The Life of P

Photo taken by Prashant which I whacked from Artnlight blog

When Prashant Varma got featured in Artnlight for this beautiful creation, he was over the moon with happiness and called me over to his house to celebrate. Naturally, since his last name was Varma, I expected a Mallu serving me Pork Masala with a generous sprinkling of bitching. But Prashant told me he was a Marwari. 'I come from Rajasthan', said he. 'Would you like Aloo Paratha or Bhel?'  'Is that even a question?' I retorted. 'I expect both'.

It was with some trepidation that I made my way through the seething bylanes of Ejipura to P. Varma’s house. I had met a Marwari just once before in my life. He was a merchant on Avenue Road. He had growled ferociously at me when I bought a Lekka Pustaka from a rival’s store. I imagined Prashant standing at his doorway hands on hips and glaring at me. “So you want Aloo Paratha and Bhel hanh? Who do you think you are?”

I cautiously climbed up the stairs and made my way in.

Machine Gun! 

Teeth!

'These are my real teeth', said Prashant, welcoming me by handing me the green teeth. I am wearing false ones now. I ate too much Nutella you see.

Then Prashant went into the kitchen to make Bhel for me. I followed him.

I saw the signs of a hopeless Nutella addict. Thirteen twenty three empty bottles! 

Thirteen!!!  Twenty three!!!!   He was beyond redemption!

Fresh delicious Bhel made by Prashant. I don’t know what he put in the excellent bhel but after I ate it I grabbed the guns and went on a rampage.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Bullets! 

More Guns!

I shot Prashant, I shot Coke cans, I riddled holes in the opposite wall…

It was an incredibly powerful feeling.

'See my lorries' said Prashant

There was an entire fleet of psychedelic lorries stashed in a box! So while in public Prashant is a quiet sensitive designer who gets featured on Artnlight, in private he is a ferocious Mafia bozz who owns a lorry service and practises machine gunning. Gosh! 

The Mafia bozz went off to make Aloo Paratha for me while I rummaged through his stash. 

I had entered Alladin’s cave!

Just look at these beautiful things. Who would have thought strings of dried jasmine could look so beautiful?

Rajma (beans) stuck on the bottle. (see more pics here >>)

 Beautiful colour co- ordination

Organic shapes and a hanging made out of seed pods.

(don't miss the press buttons!)

Wooden money boxes!

Strange things 

 Kutti kutti light bulbs!

All accompanied by Aloo Paratha!

With lots and lots of butter.

I saw hundreds more interesting things in Prashant's house and I wish I could put it all here but it would just make for a massive post.. 

After grub we just went to William Penn and did what artists periodically do. We just bought lots of stationery, paper and pens and felt really euphoric afterwards.

Yet another interesting weekend in my Kushi life ;-) I saw the mind blowing performance Samhara on Saturday and had a relaxed, fun filled, well fed Sunday. Life couldn't get any better :) 

Here was P's message when I got home - Maybe you should buy one of those guns. It is thrilling!

Anybody know of shooting ranges in Bangalore? I'd like to try the real thing.

I finally figured how to get comments back on again, so comment away!