After waking up from a post lunch nap taken on the couch in the hallway, there is always a weird uneasy feeling.Even a strong concoction of ginger and tea leaves just manages to go down the oesophagus without stimulating or activating the cells that make you feel active.The only way out is to go out and take some fresh air.
I and my dad loved to go on the road less travelled, keep going without any particular location in mind and then traverse the way back the same way or apply sense of direction and head back home. I felt this was the best way to know the local area and also develop a good sense of direction. I have learnt to 'read' the atlas just like any other novel , solely because I would watch my dad do it. When I was a kid, I loved to go through the last section where squared sections with India map had triangles, dots, squares all scattered on it. The locations of ores , refineries, river, railways maps, airways and others. I could not locate any place but would categorize the map as north, south, east and west India and fun, while at it.
Once, as a school assignment we had to map all the rivers of India. My dad made me go through the reference book and asked me to make a note of all the major rivers first and then closed the book and asked me to draw all of them. without the reference it was just impossible for me to draw them on the plain dotted map. I new the exact location and length of only some of the rivers like Kaveri and Narmada as there were slightly sloped lines across the map , one in the south and the latter middle of the map to just below the Kutch. With his watchful eyes just hovering above the pencil and the map, and the fear of being knocked* on the scalp, it was very easy to get the shaky wavy line of the river. I confidently started the line for Narmada from starting from somewhere below the kutch on west coast till the middle of the map and looked up for his consent. When he said 'No! Draw again' my ego was hurt. I drew again the same way with some additional curves and shakiness and raised my head. He said NO! Now my ego had disappeared and the confidence was shaken and If I were a cartoon then my scared eyes could be seen above the scalp, scared when I will be knocked. This went on for a while before he got frustrated and played carrom. He said river always merges with the sea/ocean and not the other way round. So all I had to do was draw the same shaky line starting from the middle of the map to the point below the kutch!! Though it was forbidden to draw the river the wrong way my confidence was back stronger as I knew the location of the river Narmada.
Last year when I had visited my native place, Sagar, a small town in the malnad region of Karnataka, I and my dad happened to see this beautiful scenic place nearby. The picture and myversion of this memory in water colour is below.
*knocked - while tutoring, for any wrong doing, he sometimes hit the head, with his fingers, as if the head was a striker on a carrom board. It was not painful but sharp enough to get the mental fluid tension to go score high.
I and my dad loved to go on the road less travelled, keep going without any particular location in mind and then traverse the way back the same way or apply sense of direction and head back home. I felt this was the best way to know the local area and also develop a good sense of direction. I have learnt to 'read' the atlas just like any other novel , solely because I would watch my dad do it. When I was a kid, I loved to go through the last section where squared sections with India map had triangles, dots, squares all scattered on it. The locations of ores , refineries, river, railways maps, airways and others. I could not locate any place but would categorize the map as north, south, east and west India and fun, while at it.
Once, as a school assignment we had to map all the rivers of India. My dad made me go through the reference book and asked me to make a note of all the major rivers first and then closed the book and asked me to draw all of them. without the reference it was just impossible for me to draw them on the plain dotted map. I new the exact location and length of only some of the rivers like Kaveri and Narmada as there were slightly sloped lines across the map , one in the south and the latter middle of the map to just below the Kutch. With his watchful eyes just hovering above the pencil and the map, and the fear of being knocked* on the scalp, it was very easy to get the shaky wavy line of the river. I confidently started the line for Narmada from starting from somewhere below the kutch on west coast till the middle of the map and looked up for his consent. When he said 'No! Draw again' my ego was hurt. I drew again the same way with some additional curves and shakiness and raised my head. He said NO! Now my ego had disappeared and the confidence was shaken and If I were a cartoon then my scared eyes could be seen above the scalp, scared when I will be knocked. This went on for a while before he got frustrated and played carrom. He said river always merges with the sea/ocean and not the other way round. So all I had to do was draw the same shaky line starting from the middle of the map to the point below the kutch!! Though it was forbidden to draw the river the wrong way my confidence was back stronger as I knew the location of the river Narmada.
Last year when I had visited my native place, Sagar, a small town in the malnad region of Karnataka, I and my dad happened to see this beautiful scenic place nearby. The picture and myversion of this memory in water colour is below.
*knocked - while tutoring, for any wrong doing, he sometimes hit the head, with his fingers, as if the head was a striker on a carrom board. It was not painful but sharp enough to get the mental fluid tension to go score high.
1 comment:
awesome...
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