Some of the most vivid memories of my childhood includes mom screaming at me to clean my room, organize my cupboard, do the dishes; most of which either fell on deaf ears or was met with a delayed response. Nine times out of ten I ended up being grounded or whacked by her to get me to do the work (PS this was all wayyy long ago :P)
One day I got so harrowed with all her screaming, I went out and bought a poster that said,
We also wanted 2D outliners which a guy in Baroda made himself. We got one in every color we wanted.
Mom was, of course, not happy about our endeavor. We strictly asked to be confined to my room while at this. :P
Next step, and the best one was to start designing the diyas. We had no designs, nothing was googled. We just went crazy with ideas and implemented them.
None of us was a pro at using paint cones too. Of course we made a mess of the first few diyas, repainted them and got on with the work. We had all the freedom to go crazy with ideas, which was so fulfilling.
We spent a lot of time together, the three of us; doing this.
We were really happy and content with ourselves that, for once, we were doing something like this indoors, rather than galavanting during the holidays and spending money on endless coffees.
We had very special combat diyas made by my very good friend Capt. Apari, which of course, we did not sell. I think we also made a pair with all our names written on it, as a gift to him. He was going to leave Baroda soon.
Now, if mom thought this was the messy part, she did not know what awaited her. Next step, Step 3 was to melt and fill the wax in each of these diyas, add the wick before it dries up (it barely takes a minute and a half to dry).
Lucky for me, mom used to work then. We were only allowed to use her kitchen till she was not in the house and we were supposed to clean it by the time she gets home.
There were accidents. Oh yes, there were! We dropped melted wax all over our hands, on the kitchen slab. We then got down to scrubbing it squeaky clean before she was back from work. We also managed to put one entire slab of gel wax on fire before we figured out how best to melt it. I think that was the worst part of the entire exercise.
Ruchi jumping up and down and screaming, pointing at the burning wax and Charsi trying to get a better shot of it, we finally doused it with cold water. Sigh!
I don't think mom still knows about this incident. So I should await a phone call once this goes up!
Charsi (Damn, Amruta) later got us some nice boxes to pack the diyas, Once done, we went door-to-door in our individual neighborhoods and tried to sell them. We managed to sell all the diyas, we also got more orders, some of which we took and delivered but then had to stop because Diwali was getting closer and we were not allowed to get out much (relatives & other Diwali formalities).
The final packaging looked something like this.
But, we were not done! We then went overboard when we realized that we still had some wax and lots of paint left. We picked up cutting chai glasses and painted them, took glass test tubes and painted those and filled them with wax. I think the batch of gel wax had caught fire when we were melting it for the test tubes.
Needless to say they were some of the best days we spent together. And no matter how much mom screamed, we couldn't have done this without her permission to mess the house up! :D
One day I got so harrowed with all her screaming, I went out and bought a poster that said,
"If I were organized, I would be dangerous"
I mustered up courage to put the poster up on my desk and I would not like to recount what happened when she found it. However, the poster soon got buried in my ever growing pile of books and the mess.
Later, when I made new friends, OF COURSE, I found the laziest of the lot.
Meet Amruta or Charsi, as we call her, she was so lazy she wouldn't talk to us or hang out with us apart from college for over a year and a half of college. Ruchi, who just loves to sleep and me -- people who know me need no telling about how lazy can be.
However, one fine Diwali vacation during college, we decided that we just HAD to go to Goa someday, all of us together. Of course we didn't have the cash to go and were sure our parents wouldn't be too happy to sponsor our trip. So we decided to get together and do something about it.
I am not exactly sure how we came up with the idea, but with Diwali approaching, we decided to make diyas and candles. We would then package them to be sold door to door a couple of days before Diwali to gather money for our Goa trip.
Well, the Goa trip never happened, and we still talk about doing one, but we came up with some pretty good stuff, which was all sold out.
So, here's what we did.
We bought some earthen diyas from the old city market in Baroda. We bought lots of paints: acrylic, bold colors, pearl colors, etc.
We bought some earthen diyas from the old city market in Baroda. We bought lots of paints: acrylic, bold colors, pearl colors, etc.
We also wanted 2D outliners which a guy in Baroda made himself. We got one in every color we wanted.
So, first of all we painted ALL the diyas; we had about a 100 of them. This, alone took us a couple of days. There were later left to dry properly before we moved to step 2.
Next step, and the best one was to start designing the diyas. We had no designs, nothing was googled. We just went crazy with ideas and implemented them.None of us was a pro at using paint cones too. Of course we made a mess of the first few diyas, repainted them and got on with the work. We had all the freedom to go crazy with ideas, which was so fulfilling.
We spent a lot of time together, the three of us; doing this.We were really happy and content with ourselves that, for once, we were doing something like this indoors, rather than galavanting during the holidays and spending money on endless coffees.
Everytime we finished a batch we would step back to appreciate them.
We had very special combat diyas made by my very good friend Capt. Apari, which of course, we did not sell. I think we also made a pair with all our names written on it, as a gift to him. He was going to leave Baroda soon.
Now, if mom thought this was the messy part, she did not know what awaited her. Next step, Step 3 was to melt and fill the wax in each of these diyas, add the wick before it dries up (it barely takes a minute and a half to dry).
Lucky for me, mom used to work then. We were only allowed to use her kitchen till she was not in the house and we were supposed to clean it by the time she gets home.There were accidents. Oh yes, there were! We dropped melted wax all over our hands, on the kitchen slab. We then got down to scrubbing it squeaky clean before she was back from work. We also managed to put one entire slab of gel wax on fire before we figured out how best to melt it. I think that was the worst part of the entire exercise.
Ruchi jumping up and down and screaming, pointing at the burning wax and Charsi trying to get a better shot of it, we finally doused it with cold water. Sigh!
I don't think mom still knows about this incident. So I should await a phone call once this goes up!
The diyas, finally done!
Charsi (Damn, Amruta) later got us some nice boxes to pack the diyas, Once done, we went door-to-door in our individual neighborhoods and tried to sell them. We managed to sell all the diyas, we also got more orders, some of which we took and delivered but then had to stop because Diwali was getting closer and we were not allowed to get out much (relatives & other Diwali formalities).
But, we were not done! We then went overboard when we realized that we still had some wax and lots of paint left. We picked up cutting chai glasses and painted them, took glass test tubes and painted those and filled them with wax. I think the batch of gel wax had caught fire when we were melting it for the test tubes.
Needless to say they were some of the best days we spent together. And no matter how much mom screamed, we couldn't have done this without her permission to mess the house up! :D
