Mandalas, oxidation paintings and everything ephemeral
Chapter 2
DAY 147 — Diary entry to Claire
Dear Sugary,
Today I went to the atomic cafe and had a lavender latte with whole milk. Not so important detail because you know that I’m not too fond of skimmed milk. I got lucky with seating today; in fact, the best seat in the cafe; I sat on a couch six feet away from a fireplace. I always prefer a couch over a chair at restaurants and cafes; you know that. Again, not so important detail. Just adjacent to me, almost 8 feet to my left diagonal, I saw these two couples in their 70s, drinking Lattes and reading a book. They chatted once every 20 or 30 minutes in between reading. I didn’t see any mobile phones around them. They should have one, right?
Anyways, darling, when I saw them, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be you and me when we grow older.” I had a similar thought when I saw an older couple standing in front of the oxidation painting at the Andy Warhol museum. Similar kind of thoughts I have every time I see couples sitting in the park or on a train, just sitting there, doing nothing, just observing the world around them.”
I love you,
Frank
***
‘Knock, Knock,’ exclaimed Frank as he touched the beige wooden restroom door to see it gradually glowing brightly.
Frank recently remodeled their restroom door to a sliding door, inspired by his trip to Japan last year.
‘Who’s there?’ bellowed Claire from the shower in her cute voice.
‘Ghosttttt’..*Frank howled in a feminine voice…. ‘ooooooooooooo.’
‘Ghost, who?’ Claire repeated, turning off the shower.
‘Ghost that loves to sing in the shower with you!’ Frank replied with a chuckle.
Claire rolled her eyes, ‘Well, I hope this ghost can wait a minute. I need to finish rinsing off.’
‘Sure thing, take your time,’ Frank said, grinning widely.
*Claire comes out wearing metallic gray leggings and a crimson red crop top, which covers half her belly button. Her top looked torn up at the edges near her waist, with two small patches of red wine stains.
‘You smell gooood.’
‘Do I ever smell bad?’ said Clarie as she tucked her chin down and looked up through her eyelashes.
‘I smell aloe vera’. *Frank moved closer to her and hugged her by her waist.
*Claire squiggled away from Frank. ‘No hugs for you. Remember how you used to give me aloe vera massages on my head on weekends when we lived together? You did that one year into our marriage. I miss those little things you used to do for me.’ Claire pouted and smiled at Frank.
*Frank gives a squinting eyes smile and gently grabs the few strands of hair stuck on her lips and puts them behind her ear lobe.
‘I got so much stuff to do. I need to dry my hair, take our clothes from the dryer and fold them, run the dishwasher, and make dinner. And what’s up with the new toys in the restroom? Where have you embedded those fancy sensors of yours? I got startled when the exhaust fan turned on while rinsing the conditioner off my hair. I am spooky by this whole automatic door. Why do we need such fancy stuff for a simple door?’
‘Don’t you think this is cool, baby?.. When you are in the restroom, sometimes you want quiet time. Now, with this system, you only need to gently touch the door to know if someone is inside. No more knocking on the door. Don’t you think it speaks to the gentleness we have in our relationship?’
‘That’s a sweet way of rationalizing spending money on stuff we don’t need.’
‘Hahaa.. don’t say that. I knew you love it.’
‘The only thing I like is how the small exhaust fan automatically turns on when it gets too humid inside. That’s a pretty good design.’
‘Oh, you like that? I was thinking of disabling that part of the design because I like it hot and humid when I shower, like a Sauna. Wait, did I tell you about the other coolest part of this design? You can regenerate 3D models of the body shape of anyone inside the restroom. The embedded ultrasonic sensor combined with the WiFi can sense the shape of the object, like how a LIDAR does. The conversion from point cloud data to a 3D CAD model needs some work, but I can figure that…’
‘3D scanning body shape? That’s creatively creepy, don’t you think, Frank?’ Claire cut off his passionate monologue.
Frank paused, looking a bit deflated. “Well, I just thought it was a cool functionality of the product,” he said with a shrug. “But if it makes you uncomfortable, I can disable it. I just wanted to try something new with the technology.”
