A Perspective

Hit the ceiling… literally!

“Deepu, are you giving your Perspective this month?” There goes my darling sub-editor asking me this question for the 69th time now. No, its just the 67th or is it 70 already? “It’s the 9th month running since we started the Perspective column in Better Interiors and you have contributed nothing to it! I want a piece this month.” You guessed it right, that’s my Ed. I am scared. While I make a sorry face and ask for suggestions… I am bombarded with angry spats. I know there have been numerous topics that crossed my mind, but most carried the “Dead End” sign.

The initial two months of this column, I was a happy soul. Everybody wanted to contribute… so I escaped the whip. An infected broken spine saved me on the third month. “Now you have all the time to think about a topic’ I remember my Ed and Averil teasing me on one of their visits. Can’t type or write, but can surely think. Sweet Averil even offered to write down my thoughts while I dictate it through a phone. No escaping this one!

Blank like the ceiling of the hospital room, that’s how my mind was. Three months bed rest the docs screamed! And the blank hospital ceiling was replaced by an equally clinical one at home. But the latter was revamped by my little sis who decided to stick glow stickers of the moon and the stars to cheer me during the night. And I stared endlessly at the ceiling for days and nights! That’s when it occurred. The only thought that ceased me… why can’t they make ceilings interesting? The walls, the floor, they are pampered with so many beautiful materials… why not the ceiling? Is it meant only for hiding the electrical conduits? There’s hardly an article where I wrote “the ceiling sports a vibrant pink hue! Or the highlight here is the dazzling ceiling!” We are a little partial with the ceiling, don’t you think? Give it its due people. Most can’t get a moving ceiling with a Plasma television attached (remember those early Phillips Plasma Ad). And we surely can’t have the ‘enchanted sky” like the one at the Great Hall of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. But you can paint it a different colour, or paint different colours or better, have a skylight, at least one can see the changing phase of a day. But, a skylight in a city apartment? That, on the 5th floor of a building with three more floors above it? Perhaps architect Navneet Malhotra can tell me how to achieve that. At this juncture, I can just crib. Solution provider… that’s not me.

P.S: Suggestions are called for… for interesting ceiling design. Prove me wrong, tell me you people are getting a little more considerate towards the bed-ridden!

PPS: My neck is already on the chopping block, to submit another Perspective. Suggestions are also called for… for topics. Write in people.