Open Sesame!
Anne Goscinny, daughter of the French author and cartoonist Rene Goscinny (of Asterix fame), moved house four years ago, and in the process discovered 80 previously unpublished stories about le petit Nicolas, a little schoolboy character created in the 1950s. The 600-page volume made out of these stories has sold 250K copies since its publication in October.
Well, I can’t claim to have unearthed something as spectacular as this, but it does bring to mind an evening, quite long ago…
Mom and I were the only ones at home, the rest having taken off to see a movie. I was perhaps 7 or 8 years old, restless and bored.
Mom, being the resourceful person that she is, decided it was time to clean out one of the many trunks that infested our house in all the nooks, corners, crannies and attics.
We pulled out this ancient looking trunk, complete with evenly spaced metal knobs on strips of metal welded together to form a formidable chest. It was covered with a layer of dust, and it took a more than just a few swipes of a wet cloth to clean it up.
We swung open the heavy lid and rested it against the cots. My excitement was beginning to grow. This was like one of the those Enid Blyton stories – I would probably find all sorts of mystery things inside! The musty smell that hit me just made it all the more alluring.
Right on top were some garments – a checked waistcoat which I promptly donned and thought I looked quite fetching. A pair of old socks, darned quite neatly at several places. A long, multi-coloured, knitted scarf which I thought was quite atrocious.
Then came a nice surprise. A really pretty beige silk blouse, with gold edging and small gold dots throughout. I tried it on – it was quite large for me, but would be perfect for my princess/queen role playing!
Then came a small tin box, the kinds they used to store powder and puff in. I opened it with some difficulty – the lid was rather tight and rusty. Imagine my delight when out rolled many coloured pieces of chalk! There was purple, light green, dark green, blue, yellow, pale yellow, a sort of red…I was thrilled to bits!
Then came a small crotchet bag with strings to tie the mouth. I pulled at the strings, opened the bag, and shook out the contents. Several shells covered with intricate beadwork, and small bead chairs and tables! Wow! This was great!
“It’s all your father’s mother’s stuff”, my mom told me. “She was very skilful, very neat and extremely careful. She always used to re-use things. Her darning was so fine that you could never tell it was an old, worn-out garment. And the way she used to fold clothes – it was as if they were ironed!”
I was impressed. I remember long after that, I used to smoothen out clothes I had to fold, so that they too would look ironed!
Several hankies (nice embroidery), a mosquito net (neatly darned again in several places), a silk border apparently cut out from a silk saree, a thick overcoat…we had almost come to the bottom of the trunk.
There was a woolly kind of cloth all rolled up, tucked into the corner.
“What’s this?” I asked my mom, holding it out.
“Ummm.. I think this is what she used to wrap her legs..her calves with, when they used to ache”.
I rolled it open – it was a long dark strip. And when the last twist rolled out, I saw it.
“Mom, mom, come and see this!” I shouted excitedly.
“What?” My mom came over, and stopped short in utter astonishment.
Nestled within the folds of the cloth, were five crisp tenners and four one rupee notes!
Well, I can’t claim to have unearthed something as spectacular as this, but it does bring to mind an evening, quite long ago…
Mom and I were the only ones at home, the rest having taken off to see a movie. I was perhaps 7 or 8 years old, restless and bored.
Mom, being the resourceful person that she is, decided it was time to clean out one of the many trunks that infested our house in all the nooks, corners, crannies and attics.
We pulled out this ancient looking trunk, complete with evenly spaced metal knobs on strips of metal welded together to form a formidable chest. It was covered with a layer of dust, and it took a more than just a few swipes of a wet cloth to clean it up.
We swung open the heavy lid and rested it against the cots. My excitement was beginning to grow. This was like one of the those Enid Blyton stories – I would probably find all sorts of mystery things inside! The musty smell that hit me just made it all the more alluring.
Right on top were some garments – a checked waistcoat which I promptly donned and thought I looked quite fetching. A pair of old socks, darned quite neatly at several places. A long, multi-coloured, knitted scarf which I thought was quite atrocious.
Then came a nice surprise. A really pretty beige silk blouse, with gold edging and small gold dots throughout. I tried it on – it was quite large for me, but would be perfect for my princess/queen role playing!
Then came a small tin box, the kinds they used to store powder and puff in. I opened it with some difficulty – the lid was rather tight and rusty. Imagine my delight when out rolled many coloured pieces of chalk! There was purple, light green, dark green, blue, yellow, pale yellow, a sort of red…I was thrilled to bits!
Then came a small crotchet bag with strings to tie the mouth. I pulled at the strings, opened the bag, and shook out the contents. Several shells covered with intricate beadwork, and small bead chairs and tables! Wow! This was great!
“It’s all your father’s mother’s stuff”, my mom told me. “She was very skilful, very neat and extremely careful. She always used to re-use things. Her darning was so fine that you could never tell it was an old, worn-out garment. And the way she used to fold clothes – it was as if they were ironed!”
I was impressed. I remember long after that, I used to smoothen out clothes I had to fold, so that they too would look ironed!
Several hankies (nice embroidery), a mosquito net (neatly darned again in several places), a silk border apparently cut out from a silk saree, a thick overcoat…we had almost come to the bottom of the trunk.
There was a woolly kind of cloth all rolled up, tucked into the corner.
“What’s this?” I asked my mom, holding it out.
“Ummm.. I think this is what she used to wrap her legs..her calves with, when they used to ache”.
I rolled it open – it was a long dark strip. And when the last twist rolled out, I saw it.
“Mom, mom, come and see this!” I shouted excitedly.
“What?” My mom came over, and stopped short in utter astonishment.
Nestled within the folds of the cloth, were five crisp tenners and four one rupee notes!
posted by thoughtraker at 9:08 AM
4 Comments:
damn,u have a lovely way of describing things...:))
interesting story there ano...i could visualize u as the excited little kid...but the little kid also had a boy-cut and glasses...:-)))
wow ssm! suitcase full of photos!
thanks cec!
buck - i looked totally different then!!
silk, now u've made me wonder what u mean?
considering that there are no old trunks in my place, I get some strange kick by reading old newpapers. suddenly finding an interesting piece of news that i overlooked gives me lot of pleasure. however, the catch is that my wife will be waiting for me to cut up this newspaper for wrapping something and would be extremely exasperated whcih usually ends in a small fight.
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