Claire softened her tone. ‘You just spent the last 6 months putting these sensors and products together? What happens when a new version of a software update is released? Can these sensors still talk to one another? Nevermind. Chuck it. I am sorry. I admire your creativity, Frank. It’s one of the things I love about you. But I also know that when the next cool technology comes this will all be obsolete and won’t last longer.’
‘Oh, that, I am not sure. I’ll get it working again when it needs updates, don’t worry, Sugary. I’ll figure it out as always.’
‘I know you’ll figure it out.’ *Claire grinned and playfully punched Frank’s arm and kissed his forehead. ‘Now, why don’t you go do the dishes? I’m starving, and dinner won’t make itself.’
***
Claire married Frank because of his confidence, the trait she finds sexiest in any man. She sometimes thinks, ‘Why him? Why Frank?’ Maybe it’s because of how he looks into her eyes when she’s looking away. Perhaps it’s their mutual disdain for Disney movies. Maybe the way he holds her hands. How he squeezes her hands gently and hard, alternatively. Squeezing gently because of how soft her hands are, and then hard to ascertain his love for her. Maybe, it’s the undying curiosity that’s innate to him, she thinks sometimes. Or, because of the way he runs his hand on her neck, squeezes and massages them when she’s tired. Maybe it is how his salty beard shines in the rays of the Sunset. Or, the ease with which he absorbs her insecurity about how she feels about her body, telling her, ‘you are a natural beauty, baby,’ while tactfully encouraging her to exercise more. Unlike Frank, She knew from the first moment she saw him in the Park that he was the one. As much as she thinks of herself as a strong independent woman, it’s only by his side she feels secure and safest.
***
‘Sugary, do you recall when I was backpacking through India and the Philippines?’
‘No, I don’t.’ *Claire shot him an obviously-I-do glance as she tossed freshly laundered clothes onto the bed.
‘I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this before. When I was at a Buddhist monastery in Tawang, I watched these monks spend days making a stunning mandala using colorful grains of rice.’
‘Hmm… you never shared that story with me before.’
‘They use these metal funnels called chak-purs to pour colored grains of rice into intricate patterns on a flat surface.? I sat there for hours observing them create this mandala art with such patience and focus. It was such a soothing experience.’
‘I can see how you would find it calming. I’m more surprised that Devin stuck around with you at the monastery.’
‘Oh, he didn’t. He was bored after the first day and never returned. He just drank and read in the room by himself.’
‘Haha… I can relate. That sounds more fun than watching mandala artwork.’
‘Haha, so I was there all week right? and on the 4th or 5th day, I can’t remember exactly when, I saw the monks gather one morning to erase what they had created. I knew it was going to happen but still felt bad when they actually did it. I don’t know why this popped into my mind. umm.. anyways, toss me bunch of those clothes.’
‘Do you also remember a special person meeting you at the Jaipur airport during that trip?’ * Claire picked up half the pile of clothes and dropped it on the other end of bed.
‘Oh, yes. I met my beautiful and genius wife there.’ *Frank kissed Claire’s cheek, thinking to himself if that is the moment he decided to marry her.
*Frank picked up a coldplay sweatshirt and folded it, standing next to Claire. He reminisced about the time he locked eyes with one of the monks as he effortlessly wiped away the mandala painting. Serene, calm, and emotionless as he rubbed off the art. He saw the monk striding to do his next chore for the day, whatever that is. Frank sighed and went back folding clothes.
‘Why spend so much time creating something so beautiful only to erase it in the end?’ he whispered to himself.
~Rahul Sekar
“These unreal thoughts in my mind!
These transient works of mine!
Where do they all take me?
I don’t know.”~Irshad Kamil
P.S: Check out the first article in the series here (mood ring, empathy and brown tomatoes)
I teamed up with my friend and fellow Carnegie Mellon cohort, Ussama Bin Naveed, to create sketches that illustrate the product concept. Ussama is currently working as a freelancer, and you can find his portfolio on Fiverr.
