It’s not true. Even I did not recognise you straightaway. We were apart from each other at more than the distance of what the DVLA expects a learner driver to demonstrate that his/her eyesight is good enough to be able to drive safely. It is done by reading a standard number plate from a minimum distance of 20.5 metres or 5 car lengths.  I could only recognise you later from your typical gait style.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her for dispelling my fear.

The second incident also reflects that the Covid-19 is taking a toll on everyday lives of people who are continuously self- isolating for months.

We have family friends, the husband called Bash, and Nishi is his wife. Both are retired teachers and live about fifteen-minute drive from our house. Out of the abundance of caution, they are shielding since March. Their married son, who lives not far from them, does the shopping for them.

My wife rang up Nishi on the land line. Bash, the husband, picked up the phone. He recognised my wife’s voice and said:

“How’re you and how’s the doctor doing?”

Wife answered:

“Not bad.  Like other millions we’re the lock downers too. We hope that vaccine would soon relieve our misery.”

He added:

“Yes, it is terrible. I’ve heard that many people are suffering from mental health problems. Not only that, due to lack of fresh air and isolation, other problems are creeping in too.”

My wife could not agree more.

 She asked:

“Can I to speak to Bushra?”

Funnily enough, instead of asking for Nishi, she indicated Bushra, another friend who lives with her husband and two children in the next street.

Bash did not clarify to her that she must be asking to speak to his wife Nishi and not Bushra. Instead, he replied:

“She’s upstairs. I tell her.”

 He yelled:

“Bushra, your friend Mrs Chaudhry is on the land line.”

After that there was lull. Probably, there was some altercation between them. It is just a speculation. But one thing is certain that the pandemic is taking its toll.

I was returning from my routine walk. When I was at the cusp of crossing the second street, then completely out of the blue, I saw a medium-sized dog, collared but unleashed, barking and running towards me from the other end of the street.

 I was scared stiff.

At some distance from me, he suddenly stopped but continued barking incessantly and ferociously. Meanwhile, a man who seemed to be the dog’s owner bobbed up grinning. This was what he said:

“Don’t you worry, sir. He’s trained to keep the two- metre social distance. I’m trying to train him to put on a mask instead of a muzzle.”

I resumed my walk showing my scant regard to his dog training.

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