AbsurdAnce!

Do you remember the blue dappi? Probably not. It used to stand on top of our kannadi alamari. I love how all the things and rooms had their own name in our old house. Kannadi alamari, ammachide petti, Radio muri, Kochu muri, Cement muri and so on. Now when I think back to it, it lends a certain charm to those places and memories. Anyway, coming back to the point, the blue dappi was made of plastic, round in shape and had a cyan colour – the colour I call blue and some call green. It held coins and rubber bands, loose nuts and bolts, torn off buttons and sometimes, even the remnant threads. It was small, the size of a katori and was neglected most of the time. But for me, it came to prominence every Sunday.   Just before leaving for church and Sunday school, I had the special power to take a one-rupee coin out of it for nercha. That’s it. Take off the lid, pick a one-rupee coin and go. Oh, how wrong. It was not so simple a task.   On some days, I wanted to find the newest coi