Faculty- Sajith Gopinath
Ruttikorn Vuttikorn
And then there was plight.
It was the first day of the open elective,and the project posed was to come up with a model or toy which best reflected myself and the stories I've been bared to in my childhood.Completely clueless,I plunged at the sketchbook.And through a series of planning and muddling up,which best reflected myself,the model was created.
It started with this.The rough sketch,the original plan-To have a few boxes with a magnet each attached to its lid which would swoop up when another magnet attached to the girl's hand would come over it.
Goof ups-weak magnets.
It has four boxes(or what I call boxes),each containing a drawing of childhood story associations.And a cut-out of a girl(me) who would open these boxes and let out the stories.
As a result of the numerous 'Secret Seven's and the 'Famous Five's I read during childhood,I started to fiercely believe I had it in me to become a great detective or a case solver.So even if the neighbour carried out anything as routine as taking his car our of the garage to drive to work,I would think aloud,"That is queer.Why would he do that.I must find out"
I also had a thing for fantasy.I would listen rapt at stories my grandfather told me about mythical creatures and traditional tales.There was one about how he surpassed the tests flung at him by an Ekshi or Yakshi, in his village in Kerala,while returning home one dark night.He recollected a million oil lamps flared up as he approached safely at his front yard telling of the yakshi's fury.
Yakshis are reputed to waylay men with their beauty and drink their blood. The Yakshi theme is the subject of popular Kerala tales, like the legend of the Yakshi of Trivandrum, as well as of certain movies in modern Malayalam cinema.(That was straight off wiki,in my words-they are more or less like banshees)
The stories I used to read away to glory were mostly Enid Blytons and Amar Chitra Kathas.They highly influenced the way I spoke.So instead of saying,"She is going to be angry" I'l say "She is going to be very cross".Or there was a constant repeating of ,"Oh bother!"And many a times my mother's call would be retaliated with a pro-pah "Yes mother."After the Amar Chitra Kathas of Hindu mythology it would be,"Who goes there?!" or "I take this vow,O patient mother,to finish my brinjal before the sun sets."
The stories also used to intrigue me with the names of various dishes,and the one which used to slightly confuse me was 'brownie'.It took looking up to realize that it was a magical creature as well as a form of cake.And how I pestered my mom to make 'porridge',because it sounded so good.Which I realized was also called 'oats in milk' which she used to thrust down our throats much too often.
The girl has a straw on her head,thereby trying to symbolize my ever-curious self.The boxes drastically dissimilar but symbolic to the ones in Grandmother's attic which I have always wanted to open thinking there might be hidden treasures.But now they have stories.
Anoodha Kunnath
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