The Architrave and I

"Hmmm ....so ...hmmmm...OK now ," his tone thoughtful and contemplating .He drew a couple of lines on the already scribbled plane and looked up ."That will be an architrave of 18 mm thickness."and there I was beside him ...trying to look reasonably intelligent nodding wisely peering at the paper which sported lines and squiggles which to me resembled hieroglyphics. An Architrave ...Oh alright (Gosh was that English, Greek or latin ?) Help .Google !.

And then the trail of the Architrave began ....Google said it was a frame for the door ( Was that it? ..Did it have to be called an architrave ?Couldn't it have been called a frame in simple English .Well....work was work and architrave it had to be . I drafted the architrave as I thought it should be .He (my team leader ) goggled at the drawing and was silent for a couple of suspense filled moments. Then in an almost mournful tone he drawled (if you could drawl in a mournful tone ...),"Madam,How do you plan to fix this on the wall ? Where are the working details ?,I need a working drawing Madam ."

(Fix it ? wasn’t that the carpenters job?Iwas told that all an interior designer had to do was visualise the designs and feel smug .The nitty gritty of bolting and riveting was for the mortals who called themselves carpenters and fabricators .Hmmmm...Guess i was wrong)

With a sigh he picked up a sheet and drew some lines across and some parallel and marked out some dimensions.With a pencil he pointed to the lines and said in a resigned voice ,"See this is the wall and this line here is the plaster line ,then you have the frame work and then the architrave ."

(For the life of me I could n't relate it to any thing that resembled the picture of an architrave shown in the search engine .Well, never one to give up ..I faithfully copied the lines on to the screen and gave it some final touches of some extra lines and took a print out .

His reaction was almost painful to watch,"Madam ...he sounded as if in some agony ...where are the spacers ,why havent you shown the 12mm ply backing and what is the thickness of the veneer and what is the veneer that you are proposing to use "

Spacers?,veneer?ply backing ?..wasnt it supposed to be just an architrave ?Well deciding to take the bull by its horns ...I expressed my ignorance on constructing an Architrave..... and it started all over again

This time I knew i had got it right .(It was my seventh attempt ...).With a sigh of an achievement I pushed the printed sheeted towards him .An expression of pure agony crossed his face ...,."Madam ...how can you see the architrave when i am cutting a section in the wall like this ."

I saw my career as an interior designer crumbling like the wall he had just cut . I wanted to shout ",Who would cut a wall of his own house to check how it was made ?"

And this was just a beginning ,....suffice to say that I conquered the architrave in my 12 th attempt .and now...... its an ss finished Handrail of 50 mm dia fixed to ss uprights with 10mm glass.

Feline attraction

She fixed her feline gaze on him and softly purred …"whisker" …her tones seductive. She watched his whiskers twitch…. in fascination …his muscles rippling under the pelt of brown hair .Her own muscles twitched in response .She threw bac k her hair in readiness .her medium length of black fur swung back …ready to act .She advanced slowly so as not to scare him .He turned as if sensing her presence and fixed her with an unnerving stare and then looked around for an escape …..but by the time he spied an outlet he felt her claws run on his arm in a light caress……sending shivers down his spine .He arched his back and twisted away from her and then leapt down lightly to the ground and then broke into a run to scale the nearest wall .he could sense rather than hear her anger .He heard her bounding after him in an attempt to stop him .But his training in life now stood in good stead .Even as she reached the bottom step he was over the wall .He could hear her plaintive call, “Whisker come back here right now …or else I’ ll shut this door and never let you in” .

“Hah ..big deal”, ….he grinned as he rubbed himself against the post eyeing the new chick perched on the wall next door …….

