BROKEN EGG SHELLS

These experiments in line and colour using rapidograph and drawing ink on handmade paper were my obsession for a while.

The inspiration of this work comes from a dozen eggs that slipped from my hands and broke into a zillion pieces. I was fascinated with the shapes and forms of the broken pieces and so began this work. The more lines I created the more I was reminded of the significance of the egg in our lives.

We are born of the egg. Fascinating thought huh?

The egg moments in my life have been interesting. Half boiled eggs the English style for breakfast. The Bengali craze for having 'macher dim' (fish eggs)in all forms possible. Lizard eggs among the clothes in the cupboard. Boiled egg sandwich at picnics. Painting and decorating Easter Eggs on Good Friday for Easter Sunday. Extra fried eggs for being in the school swimming and basketball teams. Duck egg pastries and Bird egg soup. Decorated eggs for prosperity to welcome guests at Malay weddings. Carvings on Ostrich Egg. Attempting to make mayonnaise. 40 fresh eggs a day from Ma's Australian and local hens. Mushroom Omelet Fuyong. The acrid unpleasant smell of HCl (hydrogen chloride) simply described by Mr.Mathai, our chemistry teacher as the smell of rotten eggs. Bread Omelet and sweet milk tea on winter evenings at Ganga Dhaba, JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Scrambled eggs we all scrambled for at breakfast at MH (Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling), EVS Project on Fertilization from the spawn to the tadpoles to the frog and so it goes on....oh and how could I have forgotten Mr.Rocky Gardner's egg and bacon pie?