Mathru School for the Differently Abled
Sunday 1/26/14
I finished gluing in the rest of the Muktha's Children mosaic tonight -- took me another seven and a half hours -- and grouting should take another three hours or so. Altogether that brings the total time on this piece at 54-55 hours. That's not unusual for a piece of this size (16 x 18 inches) and complexity, but it is a little on the high side, because it took extra time to get all the glass globs ready, and to cut all the little mirror rounds for the star spirals.
I am relieved to get it done tonight so I can grout it tomorrow and get it all finished and out of the way. Divya has promised that the plywood bases for the murals will be ready tomorrow or Tuesday morning, and there's a lot to do to get all the student pieces grouted and the murals finished. I'm really feeling pressured to get everything done and properly finished off before I leaveThursday afternoon for my respite at the Goldfinch Hotel and my visits with Mayu and Linda. (Of course, the pressure is all mine; I suspect that if I left everything a mass the way it is now, they wouldn't mind. But I would.)
The Independence Day or Sovereignty Day celebration at the School for the Blind this morning was nice. They had a little flag-raising ceremony on the terrace, then spent a couple hours singing patriotic songs (Muktha says "pat-tree-a-tick songs") and listening to speeches, including a lecture on the Indian Constitution delivered by Muktha (who is an attorney, after all). My speech, however, was blessedly un-attorneyishly brief. I said, "In America, we celebrate our independence from Britain, too, and we also admire Ghandi very much. He was a great man. You are right to be proud to be Indian, and I am honored to be a part of your celebration today. Thank you."
The kids were cute, all dressed up in white uniforms ("White for peace," Muktha said). When one of the boys came up to me at the beginning of the flag-raising ceremony, Muktha whispered to me, "He's saluting you." So I snapped him back a salute that would have done Jay Solmonson proud. During our Visalia Times-Delta newspaper days in the late 70s, I used to tell Jay, "Yessir, yessir!" and salute him -- a bit sarcastically -- when he wanted me to do something (usually write captions for his feature photos). Jay was fresh out of the service, and even though he was about the most un-military type ever, he was appalled by my sloppy salutes and insisted I learn to salute properly. So here I am, four decades later and a couple continents away, snapping a proper salute, thanks to Jay.
After the ceremony Muktha took me to a shop where I picked up some shirts and a couple more saris for gifts, and we were back here in time for lunch. I was glad it was a short day, because I really wanted to get the mosaic done today if at all posseble.
So… Ghandi and Indian sovereignty appropriately commenorted, mosaic finished, shopping for gifts all done, and a snappy salute to boot. A very good day.
Sunday 1/26/14
I finished gluing in the rest of the Muktha's Children mosaic tonight -- took me another seven and a half hours -- and grouting should take another three hours or so. Altogether that brings the total time on this piece at 54-55 hours. That's not unusual for a piece of this size (16 x 18 inches) and complexity, but it is a little on the high side, because it took extra time to get all the glass globs ready, and to cut all the little mirror rounds for the star spirals.
I am relieved to get it done tonight so I can grout it tomorrow and get it all finished and out of the way. Divya has promised that the plywood bases for the murals will be ready tomorrow or Tuesday morning, and there's a lot to do to get all the student pieces grouted and the murals finished. I'm really feeling pressured to get everything done and properly finished off before I leaveThursday afternoon for my respite at the Goldfinch Hotel and my visits with Mayu and Linda. (Of course, the pressure is all mine; I suspect that if I left everything a mass the way it is now, they wouldn't mind. But I would.)
The Independence Day or Sovereignty Day celebration at the School for the Blind this morning was nice. They had a little flag-raising ceremony on the terrace, then spent a couple hours singing patriotic songs (Muktha says "pat-tree-a-tick songs") and listening to speeches, including a lecture on the Indian Constitution delivered by Muktha (who is an attorney, after all). My speech, however, was blessedly un-attorneyishly brief. I said, "In America, we celebrate our independence from Britain, too, and we also admire Ghandi very much. He was a great man. You are right to be proud to be Indian, and I am honored to be a part of your celebration today. Thank you."
The kids were cute, all dressed up in white uniforms ("White for peace," Muktha said). When one of the boys came up to me at the beginning of the flag-raising ceremony, Muktha whispered to me, "He's saluting you." So I snapped him back a salute that would have done Jay Solmonson proud. During our Visalia Times-Delta newspaper days in the late 70s, I used to tell Jay, "Yessir, yessir!" and salute him -- a bit sarcastically -- when he wanted me to do something (usually write captions for his feature photos). Jay was fresh out of the service, and even though he was about the most un-military type ever, he was appalled by my sloppy salutes and insisted I learn to salute properly. So here I am, four decades later and a couple continents away, snapping a proper salute, thanks to Jay.
After the ceremony Muktha took me to a shop where I picked up some shirts and a couple more saris for gifts, and we were back here in time for lunch. I was glad it was a short day, because I really wanted to get the mosaic done today if at all posseble.
So… Ghandi and Indian sovereignty appropriately commenorted, mosaic finished, shopping for gifts all done, and a snappy salute to boot. A very good day.
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