“lady you don’t have a whiskers chance of catching me ….thank meaow.”

sunshine and blue mist

viva la viva( as in viva voce )

Hey .....i am back ..no- not with a bang, more with a whimper ...tired and feeling low (not my usual peppy self )and why ? all because of a VIVA ,yeah guys you read it right and no ,i was not the one conducting it I was at the receiving end ...please save your pity for some one else .I asked for this .Natural isn't it ... a student has to be tested ....and this was the first VIVA of my life and i wanted to make the most of it. Let me get to the details before you all blink in confusion.
Here I am a student of interior designing and after spending 5 months of drafting sheets and sheets of plans and elevation and sketching objects and figures and giving umpteen presentations on glass,wood and textures ,twisting myself out of shape trying to discern the different colours and their characteristics ....there had to be a test.....and there it was ,the writing on the board(sorry... wall ) ....a viva to test your knowledge .The news sent shivers down our backs .I was not in this alone, there were seven others ....who experienced the same shivers .and worst of all we had to redesign our folders to look like (like ......what ???ahem left to our imagination .?well ..not exactly ...it had to represent the subject of our studies ...interior ,designing and architecture
The further few days proved how secretive human beings can be .Each of us went about acting as though we were just going to cover our folders with a local news paper as we had no ideas (and we called ourselves creative !!!)My idea was to buy a suitcase and roll it in with my portfolio inside and I let every one know that ... but my mind was working on an overdrive for an idea which was easy to do but simple and attractive and of course ....cheap as my funds were low. Till the last moment the secrecy and pretension continued and the day came and each of us walked in with our portfolios ....guess none of us were really surprised ....cause everyone had worked hard at it .There was a model of a three storey building which housed the folder and a kitchen with complete utensils and chimney ,a room with velvet curtains another one with satin curtains and so on and so forth .and of course there was mine .a paper collage affair .....simple in comparison of course but conveyed the idea...so i thought.And slowly the cats crawled out of the bag .....on how long it took them ,how difficult it was and so on .....well that was about the folder .and now about the viva
As i was the seventh one (lucky for some )i cooled my heels refreshing my memory on things i had learnt so far. Any one looking into the room where we were parked would think that we were or some of us at least were getting ready for a bout in the ring.A couple of us were doing the calisthenics ,(to jog the fickle memory, of course ) the dancers were taking deep breaths as taught in their dance classes and another had her eyes closed and was in deep communication with the maker .The game began ....
Each candidate was questioned minutely as he or she came out after their stint with the interrogators ... to get a hint of what was going on ...but the feedback was not very encouraging ....they all had the same answer ....nothing was asked ...i wondered if we were living in the silent era .the external was a architect .....was he ahem! ....challenged in some way or better still struck dumb by our talent and knowledge???? The latter thought was the better option . Then , my number was called...I walked in with a feeling akin to that of walking into the proverbial lions den (there were two in there )
"Introduce yourself please"
"Ahem" (i unglued my vocal cords....it had got stuck when the sixth one had gone in )"my name is......."i began and as a after thought added my age as i ended my intro
(did i detect a surprise???)
"oh okay ...but we do have to question you , you know ".
"sure ..go ahead "(Okay ,so i lost the first round )
And then the scrutiny began My sketch book with my juvenile sketches was commented upon and duly appreciated which almost embarrassed me .The examiner even alluded to MF Hussain ( i was not quite sure if it was complimentary )and then my portfolio ...oh well that did me in .He took pains to point out the bloopers in my drafts.....okay..so they were repairable and as for the questions ....they were actually subject related, which indirectly summed up to a politely worded concerned enquiry as to whether i knew what i was doing there at this age .
and so ended the viva .We parted on a happy note ( so i d like to believe )
The result is not out (thank god for small mercies at least my weekend was saved ! )

