Skip to main content

CRAFTING MY WALL


Surely, SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work) was something I enjoyed at school not because we could do something worthwhile as the initials stood for, It was like a silver lining during the exams when we could take leave to prepare for exam or perhaps even skip school for a Saturday Sunday outing by missing on a half day school which had two periods of SUPW .
SUPW class was meant to give us an opportunity to be introduced to newer skills which we under normal circumstances avoided. It was CBSE's smart initiative to make it a part of its curriculum. Strikingly a number of projects that I have executed until now owe their roots to those formative years.
The cognitive abilities acquired then, have been the foundation stones to many projects taught to my children. Every time an idea was required I had something new to offer for which I was gratefully thanked by my two teenagers. Though my creative talent oscillated between bad to good I had a wonderful and enriching experience which I valued almost always.
The only project which I ever did and the inspiration for which I owe to my father was a huge Paper Mache wall in my home. That was a simple case of plagiarism but between father and daughter it has no legal repercussions. Before I actually sat down with my project I did a number of pilot tests most of which were unsuccessful. Finally something clicked and wow! I achieved the desired result.
The hunt for the ply board, their rates, quality and the transporting charges added new dimensions to the project. A special mention I wish to make here that it was something I had decided to do all by myself. I was open to suggestions from everyone but the final decision was my privilege. Believe me! That was a real learning experience. I learnt being decisive and enjoying the fruits of my labor.
The craft work would then start by late night and continue till midnights, how many, I seem to have lost count of them.
The work progressed at a snail’s pace stretching from days to weeks to months. Every morning I would go and sit right in front of my last night's work and sit admiring it. I loved to see it and showing it for it was something really exquisite.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WHATSAPP FORWARDS

"You will not read any of my WhatsApp messages and so it is useless to send you anything.” My mother said to me. I acknowledged her by my silence mentally reciting," I read all that you sent to me". So, here I am busy reading all about Indian spices and medicinal herbs used as daily household ingredients, thereby indulging in more studies on naturopathy as compared to any other ‘pathy’ which has side effects. I speed dialled my mother when my patient refused to undergo the procedure of scaling to clean her teeth in favour of 'alum', or "phitkari," a desi nuskha. No wonder patients shirk away from scaling. I ruminate. "I just called you up to confirm if you WhatsApped something to my patient "I vented. Ever since, I have been scrolling through all her erstwhile messages to know more about natural healthier medicaments, their benefits and roles in dentistry and health. Oh! WhatsApp was not there when I was a student. No wonder, my gold ...

THE FRUIT OF LABOR

Notification alerts continued one after the other and I knew it had to be my sister. Next morning her WhatsApp did not seem so interesting. Thank God! I never got up at midnight to see these. There were images of mud, plants and potatoes. Nothing new, I put it aside without a thought and sipped my early morning tea. As I read further, scrolling down the images was her excited note on her home grown organic potatoes. Now that was a bait I asked her "miraculous, since when have you started all this". "While composting for my garden I had accidentally left a potato in the garbage ditch. This was my discovery just today" she answered and I could imagine her admiring those potatoes. "Great guns," I responded. The matter rested after this for a few months. The feathers were ruffled again as she posted images of tomato, eggplants and potato plants neatly planted along the sidewalls, her today's endeavor .Thanks to our family group messaging system, ginger a...

INHERITANCE

As a student I had to commute in local buses as prevalent during those times. My wait for the arrival of the next bus forced me to notice an old lady curiously observing me. I pretended to ignore her but still found myself to be a subject of her curiosity. Undeterred she stared, unabashed I turned my back towards her, only to find her blatantly changing sides to face me again. Realizing my awkwardness in avoiding her she questioned me about my grandparents and excitedly mentioned my mother’s name to confirm my filial descent. She then introduced herself as an old neighbour of my grandparents who had seen my mother as a teenager and my resemblance to her. Thank God! I whispered as I took a seat and bade a farewell to my new acquaintance. Genetics and not Facebook turned out to be the most potent tool in uniting the long-lost, figures in my mind.  As I was having my morning walk session, I could see groups of people performing yoga and yet another group indulged in a discourse on a...