To me, the image brings on a sense of
nostalgia – no, not because of the poem, but because of the memories of my old
Underwood typewriter that had been passed on to me by my grandfather. The image
brings memories of days and nights I had typed furiously away on that
typewriter. Even the correction of the word ‘bluish’ on the image brings back
delightful memories of days when computers were considered alien and a ‘delete’
option just did not exist. Of course, now I am thoroughly spoilt by, and greatly
enslaved to, the unlimited possibilities offered by the computer.
Thank you, Rajesh, for bringing back
memories of those days of boundless creativity by means of not a ‘mouse’ but
pencils, pens, paint, crayons, brushes, knives and whatever else that you could
get your hands on. This image reminds me of those days when you didn’t just log
out to close for the day but spent about half an hour in the washroom washing
off paint from your hands, hair and sometimes your nose too! And the artists’ department
was not made up of cubicles, the walls of which did to you what blinkers did to
horses. Artists’ room used to be a creative haven though in utter disarray, or
rather, a colourful chaos.
In those days, every work we did had an
interesting story behind it. And these stories cemented the team bond. Perhaps
this piece of paper is testimony to the bond – and the copies of our numerous works
and other bits and pieces that I have still treasured in my safety locker!
For those who would like to read a more
legible version:
My Masterpiece
With the fine feathers
of subtle imagination
I paint a picture new,
strange, intense and sublime,
with the crimson of twilight,
the scarlet of the dawn,
the depth of midnight blue
and the ash of cloudy monsoon,
the tinted white frays
of the bluish green seas,
the spreading soft yellow
of the slowly ageing leaves,
the greenness of the ferns,
the roses of the roses
and all the soft crayons
of many a lovely dream.
Oh! Only if I could
create this masterpiece
with all the dazzling hues
that my eyes daily perceive!