THE RIDDLE OF MONA LISA

As for introduction ,let me assure you all ,that I am not a fan of paintings or poetry ,not at all of any arts or sciences leave alone ophthalmology .As for paintings , the only poor fellow who comes to my mind is one Raja Ravi varma because he was the fellow who firmly implanted the images of our gods in my mind ,rightly or wrongly ,let us forgive him for the act. Now around the turn of 21st century ,when the first get- together happened in my place ,ottapalam to be precise ,if my memory holds good, it was Remany my unique cousin who took a class about one great painting ,he called it Mona lisa ,painted by one Kinchy? Or Vinchi ? which hangs loose in a museum called Louvre in Paris and exolled the marvelous beauty of the elusive smile of a middle aged French/ Italian aunty. Later when I stole a book from my son’s library called Agony and Ectcasy, I came in to contact with another stupid fellow being with the name of Michael Angelo .The third artist in my vocabulary came much later, one Abdulla or Hussain who had drawn some beautiful pictures of our gods and goddesses , even better than Ravivarma but with no clothes on ,and later had to flee to gulf .It was with these strong credentials of an art critic , that I flew to the west and later reached the Luvre museum in paris .My tour manager had vehemently discouraged the tour group from visiting this god dammed place ,giving vague threats like no photos please ,you will get lost in the place and for those three, who dared ,me, my wife and nother girl ,gave us one hour time .So with silent prayers to Remani ,my mentor, I found the remains of the famous aunty. Yes it was a small painting with tourists competing to be photographed in front and back of the voluptuous lady. I managed to sneak in and have a dharsan of mono lisa. Not a bad one ,but quite small. I peered deeply through the bullet proof case .The lady in question [was she a gujarathi ?]looked elegant and fully clothed ,much to my dismay.Enroute to this corner I was blessed with massive paintings of both male and female nudes by Angelo ,Titian ,Raphael ,Botticelli,Ghirlando .I was disappointed for sure .Ravi varma could have done a better one for sure and would have given the aunty a beautiful kunguma pottu , kireedom ,multiple glistening ornaments and a few mudras ,leave alone a parrot in her hand or a good vahana for the base. Then I cursed Remani ‘u will be born a painter ! and that too a Vinchi for sure.