Saturday, August 27, 2011

THE little GREASE STAIN

Grease on a wall. Oppressive dark furniture in a semi-lit room. Endless abyss of idle time. An active mind. Madness. That's how the story began and ended. She was a neat freak and there was this annoying little greasy stain on the otherwise spotless wall. She spotted it for the first time, when she was watching tv one afternoon in that depressing little living room of hers, with its oppressive dark colored furniture. The blinds were drawn and the only light was from the TV screen.
She hated the mid-day television soaps, but still could not resist watching them. Why? Because there was nothing else to do. "Well, its upto you how you use your time..", her friends and family would tell her.... The grease stain drew her attention again.. Did she imagine it, it seemed to have spread a little, increased in size by an inch. To be fair, she had been looking for work and catching up on reading for the first 6 months. But then, reading is fun, only when you steal time away from other things to do it, not when its the only thing you have been doing for 6 months. So, she tried writing. The grease stain again... Why would it not come off? She made a mental note to try that new stain remover she had seen on the commercial. She picked up her laptop to read reviews on the new stain remover.
About the writing, yeah, she wrote about 2-3 blogs and ran out of things to say. She was brimming with this capacity to say things beautifully, but then, what could she write about? Almost anything she said seemed to be stolen from those damned television programs or the books she read. Hmmm... She couldn't wait to try the new stain remover...
Next day, same time, same show, the stain remover had been ineffective. The grease stain had spread more. Maybe she should do what mom always does to get rid of stain on the wall. Why had she not tried that? Ever since the writing attempt had failed, she had pretty much given up trying, life was a routine, so much so she could get all her house chores done at an amazing speed. She even knew the precise second when the postman would walk up the steps and drop off the mail. Stain! Stain! Go Away... The new stain remover had been a bad idea...
Well, mom's method had not been effective either. How about repainting the wall eh? Hmmm, that will keep me occupied for a couple of days.. Or maybe just painting over the stain?
Hmmm.... that looks neat... Damn! I missed a spot. A big spot in fact! Mission: Repaint tomorrow...
Mission Fail: One more spot...
And so the stain engulfed her... There remained an empty semi-lit room with TV on low volume and oppressive dark furniture as she mutated into an obsessive being with 8 large tentacles, and sprawled up the wall, chasing and examining the ever moving and resilient grease stain....

5 comments:

DJ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DJ said...

Very well written. You are back with a bang!!

Kavity said...

Great language, as usual. Waiting for more posts from you.

astute columnist said...

Whoa! Thats me thats me! (with tears) But why me? No answer... No one around me to even answer! I hate this loneliness and its side effects...

Mind blowing! Just mind blowing! Was speechless when I read "an obsessive being with 8 large tentacles" Was wanting to know what the stain was all about!

Very well written! Bravo...

Santosh said...

good one :)