*originals*

I thought I had forgotten how to make a paperboat. 

Paperboat racing could actually qualify as my favourite sport through childhood. I was a pro. My 'gali' or street was not even properly cemented when I was little. Puddles used to fill up in minimal rains, and in monsoons, there was a continuous flow of water down the street; yeah, the street might be an incline. I and my neighbour spent, diligently, a lot of time in making our own paper boat either from any random pamphlet we found or pages torn out of the back of our notebooks, very secretly of course. Thicker paper made better lasting boats. 

In regions where the puddle was shallower and the passage was narrower, the flow would accelerate and at such places, with ripples and wrinkles in the water, watching the boats catch speed was a cherished pleasure, sonic to the child's eyes. 

If it was raining, as soon as I returned from school, I would be out and about BY RULE, no questions asked. And so would be my paperboats. Making a boat, running out in the 'gali', finding a suitable flow for it, keeping it there and then following it to the very end of it. Then picking it up again and going back to point go over again, until it became too damp to swim at all, making a new one in that case. My routine afternoon sequence of events after school and food in monsoons. I miss those days. 

I really thought I had forgotten the method of making a paperboat, and I didn't think I had a suitable paper for it. So I made one. I made it with the 1"X 2" ticket issued to me in the bus that got me here. It took me two minutes. And, more than that, it took me by surprise. Maybe some things are ingrained way too deep in your brains for you to forget. Like the alphabet. 

So I made this paperboat, kept it down, got on my knees and started some desperate photography sessions. This was right in the middle of the bus stand. I was wearing shorts, an oversized pair of wayfarers and carrying a guitar. People either thought I was an artist or a lunatic. Well, it's the same thing. 

After I decided I had a suitable photograph, and that it was enough of intimidating people for an evening, I got up and set the boat free. :')

-Sahej \m/