And the chase begins….

Well ... First things first! Got a lot of flak, though not in written (thankfully), but verbally, from lots of you guys saying “Yaar!! Tera blog bahot lamba hai….itna kon padhega…yahan time kisko hai!” Hmmmm….so after much conscious efforts, have arrived at this much length. Otherwise you all know how much I love writing J

“But Mamta! Aren’t blogs supposed to be more about people reading it, rather then you just writing it?” My ‘Antaratma’ doesn’t leave even a single chance to taunt me. Anyway, will deal with it later, right now, here I go…..

……Well how do I start? Whenever I think of this incident, I feel like laughing my heart out. But another moment it sends shivers down my spine! It was one of those tiring nights, I was returning home from work. Work pressure and deadlines had taken a toll on me and I wanted to quickly take a nap! But my only problem was- I was in an auto-rickshaw. So, even though my body was begging me to sleep for a while, my mind - how much ever tired it was - was extra cautious about staying alert. Body won and said ‘never mind’ and I was in deep sleep. Suddenly, few minutes later, I hear this loud yell... “Madam,….Utha….tumcha stop aala…aaho madam..!”. It was morning already. And I see the auto driver switching on the meter light. It flashed around ‘1000’ reading! I was aghast. WTF! Secondly, I see the place was not my home, but something familiar. It was my school!

Why here??? Yes, I was tired, but not to the point that I tell him the wrong destination. I remember telling him clearly- ‘Ghatkopar-Garodia Nagar’”. I wanted to whack him hard, but was too tired so just gave him a cold stern look. In return, he gave me a dramatic ‘angry old man look’, like some ghostly character straight out of RGV’s ‘Phoonk2’. The only difference being, instead of blood, he wanted money—his fare. Thankfully, it was day light else I would have been dead by now! But, but this was no less scary. I mean Rs.1000 is still fine; school is still ok- it’s in the vicinity, but daylight??? How can I be travelling for so long that it was daylight already? Did he hypnotize me or something? Somehow my mind ignored all the events and possibilities and focused on the money part! (Gujju after all!).

“Bhaiyya, mee roz issi route se travel karat aahe. 45-50 tak hota hai. 1000 nai hote. Kuch bhi! Tumhi tumcha meter check karo! ” I said in broken Marathi.

“Kaay re Heroine!! Jaaast twond ughdaycha naahi !! Tula heeth basaycha aadhi saangitla hota na... Chhha..maayla….kunchya gaavahoon aalis re..…chal kaadh hazaar rupaye lavkar…!! ” he grunted. [For the benefit of Non-Marathi readers, what he meant was: Just shut up. I told you before you sat. Now don’t act like a coward. Give me 1000 bucks quickly!]

“Arre mag, aise thodi....”

“Mamta, stop! Firstly you can’t match up to his Marathi; secondly you don’t even have the money. Just stop arguing and RUNNNNN!!!!” my ‘Antaratma’ had to interfere. After gathering much gut, I ran towards my school gate.

“Tichya maari!! Palte kuthe?! ..Arre pakda re tila…ayye....chor chor..palte dhara tila..... maajhe paik dilyabagair palte…..chorrrrrr.....” he began shouting at top of his voice.[Hey where are you running! Somebody grab her! She is running without giving my fare.. chor chor!!]

Like a typical Bollywood action scene of sorts I could feel some virtual background music as I was running. Mixed with my heart beats and foot thumping, it sounded like some cheap remix. Simultaneously, his yells were scaring me. Gosh!! Why was I running as if I have committed some crime? Still, I feared to look back and see if he was running after me. Finally, I reached my school gate and hid in the small shaft nearby. Gasping for breath, I peeped out to see. There he was!!! Still near his auto. He had managed to gather couple of people and was pointing towards the gate. Suddenly, a known face appears from the crowd and talks to him. His actions and body language were quite familiar, but don’t know whether out of physical or mental tiredness, I was not able to recollect where I had seen him.

