Match stick message It was New Year’s Eve (1967) in Hotel Odessa. The indigent Indian trio could not join the dance and dinner going on in ball room. We were broke and had no one to take to the ball any way. We were sitting in the lounge watching the TV screen showing scenes of revelries in Moscow. Around ten ‘o’ clock, Kalidas and Sud left to go to bed. I stayed on the lounge, getting bored watching others having fun. The crowd in the lounge thinned to just one man and two plump well- endowed women. We made no attempt at conversation, as we did not know each other’s languages. The girls were talking and giggling furioulsy between themselves. The man started whispering in my ears “Krovati, Krovati!’. I thought my tie was awry and adjusted the knot. He became frantic and repeated the same mantra. I ignored his outbursts. The girls left briefly to go to the powder room. He then took four matches from a matchbox and laid them on the table. He named each matchstick ‘you, me, girl 1, girl 2’. He mimed the girls chattering to each other.Then he took ‘his’ match and ‘girl 1’ match out and showed them lying next to each other. He repeated the performance with the other two matches. Tube light Mohan Ram finally figured out what he was getting at. I took out my English/Russian both ways dictionary from my pocket and showed him the word ‘married’ and told him firmly ‘Nyet.’ I also discovered Krovati meant bed! The girls reappeared and left a few minutes later. The man followed thereafter cursing me in what sounded like fluent Russian. End of story. This was probably the most original matchstick magic trick I had even seen in my life!
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:48:09 +0000
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