I lately had occasion to introduce an elderly niece to a Malayalam poem by the late N.V. Krishna Warrier. Speaking about the poet whom I had known personally, I told her about one of his early works, Ezhu German Kathakal (Seven German Stories). I had only a vague recollection of the book which I had read 70 or more years ago but one of its stories, Adrishyamaya Chithrasamaharam ( The Invisible Collection) by Stefan Zweig stirred in my memory. I remembered being thoroughly impressed by it.
That night I tried to recall the details of the story but mostly drew a blank except for its core: how an old art collector gone blind was once humoured all the way by his wife and daughter as he held forth to a visiting art dealer on each of the many precious paintings and etchings in his treasured albums. The wife and daughter had earlier taken the visiting art dealer into confidence about their sad state of affairs. The dealer played along sportingly, even offering occasional comments to enliven the proceedings.
The old collector knew every item in each of his albums and, tracing each tenderly with his hand, would describe their details. He had no clue that the post First World War devastation of Germany had over the years impoverished the family and that after the man had lost his eyesight the family had been forced to sell the contents of the albums piecemeal to maintain at least the semblance of a normal life! The collector was showing the dealer blank pages!