“SHIT!! What - is- he- doing - here???” Me and my ‘Antaratma’ jointly screamed after the instant realization. It was my PM! Don’t know how he landed up there. One bad thing attracts another. And anyway aren’t PMs meant for screwing up things further, I said to myself. (I hope he is not reading this) He animatedly said to the driver,”Mujhe pata hai kis ladki ko dhoond rahe ho. Mamta na? Usey toh main bhi dhoond raha hoon.! Chalo milke dhoondte hai. Bachke kahan jaayegi!” I got goose bumps hearing that. “Gawd! WHAT have I done? Now why is he after me?” As they sat in the auto, I got restless thinking what to do next. But hey! WHAT’S THIS..? Instead of heading towards me, they sped off in the opposite direction. Suddenly, everything else fades out and there is a blackout! And I see the back of the auto in front of my eyes— emerging from a smoke, the graffiti on it read – “And the chase begins…” Tin tin tidin tin tin tin….

“….tin tin tidin tin tin tin….tin tin tidin tin tin tin…..” Signature tune of ‘Don2- the chase begins’ started playing from nowhere and suddenly I hear a familiar voice. “Damn! Just wake up and answer your phone. It’s ringing since when and now I am getting irritated with this stupid caller tune!” My brother shouted handing over the phone to me. “Why do men hate anything even remotely associated to SRK…huunh?” I wondered. I was about to pick up and it got disconnected. “8 missed calls? From PM?!” I looked at the watch “Gosh! Its 11 am already! No wonder!! And…and.. today is the deliverable.. OMG Mamta ..Hurry up!!”

As I quickly dressed up and got ready to whiz off to office, my bro shouted, “Hey, watch out! Just read in paper. Today no buses – BEST on Strike. You would have to go by Auto!”

“Auto??!!!” I froze for half a minute. “Tichya maari!!....chor chor……dhara tila... ...padte kuthe....choor chorr choooorrrr!” Something familiar echoed in my head! I shook my head in disbelief and stretched both my hands to my ears!

“What’s wrong?” My brother stood there looking at me worriedly.

“Aaa…well..aaa ..no..nothing” I smiled, “Ju.. Just enacting ‘Daya’- ‘Hey Maa.. Mataaji’….!!Hehe” I struggled to match her pose.

“Huh??!I I guess you need some sleep. Sleep in the Auto!” He gave me a sarcastic look and left.

“AUTO!! Yeah Right…! Tin tin tidin tin tin tin…LOL.!” My ‘Antaratma’ said playfully.

There’s always a first time…

"Saturday- Sunday, Children’s Batch mein aana padega… chalega na?" My Sir asked when I called him up for enrolling. For a minute I was like "What? Children’s Batch? No ways!!" But then I had no other option. Weekdays it was not possible for me (and not for children either…since they have school) so it had to be on weekends!
I wanted to learn different forms of painting since long, but either I didn’t have time or lacked the required focus. Besides, I was getting pretty bored with the routine life. "Enough!!" I said to myself. "Mamta, this is the time. If not now then when will you learn it? Life is too short. Why don’t you pursue it right away? What are you waiting for?" To my surprise, an imaginary bell rang in my mind, and that very moment, yes, that very moment I had called up my Drawing Sir, and enrolled for the class!

"Finnnaaallly!!"said my ‘Antaratma’ giving a BIG grin! :)

Packed the material and off to classes!! Haha!! Felt like back to school. Ditto! Even when I entered the classroom - the sight - all kids ranging from standard 1 to 7 sitting diligently on the makeshift benches, engrossed in their artwork, some standing in queue to get it reviewed by Sir. Felt a bit out of place initially, as all faces turned to me. “Who is she? Our new Drawing Teacher or what?” seemed to be written on their face. After the initial discussion about the batch, duration, fees and stuff, Sir zeroed in on one of the paintings done by some Western renowned Artist and I had to replicate it exactly! Quite a task, coz the last time I remember working on a painting was almost 15 years back!


Now this is where I started missing my office daily activities. Firstly, 3 salutes to PHOTOSHOP :)God!!! Haven’t missed something so badly, lately, that I can write an essay on ‘Life without Photoshop’! Just as I started doing a rough sketch of the painting, I realized some strokes had gone wrong. My fingers searched for the virtual keyboard and wanted to do ‘ctrl+z’ and ‘alt+ctrl+z’! Then, I had screwed up the height of a bridge. It was proportionately bigger than the one in the reference painting. I wished I could do a simple ‘ctrl T’ and scale it down. My pencil became blunt in a while and I didn’t carry a sharpener. I wish I could decrease the point size by just selecting it from the tool palette. Sigh!! “Ohh! Phtotoshop where are you..I miss you I miss you I miss you!”

