Tuesday, July 7, 2009

catching up very slowly


June 30, 2009

There is a spiral shaped burn on the floor of my bedroom. It is beautiful. The way the coil rounds: black dug into the oceanic green of the carpet, like a thin serpent chasing its tail in still water. But when I rub my fingers against it, they find a sculpture in relief. Not a snake, but a crevasse. Then I imagine myself a millimeter tall, staring out across this beautiful, mysterious cannon. “What is this?” my miniature American mind ponders. “A ritual marking? An artistic branding?” What, you may wonder, might this mean?

I did something stupid.

Months ago, back in DC, my roommate Gorky informed me of this magical incense they have in India (and so much about India was magical or seemed to be when Gorky spoke of it). This incense, he said, has the power to force mosquitoes to ascend mindlessly to the ceiling, where they flutter about and die, their poisoned bodies tumbling lightly to the floor like discarded miniature parachutes. And I hardly believed him––I’m ashamed of my faithlessness. They exist here in Nepal! But they’re not as good at offending mosquitoes as they are at offending landlords… the type of people who prefer not to see cannons left by spring shaped incense / insect repellent.

That’s why I haven’t shown it to them yet.

I figure we can build report over the next few weeks and then, once I’m universally beloved, I’ll tell them the hilarious story of how I left the fan on high and it knocked the incense over, onto the floor, and I didn’t notice it burning until it had exhausted every micron of fiber, extinguishing itself, in natural unemployment, on their carpet.

2 comments:

  1. Is this "Kachua Chap Macchar Agarbatti" that you are talking about?????... hmmmmmmm..... I remember it well... good luck with your landlord.

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  2. building up the rapport and then showing the mishap later is a wise move...u learned well at the RAP workshop

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