The Assignment

The assignment was pretty easy .Make your own logo. Logo for my own interior designing company...My fingers were already on the keyboard when the next few words arrested me “Do not copy, no googling, it should be your own”. The stern tones dashed my hopes and stilled my fingers .Well ,it did make things a wee bit difficult .Exercising my brains was not something I had recently indulged in …in fact I used it only to decipher the complicated plots of the Hindi soaps ..which are beyond normal human imagination .Well home work had to be done and submitted in a weeks time .I took to doodling names and designed logos over any thing and every thing .Inspirations hit me at odd times …my kitchen tiles and my table tops were covered ..My eyes scanned and skimmed over hundreds of logos and signs…as I stopped at every traffic signal ….and often came to my senses at the sound of indignant co drivers honking and cursing me .I noticed that some very imaginative ones were often in the shadows That didn’t help one bit .There were not mine .The days seemed to speed on wings and before I knew there were only three days left and I was logo less and totally clueless .Roping in friends and family too brought me no results Swallowing my pride I approached my ever helpful lord and master .I implored him to direct his superior grey cells towards my problem …..He pondered a while and with the air of a person reading out ones rights declared pompously …”hah its easy” “.Easy?” “Yes add one more C to it” “ECC! Hey that’s the cement company” I shouted in glee. “That’s ACC you nut” replied he. “So what’s ECC?” “Economical, classic and contemporary” came the pompous reply. “Harrumph!” snorted I, silently of course. .The voice of my tutor echoed in my head. it should show case your work ,your talent and your creativity .ECC indeed ..i mentally aimed it at the nearest waste bin and walked out .Desperation sometimes will make your grey matter more active .Names were flying in fast and furious …my pencil flew over the paper but had to discard every single one of them as making a logo for it was impossible .
My wan and dejected look brought in suggestions from people all around . My sister suggested that I use my own name and she even had visions of a TV channel interviewing her on my work .I crossed it out .…My name was a creation of my totally unimaginative parents ….it had no music to it and no creativity at all .Next .my husbands name …the name of our Mahathma ( no way )and then I went through all the names of currently alive family members ..mother’s ,father’s ,kids .uncle’s aunty’s …nothing passed the muster ….then came the Gods and Godesses …..again ruled out as I didn’t want to displease them by selecting just one out of them .I then decided to take the help of the dictionary ..the bible of every English Teacher …..i ran through the shelters of every living being including the toad but then again it was just not ME …..and most of the words were already on bill boards and letter heads .I then crossed boundaries ..searched from Kashmir to kanyakumari ,languages ,dilects anything for the logo of mine .Then it was the international …..browsed for names in French ,Spanish and greek and made some new discoveries that words do not always mean what they sound in foreign languages and I sat defeated .
I sat and sat lost in despair ….a day more to go and there I was logoless and lost .Slowly the sounds around me drifted into my ears ..amongst the din of the construction in the next yard .i heard a sweet cooing .it went on steadily for almost ten minutes .The voice of the cuckoo …I saw her in my mind’s eye sitting in the crows nest and trilling away happily ….the song of victory .The bulb blinked and then it shone brightly ..EUREKA…my logo shone in that light ….the logo for interior designing and building …DBAC …which will expand to read Don’t be a cuckoo ….we will help build your own !!! Original ,Creative and Innovative.

The salesman's love

It was becoming increasingly difficult to leave her when it became night .Her smile looked mournful. Did her eyes hold a reproachful look or had he imagined that? “Darling I’ll be back in the morning,”he whispered, it was for her ears only .He looked around conspiratorially. No …no one had noticed him speaking to her .The mirror on the opposite wall reflected their images .He, thin with a little stoop ,tired hollowed out eyes .wheatish complexion and she beside him ,slim ,fair ,wide beautiful eyes ,dressed elegantly in bright pink sari .They made a starkly contrasting pair .He smiled at their reflection ,patted her hand once more ,lifted the keys from the shelf and went down the steps without looking back .he stood silently watching him go .
Reaching his house he hung the bag on the peg .His dinner was kept on the table..It had become cold .He made no comments it was an every day affair now, Washing his hands and face from the pump outside he sat to eat .Not one did Lakshmi ask him about his being late every day .Today was the same . He could hear the crashing of pots and pans like cymbals from the kitchen .The baby was crying .He heard her scream at the baby asking his elder one to take care of the baby .From her tone he knew that she was aware of him in the next room .Her voice had shrilled. He pictured her …her dark and pudgy face ,her oily plait coiled up untidily and her sari falling over her plump shoulders idly tucked at the waist .She was not always like this .It was only after the birth of the second one and after they shifted to this two room house .He could not compete with the neighbors .He could not stop his elder one from going over to watch TV .But what stopped her from trying to look attractive at least for him .Didn’t he get her two new saris with the festival bonus last month ?He often felt that she was somehow taking revenge on him .She also made sure that she slept with the baby ,turning her face towards the wall .He was not one to force his attention on her .
Quietly he set his plate to one side washed his hands and lifted his mattress from the corner and spread it near the door so that he could look out at the stars in the sky and dream of his lover .She was his only solace .If it wasn’t for her …..He brought to mind her picture, her trim figure, her long mane of hair, her long lashed wide eyes .What would she wear tomorrow? The new green salwar or the yellow chiffon sari sprinkled with red sequins .Everything suited her .He could hear Lakshmi moving about in the room .Her muttering was loud enough to reach his ears and it was meant to .He wanted to plug his ears with his fingers .If only he was with his lover who he could hug .They would lie embracing each other .He would whisper sweet nothings into her ears and she would look at him with her wide eyes and would smile ,her enigmatic smile .He never knew what she was thinking but never once did she protest when he slid her sari and blouse off her shoulders and undressed her and later lovingly dressed her in a bright sari .Their love was two years old now and no one knew about it .He was careful not to raise any suspicion .
Lakshmi seemed to have settled down .The room was in the dark .The baby made suckling noises .He heard Lakshmi cursing the infant .He had enough of all this day to day cribbing and cursing .This nagging from sunrise to sun set .
He dreaded the Sundays when he had to remain home the whole day .It was torturous as he had to spend the day without seeing her even once. He made up his mind. This Saturday he would not come home, he planned to stay with her, spent the night with her. And tomorrow was Saturday He would somehow remain behind...One more day then she would be his totally .A delicious smile spread on his face at the thought and slowly he slipped into a dreamless slumber .
Monday morning the shop owner lifted the shutters to find his body on the floor. He was dead .His hands held close the beautiful faced mannequin in a tight embrace.