Finally after much hesitation I decided to borrow it from a little toddler sitting adjacent to me. He was so engrossed in his ‘artwork’ – looked almost like he is sleeping –his head on the desk, tilted, his hand holding a color pastel moving zig -zag on paper. May be that was his ‘ishtyle’ of coloring. ‘Budding Artist’ I tell you! But to my amusement or rather shock, he was painting the Penguin in ORANGE color! I felt like scolding him for not doing his ‘Content Gathering’ and directly starting with the ‘Development’. Did he have any clue what amount of ‘Re-work’ will that involve? "Hellooo!! Wake up Mamta! You not in office!" My 'Antaratma' yelled at me! "And please spare that poor baby.. he must be just 5!". Back to my 'senses' I quietly asked for the sharpener. He carefully took it out from a double sided, magnetic, Mickey Mouse compass box and handed it to me smiling proudly as if I had committed some crime by not carrying it! I couldn’t help but fall for his cute smile :)

The sketch was almost done. I virtually did a ‘ctrl +s’ and went to Sir. Now was the real interesting part that I had been waiting for! WATER COLORS! Wow! The enthusiasm of opening the freshly packed box and recalling all those colors by their shades - Ochre Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, Vermillion Red - every little thing was taking me back to school days! And the thought that I am going to use these colors soon was even more exciting!

"Yeh White dekh rahi ho.. this is not the color, it’s the light" Sir explained referring to the reference pic. "Tumhe bilkul aise hi white chhodke baki sab color karna hai. And remember water colors are transparent, so ekbar jo kar diya so kar diya, uske upar dubara koi color nai daal sakte". As usual I reciprocated with my eyebrows raised to maximum heights! "Kyaaaaaa?? Aur agar galti ho gayi toh?" He gave me a firm look and said, "Galti honi hi nai chahiye!" "Okaaayyyyy"I said to my self. Sir had told me a couple of things which I had somehow managed to jot down in my mind. However, just wished there should have been one excel sheet of his comments, where, as I do those ‘Changes’ I could have marked ‘Done’ against them!

"Enough!!" said my ‘Antaratma’. "Get a life Dear! You are missing more and enjoying less!" “. Quite right. Actually! I became serious. Slowly I started liking working within those limitations. Filling the color and carefully leaving the white, exploring the brushes, depicting darkness and light. (Wow! Am I turning a poet now? ;)) Soon got so engrossed that had almost finished a section of the painting. Now again was the turn for review. "Achha hai. Paani ka force itna nai chahiye. Par theek hai, feel achha aaya hai. Next time dhyan rakhna. Now we will start with the 'wash'". He explained me how important it was to get it right the first time. And the ‘wash’ has to be very quick! Remember - very quick! I went to my table, super confident, prepared the color, took a 12no. Flat brush, and started applying it zip zap zoom…. And Booooom! I fell short of the color and the one I had just applied on just around 1/4th of section, dried up before I could count 1 to 10! I prepared the mixture again and re-applied it. It was not getting any better, in fact it started looking patchy. I was like "SHITT!! Now what?" I badly wanted to close the file – save changes –no! Went to Sir, like some student not doing the homework. I thought he will yell at me. But to my relief nothing like that happened. Though he told me to be careful next time, but also said that it’s ok, this is your first time. This is how you will learn. He showed me how to correct it. Though it won’t be perfect, but still nice! :)

Finally, I completed my first water color painting! It was a great feeling of accomplishment that I can’t explain in words. How much ever one may miss the powerful hold technology has in one’s daily life, but the joy or sheer pleasure in something handmade is ANY DAY superior! Hands down! Meanwhile was just looking at the painting and wondering, "Isn’t Life just like this painting? Initially you so excited, but sometimes things go wrong. You want to ‘undo’ certain things but it’s just not possible. Then you realize this is how you will learn, you will grow. You may not have all the things to mend it back to place. But there will always be someone around to guide you, to make things better. It won’t be perfect, but it will be still nice. Just like this…:)"