The Characters:
A nosy tour guide who for some reason wasn't impressed with us.
The three of us and our unbridled enthusiasm.
A group of six elderly ladies who knew something about the art of embroidery and a bit too much about the art of conversing ceaselessly and unabashedly.
A foreign tourist accompanied by a local translator.
A couple of foreign origin...but I could not ascertain their nationality.
A middle aged woman and her son( I presumed)
The staff of the museum , who's duty was to dissuade us visitors from touching and going too close to the specimens and to do that were trained to utter the following words with immaculate precision and infallible effect : "Please Don't Touch" (it took everybody full 5 minutes to understand the meaning of these words , because of our underdeveloped hearing abilities and the staffs' overdeveloped vocal powers)
The tour started with a brisk walk to the main building which was to be our adopted home for the next hour and which housed some magnificent textile works with numerous variations of embroidered silk,cotton and other such materials. Our guide was a brisk walker who rarely looked back while travelling from one precipice to another and this the old women of our group realised pretty soon, much to their chagrin. When finally we all had assembled outside the building , she gave a small and cold little speech, although I could hear both my friends chuckling over something which nobody else found funny, which was of course the absence of any eatery in the museum's vicinity ; after all 2hrs inside a museum can be quite exhausting.
Nevertheless we all proceeded to begin the tour and soon were surrounded on all sides by brilliantly crafted materials which helped us to smother the hunger pangs which had already begun banging violently inside our young and hungry stomachs.
" On the left is a palanquin which the queen used used to travel from one fort to another and which is covered with a rich material and embroidered silk, which may give you asll a fair idea as to what exactly was the idea of opulence in those times....."
"To your right is a collection of sarees and other garments from orrisa , with double lining, *****frill work, this and that and what not"
For about 30 minutes all of us (except for the old ladies who turned out to be great connoisseurs of such things) tries to pretend that we really were enjoying the tour and relishing each and every moment . But soon came the time when I for on could no longer take in the any more textiles for the maximum limit to which I can be exposed to all such dress materials is 30 minutes at a stretch (that too when I am shopping with my mother or other such close relations who can force me to give them company). Uneasiness is an infectious thing and soon all of us started rushing through the museum while sweating profuse;y and my Gujarati friend also began mouthing certain unmentionable obscenities. The staff who was earlier constantly on the prowl to catch one of us going near the glass cases and exposed linen now was wondrously watching everybody's exasperated faces waiting for the tour to get over.
After an hour had elapsed the tour guide in her cold and calculated expression announced that after 5 minutes the next leg of the tour would commence. Anybody who wished to leave the tour because of certain pressing engagements could do it there and then for once we entered building no. 2 , it would be like entering a labyrinth and there would be just one way out. No sooner had she uttered these words than the foreign couple pleaded forgiveness for that suddenly remembered that they had a train to catch in about 40 minutes and before that they a had a couple or more things to do. I can't be certain but when the couple was taking leave I caught a glimpse of the lady's shoulder bag out of which was protruding a train ticket which revealed to me that the couple were to board that train not until next week . Why had they lied? why did they forego such a great opportunity? I never understood this then nor will be able to understand this ever. Our audacity abandoned us as we all marched towards the next leg of the tour when suddenly the white chick almost fainted. Oh pardon me I should abstain from using such derogatory words for a female. She almost fainted because of the stifling heat, claustrophobic corridors and the constant blabber which ricocheted of the carpeted walls of the museum.
The tour started with a brisk walk to the main building which was to be our adopted home for the next hour and which housed some magnificent textile works with numerous variations of embroidered silk,cotton and other such materials. Our guide was a brisk walker who rarely looked back while travelling from one precipice to another and this the old women of our group realised pretty soon, much to their chagrin. When finally we all had assembled outside the building , she gave a small and cold little speech, although I could hear both my friends chuckling over something which nobody else found funny, which was of course the absence of any eatery in the museum's vicinity ; after all 2hrs inside a museum can be quite exhausting.
Nevertheless we all proceeded to begin the tour and soon were surrounded on all sides by brilliantly crafted materials which helped us to smother the hunger pangs which had already begun banging violently inside our young and hungry stomachs.
" On the left is a palanquin which the queen used used to travel from one fort to another and which is covered with a rich material and embroidered silk, which may give you asll a fair idea as to what exactly was the idea of opulence in those times....."
"To your right is a collection of sarees and other garments from orrisa , with double lining, *****frill work, this and that and what not"
For about 30 minutes all of us (except for the old ladies who turned out to be great connoisseurs of such things) tries to pretend that we really were enjoying the tour and relishing each and every moment . But soon came the time when I for on could no longer take in the any more textiles for the maximum limit to which I can be exposed to all such dress materials is 30 minutes at a stretch (that too when I am shopping with my mother or other such close relations who can force me to give them company). Uneasiness is an infectious thing and soon all of us started rushing through the museum while sweating profuse;y and my Gujarati friend also began mouthing certain unmentionable obscenities. The staff who was earlier constantly on the prowl to catch one of us going near the glass cases and exposed linen now was wondrously watching everybody's exasperated faces waiting for the tour to get over.
After an hour had elapsed the tour guide in her cold and calculated expression announced that after 5 minutes the next leg of the tour would commence. Anybody who wished to leave the tour because of certain pressing engagements could do it there and then for once we entered building no. 2 , it would be like entering a labyrinth and there would be just one way out. No sooner had she uttered these words than the foreign couple pleaded forgiveness for that suddenly remembered that they had a train to catch in about 40 minutes and before that they a had a couple or more things to do. I can't be certain but when the couple was taking leave I caught a glimpse of the lady's shoulder bag out of which was protruding a train ticket which revealed to me that the couple were to board that train not until next week . Why had they lied? why did they forego such a great opportunity? I never understood this then nor will be able to understand this ever. Our audacity abandoned us as we all marched towards the next leg of the tour when suddenly the white chick almost fainted. Oh pardon me I should abstain from using such derogatory words for a female. She almost fainted because of the stifling heat, claustrophobic corridors and the constant blabber which ricocheted of the carpeted walls of the museum.
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