a little tear goes trickling by...

slowly slowly the drops form

sometimes salty but always warm

a little red flashes at times

once you miss it, once it dies!

mindless, ceaseless, raining drops

trickling, rushing, hiding drops

drop by drop maketh a puddle -

liquid pain anchored in a muddle

years of anguish and some despair

all tucked within the beautiful pair

each has a tale tied by a string,

like beaded pearls hanging on a ring

sometimes silent, sometimes playful

a little nudgy, a little hopeful

a little tear goes trickling by

finding no foe, no friends nearby...

Keeping up with the Dhorkandes!

The Dhorkandes were my ex-landlord plus neighbours, and as with all ex’s, I find it impossible to forget them. Its been a peaceful two months in our new rented flat but the Dhorkande nightmare still does not cease to haunt me.

Once our LIC agent had come home visiting for his duty-bound premium collections. It was around ten-ish on a Monday. While in deep discussion about some insurance plans with the agent, I did not realise that the door hadn’t been locked. All of a sudden Lady Dhorkande just kicked open the door and barged into our living room. Her face fell ten inches to the ground, when she didn’t see what she had imagined.

I thought she would get epileptic any moment then.

The lady has an extra-sensory power of imagination, fuelled by her 24x7 watch outside her verandah and windows. Seeing a young and dashing man visit me on a weekday, especially at the time when my man has left for work, erupted the best of the wildest crap from her head. She was so certain to catch us live in action that she didn’t bother to ring the bell or give it a second thought before stomping right in.

And to top it, she was at her un-satsangly best – electrocuted hair, clumsily-clad saree, barefoot, clutching a piece of clothing in her hand. I assume she was folding this piece while at the verandah when the golden idea struck her.

My man hadn’t left for office till then. He leaves a good half an hour later but her window-watching schedule went wrong on that fateful day. The agent, my husband and me were into serious analysis about annuities, better yielding retirement plans and most importantly whether we have the means to invest in a plan now. When Lady Dhorkande kicked in like Inspector Dhoble on a raid mission, all three of us looked up, shocked, amused and slightly annoyed.

True to the Dhorkandes’ she did not apologise. I asked her if anything’s wrong but she couldn’t utter a single word with that open mouth. In fact, it was so wide open that she could swallow a hippopotamus if she were hungry. Highly dejected at not seeing a twosome, she eventually blabbered something inane, before leaving. That could have also been Inspector Dhoble leaving saddened from a massage parlour raid, while carrying a huge lump in his throat because he couldn’t save the rotting world.

But what about the lump in the brain? Lady Dhorkande has two children and three grand children, sadly she has transferred or would be transferring this lump into them. I have more about the Dhorkandes but let’s park them for some other day.

Sculpture time with M-seal!

As I begin to write this, I can see my M-seal creation winking at me. The online resource said M-seal dries in an hour but this blob defied all laws of epoxy resin and dried up in 40 minutes. The 20 minutes denied to me were the most tormenting 20 minutes of my life. It would have been an ideal drying time had I used it for concealing leakages. But I was moulding it into a mother-child shape! Here it is for your grand wonderment, my first M-seal assignment and also hopefully my most amatuerish!

When you buy M-seal from the hardware shop, you will get two oblong rectangles of a soft moldable substance packed separately. It is basically epoxy resin and I am not its friend yet. You can learn more on the internet like I did but remember it dries up within 40 minutes. One is dark gray and the other is pale olive green, but when you mix the two, the mixture starts getting a darker tone and eventually turns into a warm black mass.

While you are kneading the two blobs, you have to be quick with your design judgement. As soon as the dough turns black, it also turns very soft and malleable. Begin moulding right away if you intend to make a one-piece structure. But if you want to create seperate little design elements to be then joined together or stuck/hung/beaded into something, then I would suggest to mix only that much as is required. 

My orignially intended sculpture was very different from what has shaped up but I'm happy I ended up wiser on this learning curve. In half an hour, I had managed to knead that black blob and create the required shape. Just then I got worried my sculpture won't stand without a tough base. So I created a flat cylindrical base and tried to attach it with a metal nail to the main body. The nail got stuck midway through the body since it had solidified at the core by then. I gave up pushing further and decided to pull out the nail. But the base had solidified by then. The next 10 most precious minutes were spent in pulling the nail out and patching up the hole it had created.

That was about it. My M-seal project came to an end as I struggled to give it a smoother finishing. The mother-child formation, very obstinately to my liking, chose their shape and stuck to it. No matter how much I pushed or carved, it didn't change a square millimeter. Perhaps I have to start being friends with this epoxy resin creature, to really get a hang of its likes and dislikes and get myself thoroughly acquainted with its mood swings if I were to ever create an awesome shape with it.