The Operation .....N

It was an obsession .One which I couldn’t get rid of .Once I had set my mind to it I had to get it done and so there I was waiting with.... trepidation in the waiting room of the clinic. It was now or never Three times before I had tried the time tested old method but to no avail .It did not last even a month . A friend had got hers done from here and had recommended the clinic My family had no idea of my intention and if they had any inkling I wouldn't be sitting here. I read the board hanging above the room opposite to where I was seated ,Dr Kurien (surgeon) “God “ I prayed silently ,”give me strength to go through this .”I watched the others who were waiting along with me ,Anxiety was writ large on their faces .I could hear my heart thudding in my chest .(wondered if they could too )I almost got up ready to make a run for the door .No one would be any wiser .and none would know I had even attempted to get it done .But my spirit rebelled .Now or never ..I reminded myself ..So now be it !
A nurse peeped out from the doctors room .She scanned our faces and her eyes focused on me ,”Are you for the surgery ?Have you got an appointment for today ?”I gulped and stammered ,”yes..yes ‘” getting up from my seat .My hands felt clammy .i walked towards her and showed her the slip .She took a look and bade me wait .After five minutes which seemed like eternity to me she appeared and signaled me to follow her .Stepping behind her my courage seemed to fail me as I thought of the risk I was taking and of my ignorant family at home .I chanted ,”now or never ‘” like a mantra and trudged behind her
We came to the door which had Operation theater written large on it .I was led inside where another nurse handed me the green gown and showed d me a cubicle to change I handed over my bag and stepped in .Wonderingly I changed ….oh god I was told it was a simple procedure ..then why all this ?Have they got me confused with some one else ?Would I go back minus an organ ?Are they running an illegal kidney stealing racket here ? Should I make a run for it when I could still do it ?Did the nurse have a sinister smile or was it a smile of sympathy ? My mind went on an overdrive .
As I stood contemplating I saw the doctor stepping into the room .I was then led to a steel contraption .the operation table ,told to lie on it and was covered upto my chin with a green cloth .( would the green be replaced by white after I was done ! ) From the corner of the my eye I could see the surgeon washing his hands and donning the gloves and a mask .He came towards me .I shut my eyes tight .He nudged me and asked me to open my eyes and said , “Relax ,itll be over in two seconds .”(what ? My life ? ) I gave him a watery smile .I could see the nurse ready with the instruments standing next to him .I went back to my eyes shut status The operation began .I could smell and feel the coldness of the anesthesia and then every thing went numb .I kept my eyes shut (ignorance is bliss )and opened it only when I was asked to hand him the nose ring which I had , clutched tightly in my hands ..He then proceeded to insert it and screw it tight .I felt no pain at all Well it was over …a wish of mine had come true .the diamond winked and shone as I stepped out of the clinic . I felt like a film star