Kaleidoscope

 Kaleidoscope 

Advait(our son) was home last weekend after a long time. He had pulled out his Yugioh cards from his bedroom. As a young boy he was into collecting these cards. Now suddenly he learned they could fetch a handsome price. As we sat chatting leisurely reminiscing childhood hobbies and passions, I mentioned to him about a childhood fantasy I held for making a kaleidoscope at home. It had seemed like a not-so-difficult project with very simple materials. Believe it or not, even today I tend to hold on to cardboard tubes leftover from paper towel rolls in the hope that it may come handy for the kaleidoscope. And then after a few days I dump the saved tube into the trash knowing it’s not going to happen anytime soon. I have even saved up pieces of broken glass bangles for this project. For years. And they are sitting somewhere in the closet. 

What’s stopping me from assembling the thing? Not knowing how and where to obtain the pieces of viewing glass to sit inside the tube! 

I could buy a kaleidoscope or receive one as a gift from the kids or from Abhay. But that’s not how I want it. I want to construct one with my own hands! May be one of these days I’ll go to a glass shop and see if they could make those glass rounds for me. The fact that I have still saved up those broken bangles tells me the dream still lives inside.

Talking of kaleidoscopes, there is perhaps no better kaleidoscope than the mind. Each day it offers a new and beautiful picture through the glass. A new feeling. New realization. New understanding. Same old tube. Same old pieces of glass inside. But a new pattern each day. 

How I love kaleidoscopes! A simple toy that is never the same moment to moment. At any age, it fascinates.