Creativity

I was maybe 14 years old or so. A hot summer afternoon, there was no electricity. So I was as usual lying on a bed in the verandah and racking my brain for something to occupy my time. My most natural recourse was books. Unfortunately, I had read most of the interesting ones, some of them multiple times. However, I decided to sift through the collection one more time.

This arcane book right here caught my eye. And among all the science experiments it had, I was taken up by this particular one.

The process included finding old candles, melting some wax, finding clay, creating a cast for a toy object and then solidifying it. I never had enough Hot Wheels cars to play with. This was the perfect opportunity to clone some of my best toy cars.

Only my mother and I were home. She was fast asleep. I had the house to myself as long as I stayed quiet. I found some half-burnt candles from the ones we used at night, got the gas going in the kitchen and melted some of them down. While the wax was melting, I built a clay block and put it on the terrace to receive the incoming molten wax. Next I was in the kitchen trying to lift the vessel with molten wax in it. I used kitchen tongs to lift it. Two steps out of the kitchen and I dropped the bubbling wax on my left knee!

I screamed in pain and my mother woke with a start and rushed over! I told her that what she was looking at was wax, she poured tap water on my leg and then carried me to the bathroom and put my leg under the tap for 10 minutes.

The pain seared like hell. The attempt to peel off the wax resulted in skin coming off too! We called in a doctor, got it bandaged. I had major burns. I got a good scolding but then finally got pampered too! I got tied down to the bed with more comics and exemption from any summer holiday studies for the next 20 days or so! It may have hurt in the moment, but it is a fond memory for me.