Skip to main content

The Patachitra

"Her hands have magic", said everyone who saw her wield a brush. She had learnt the art of Patachitra as a kid. It was now paying off as she managed to make some money from it to fund her higher education. Her dad had left for his heavenly abode when she was appearing for her boards. Her mom was able to make only enough money to be able to send her younger siblings, a boy and a girl to school. She started doing odd painting work locally to make money for her college fees.
Soon, she managed to find a lady who gave her an order to paint on a sarees. That day she widened her horizon and started taking independent works. Then came that "online" order which broke her back. A lady gave an order to paint a pic of Srinath ji on a silk saree. "Please make my Srinathji blue instead of black." The picture shared was beautiful. And she was confident that she would be able to make it. Moreover, the amount she was offered was good so she accepted. She borrowed money to buy Tussar Silk cloth and lovingly translated the pic to the saree pallu and happily shared the pic with her benefactor.

"Umm, can you please add some bootis all over the saree." She did as she was told. "Oh some more bootis please." She added some more. "Ugh, I would have loved a different pattern of bootis but I guess I can't do anything about it. Can you please paint the patch on the head black so that it looks like hair." "But, it was like this in the picture and there's jewellery painted there." "Then you should have painted it black before." "Okay, I will correct it." She painted the hair patch black and re-painted the jewellery. "Oh my god, this looks so horrific and not exactly like what I asked you to paint. I am sorry, I cannot accept this." "What? But this is what you wanted. This is what you asked me to do." "Absolutely not, this doesn't look at all like the picture I shared. I cannot accept this at all." "Wait... Listen..." Blocked!

Now, the next set of books would have to wait. Maybe she will skip her final year in college. The loan needs to be repaid first.


© Nishtha Khurana, 2019. All rights reserved. The text as well as the pictures are both subject to copyright and are the property of the author. Please do not copy or reproduce without permission.

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Perfect Outfit

Her 4-year old loved imagining stories. His favourites included the ones in the jungle – with tigers and deer and parrots and peacocks. So, when it came to celebrating his birthday, she went looking for the perfect outfit. She looked on all online shops and couldn’t find anything that felt just right. The best she could manage was a leopard print dress. That wouldn’t do. So, she went hopping all the malls and markets, scanning all the shops. There was barely any improvement in the search as the only other option she came across was a zebra print shirt. More searches here and there, and she moved over to bird prints or butterflies. The dresses and shirts, they all looked alike.  What to do? The birthday celebration was just round the corner; and her extensive search yielded no result. Even the husband was fed-up of her obsession to get just the perfect outfit. “Just go for the leopard print – it’s in these days, I hear,” he said as he shook her head. She continued languishing i...

When The Saree Made Her Feel Free

There was a time when the saree signified Patriarchy for her. She used to detest the saree, for the sake of not using a stronger emotion. But now she felt exactly the opposite about it. This story is how that change came about in her and this one saree that was a symbol of that change. She was born and brought up in Delhi where she grew up with two sisters and they all were treated equally at home and had a very normal childhood where there was no partiality towards any single person. So, all the initial years of her life, she was never really taught that she was any less to the opposite gender. Unlike many girls her age, she never had restrictions about the time she could stay out or what she should wear or how she should behave. She had a blissful life until she got married.  Then, she got married… Just entering her 25th year, she walked into a Punjabi family decked up in a bright red chooda. Her parents thought they chose well for her… They had focused on marrying her off in an ...

The guy who showed her the Rainbow!

The year was 2009 when she had entered college. New friends and new life… That was what it was all about. She connected with Sagar almost instantly and they became the best of friends. He would wait for her at the college gate and they would proceed to the lecture hall together. The endless chatting in the College Canteen ranged from comparing the abs of Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham to sharing stories of their childhood – hers in cosmopolitan Delhi and his from a small village in Jharkhand. He was her best shopping buddy and came up with best suggestions on what to buy and what suits her. She could even discuss her make up stuff with him. Even her sister wouldn’t bother when she discussed the difference in the shades ‘Really Red’ and ‘Red Velvet’ in Revlon; but Sagar would pay attention and even tell her that he thinks ‘Fire & Ice’ looks even better. He was a keeper all the way and none of her girlfriends came close.  She always knew it and there was never a need for hi...