Skip to main content

Discovery

Short Fiction

 Sculptor was frustrated. 

He had a theory that every rock contained within it the statue which the artist has only to discover.  Sculpture is the art of dis-covering. 

But the rock on which he was working refused to reveal the statue it contained.  Sculptor looked at his semi-finished statue from left and right, front and back, from all angles possible. 

No, this isn’t what I had seen in the rock. 

Yes, a sudden realisation dawned on him.  I’ve been making a mistake.  I had seen a particular statue in the rock while the rock contained a quite different one.   He took his hammer and chisel again. 

In the place of Sita which he had been trying to carve, now emerged Ravana.  With one face containing all the ten faces. 


Comments

  1. Indeed sometimes changing perspective work wonders..And Sometimes it is necessary to see things with someone else eyes to make things clear

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, Harsha. Sometimes we become slaves of fixed perspectives. I realised it yesterday when there was a problem with a student. This story is the result.

      Delete
  2. Just have one word for it Sir - Brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Abhra. You always make me happier than I deserve.

      Delete
  3. An eye opener. Sometimes we have to let go of things and let them work on their own.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tom excellent moralistic story. There is a Ravana in everyone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And that Ravana becomes too active at times creating havoc for others...

      Thank you.

      Delete
  5. Nice one, Sir! :)
    Great that the rock told its story and the sculptor understood...
    Wish we all are as perceptive as the Sculptor while carving our sculptures in Life! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If your wish came true, the world would be paradise, Anita.

      Delete
  6. What a great writing..few words said and conquered all.
    Sonal

    ReplyDelete
  7. Breaking Stereotypes - Brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Trial and error is actually a good approach :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In this case, it was more than a trial and error, however.

      Delete
  9. [ Smiles ] It's good to know that the artist had a change of perspective!

    ReplyDelete
  10. A brilliant post, I could even conclude two more things out of it - The once who were Ram or perhaps Sita, as time passes may turn Ravan....Or people you thought were like Ram and Sita were actually Ravan in making which you failed to notice..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Both are natural and valid possibilities... This, being a parable of sorts, is amenable to a lot of interpretations. What about the process of artistic creation, for example?

      Delete
  11. Absolutely beautiful. I guess every artist feels that way at one point or the other. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 3

Street leading to St Francis Church, Fort Kochi There were Christians in Kerala long before the Brahmins, who came to be known as Namboothiris, landed in the state from North India some time after 6 th century CE. Tradition has it that Thomas, disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to Kerala in the first century. That is quite possible, given the trade relationships that Kerala had with the Roman Empire in those days. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, chastised in his encyclopaedic work, Natural History (published around 77 CE), the Romans’ greed for pepper from India. He was displeased with his country spending “no less than fifty million sesterces” on a commodity which had no value other than its “certain pungency.” Did Thomas sail on one of the many ships that came to Kerala to purchase “pungency”? Possible.   Even if Thomas did not come, the advent of Christianity in Kerala precedes the arrival of the Namboothiris. The Persians established trade links with Kerala in 4 ...

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 4

The footpath between Park Avenue and Subhash Bose Park The Park Avenue in Ernakulam is flanked by gigantic rain trees with their branches arching over the road like a cathedral of green. They were not so domineering four decades ago when I used to walk beneath their growing canopies. The Park Avenue with its charming, enormous trees has a history too. King Rama Varma of Kochi ordered trees to be planted on either side of the road and make it look like a European avenue. He also developed a park beside it. The park was named after him, though today it is divided into two parts, with one part named after Subhash Chandra Bose and the other after Indira Gandhi. We can never say how long Indira Gandhi’s name will remain there. Even Sardar Patel, whom the right wing apparently admires, was ousted from the world’s biggest cricket stadium which was renamed Narendra Modi Stadium by Narendra Modi.   Renaming places and roads and institutions is one of the favourite pastimes of the pres...

Five Microtales

1.        Development             Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and many others stood at a distance, along with their families, and watched their huts being pulled down by a bulldozer. They were asked to leave the place where they had been living for decades. “The government has taken over this land for development works,” an officer said. Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and the others spread their bedsheets under a flyover over which flew opulent vehicles of development.   2.        Impersonation             The old woman went to the Women’s Welfare office. She wanted to register herself for the Prime Minister’s monthly welfare scheme for the old and unemployable women. She placed her thumb on the scanner for Aadhar authentication. “Not matching,” the officer said. She was arrested for trying to impersonate. Sitti...

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 1

Inside St Francis Church, Fort Kochi Moraes Zogoiby (Moor), the narrator-protagonist of Salman Rushdie’s iconic novel The Moor’s Last Sigh , carries in his genes a richly variegated lineage. His mother, Aurora da Gama, belongs to the da Gama family of Kochi, who claim descent from none less than Vasco da Gama, the historical Portuguese Catholic explorer. Abraham Zogoiby, his father, is a Jew whose family originally belonged to Spain from where they were expelled by the Catholic Inquisition. Kochi welcomed all the Jews who arrived there in 1492 from Spain. Vasco da Gama landed on the Malabar coast of Kerala in 1498. Today’s Fort Kochi carries the history of all those arrivals and subsequent mingling of history and miscegenation of races. Kochi’s history is intertwined with that of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, the Arbas, the Jews, and the Chinese. No culture is a sacrosanct monolith that can remain untouched by other cultures that keep coming in from all over the world. ...