The room was host to several very serious looking men and women, accompanied by large portions of luggage. Boxes, cartons, packages, buckets, bottles, liquids, creams, solutions, powders…
All of them suitably attired in white plastic overalls, looking like an expedition about to take off to Mars !! The room, black plastic plastered and taped, to avoid the muck to float around and bring my short stay in the Hotel to an abrupt end ! Some western classical music switched on from the in house radio to ease the agony I was about to go through. Why western classical ?? Ah ! Well that would be another story. A seat, rotatory and levered to elevate or deflate, placed in the centre. And minus the straps, designed for the moment to look and appear much like the one they put humanity on to send them ‘upstairs’ ahead of schedule !! Got it ?? Yes. Thought you would. If you’re reading this, you’ve obviously not been put on one , thank god. Seen it perhaps in movies and books, obviously. Stripped of all clothing. Except the essentials. Instructions coming from various directions and various people of how to exist when subjected to what was to follow. Ears blocked. Eyes blocked. The entire face and shoulders blocked. Just the two little holes for the nostrils left open so I could practice my morning yoga and then..
Tons and tons of colored algae like paste spread at rapid speed and with deft touches all over me face and body !!
Its dark inside there. No sound comes. The ears having been blocked first with lubricated cotton and then covered with this playful plastercine. Someone keeps yelling if I was alright. I keep responding with my thumbs pointing heavenwards. They keep patting and plodding and then after an endless wait, start to remove now solidified mask off face. Its like being reborn. Its like someone ripping your entire personality away from you. Its like one of those recent face transplant experiments carried out on lady that lost her entire face in an accident. Read about it ?? Come on !! Get real !! It was all over in the papers. And the subsequent moral and ethical debate that followed. Yes. It always follows. Do something inventive, run into controversy.
Anyway.. back to Mars attired astromakeupnauts, more parts of body, more algae, less breathing and closer now to discovering the extent of damage done to furniture and floor of Hotel Suite !!

And I keep thinking. Maybe we should have filmed all this like Aamir did for ‘Ghajni’, from the moment he started to repair his body a year in advance to look like Arnold ! Great foresight to be using that eventually in the promotion of the film and great confidence in the final record breaking shattering box office outcome. But that is Aamir. This is poor ol’ me. I do not have foresight gumption, nor box office performance predictability. This is ‘Pa’. Who would be interested in knowing procedures of the making of film. Rest then the thoughts and trouble not the intent of the space attired personnel that ominously admire, not my face, but the face they just algaed !! Holding it respectfully. Admiring their flawless execution of job. Addressing its minor and major accomplishments. The nose here, the eyes there. Caressing their workmanship. Guarding it and putting it away for travel by air to distant destination for finer adjustments and design. For a new look. A fresh appearance. An appearance that shall be documented for posterity. One that shall speak well written verses and words. That shall be subjected to emotion and cause and story. To music. To sympathy. To public and ticket. To review, mostly biased and ‘wretched’ most definitely. To be put away, in either doubt or acclaim and forgotten.

The human is no different. No inferences to the many masks we wear. No justification of our deeds. No design to our end. An end that will be the ultimate positioned chair for the ‘upward’ journey. Resembling finally and reduced eventually to a large mould of algae. Thrown with respect and prayer in flowing distinctive divine and monastic waters. Or buried deep in suitable enclosure, stamped and glowingly engraved on stone !!

It is dark in there. It is dark here too. But I breathe. Breathe to live and survive. To explore and test. To endeavor and climb. To slip and fall, to rise again to slip.. to rise again to slip.. to rise again to slip…

Amitabh Bachchan

The image I had been wanting to upload… finally got it done !! You may now be able to assess my predicament !! Here goes -