TELESCOPE AND PERISCOPE

I was always drawn to science.....(please don't mistake me i am no scientist)....perhaps the only reason i was drawn to it as a child was it allowed me to ask questions. The house hold i was brought up in we were not encouraged to ask questions....possibly it was more by default than by design...the whole house hold was busy from dawn to dusk ..cooking eating washing and all that...so nobody encouraged questions that too from an intelligent youngster going to first standard lower primary school . The questions ranged from why i had to take bath at midnight on a lunar eclipse day to why on earth i couldn't sleep a little longer or what use it was to cram those seemingly boring tables.
I was singularly lucky to have the august company of my youngest uncle elder to me by a few single digits....he was as i see it now more scientifically bent than i .....answering all my queries...leaving me to wonder about this intellect and the faculties of science.
It was in such moments when perhaps i was no more than 8 years of age or so and he was thirteen ....he used to embark upon some scientific experiments...i was his faithful assistant , to whom he dished out small errands as he seriously poured over his scientific design s and plans....one dull boring afternoon he pulled me aside by my sleeve literally....and the tone in which he spoke to me ...in small whispers i knew he was enlisting me for some dangerous mission; twitching his black eyebrows on an otherwise resplendent fair face he tasked me ...please get me six empty match boxes .....it was almost as if he knew i wouldn't fail him...i knew instinctively that hook or crook he expected me to get those serious equipment required for an impending scientific mission.....by then i was his captive fan ..having learnt many a thing from making a kite to making a gum from stolen atta (wheat flour)...he had some magical hands...what ever he embarked on he could make it with precision ...(as i would realise many years later trying to replicate the same things with my growing son ..i was an utter flop..i could never make a kite that could fly...)

So on that dull afternoon with an oppressive coastal humid wind blowing i asked him what he
intended to do with the match boxes even if i managed to get them....he just commandeered ..JUST GET THEM.....he knew that if some thing had to be brought from kitchen on the tip toe there was no better bet than I..
i was an expert at groceries from my child hood ....eagerly listening to the list of items that was made ..on a monthly basis ..quite vocally...and it always included match boxes in the end..at least one dozen pack...those were days of cooking on fire wood and charcoal and so they were required in abundance.
so the little thief in me waited for all the prying elders to sleep and lay hands on the match box carton that had a distinct smell ..which i would get used to later on in life.....THE SMELL OF PHOSPHORUS..... So quickly i off loaded all the matches in the large open drain and carried the empty ones in my bulging pockets....my biggest threat was my granny...she was a perfect detective....who could trace many a juvenile crimes in the house to me with precision many days after they were committed.
My learned companion in no time manged to arrange the match boxes and glue them with home made gum from atta..(don't ask where he got that from).....when ever he wanted that gum he would ask my granny that he had to bind his books ..and promptly she would make an atta paste and give him. So with these match boxes he made a contraption that resembled like a a big Z.. only the diagonal arm of the Z was very vertical ...two mirrors salvaged from a broken toy of Taj Mahal were inserted deftly in this contraption.
When finished smoothly ..there was no trace of match boxes..it was a marvellous device...that caught my attention for a life time...i was the first user of that intriguing device that looked like a Z or a 2 symbol... from this device one could observe things without being observed....the light reflected by mirrors transferring the objective image to the eye.....
It was a perfect device that fired my imagination ..from then on we would put it to good use for surveillance from unwanted agents who pried frequently on what we were doing. It was mounted on a window grill , window partly closed...enabling me to watch the persons entering the house.....Some years later my companion would also make another interesting device the telescope that would enable me to watch things far away ....magnified......these two devices caught my imagination....and little did i know then that i would b using them in life ahead quite frequently .....of course i did use them even then mostly to some sinister designs...of watching forbidden things big..and watch people without being watched...no more questions please we cancerian kids do have secrets......