A Sparkling Clean Mummy
Authorities in Baroda, western India, are still bemused by the havoc left by an enthusiastic cleaner in the town's museum. It is not certain whether the job description called for someone able to "work unsupervised on his own initiative", but that is what they got. In the course of cleaning around the objects on display, our hero noted that one object, shut up in a glass case, was unacceptably dusty and tattered and determined to resolve the situation.
The first problem was the glass case, which was stuck shut. To someone of less initiative, it might have seemed that the case had been deliberately sealed, but our cheerful cleaner, whom we shall call Ram Das, was equal to the task. Borrowing a screwdriver, he levered the top off.
The next problem was the scientific instruments which obscured the object. These our friend removed and placed on the floor, clearing the way for him to set about the dust. With visions of official commendation filling his mind, he switched on his industrial vacuum cleaner and set to work.
There was a considerable quantity of shabby cloth draped over the exhibit and Ram Das had no compunction about watching the shreds of brown material vanish up the nozzle and into the bin of his cleaner. There was a clang as some unidentified metal object shot up the hose and into the machine and Ram Das made a mental note to sift though the fluff afterwards and retrieve it.
With the cloth out of the way Ram Das was able to see the object more clearly and with a thrill recognised the gleam of polished ivory in several places. Unfortunately, most of the ivory was obscured by a tough, leathery substance that clung to it tenaciously. Ram Das plied his nozzle vigorously and soon disposed of it, taking care to hold in place the smaller bones which he exposed.
With considerable pride in a job well done, Ram Das repositioned the scientific instruments around what was now clearly a human skeleton and finally replaced the glass lid. Before screwing it down, however, he picked out a little piece of cardboard and polished it on his sleeve. To his illiterate mind the markings on it might just as well have been Egyptian hieroglyphics as English letters spelling out the words, "Ancient Egyptian Mummy".
Actually, the damage is not as great as my somewhat light-hearted retelling might suggest. The mummy's nose and a couple of toes have been damaged and the once tight bandages now sag sadly. The strange thing is that it has taken six months and a new curator for the damage to be noticed. Satish Sadashiven, the new curator, has only recently discovered the sad state of his museum's prize exhibit. Somewhat generously he attributes the accident to the fact that his predecessor, Raj Ratan Goswami "probably had too much work on his plate and entrusted the cleaning of the mummy to unskilled attendants."
Goswami is now curator at another museum where, no doubt, the mummies cower in their sarcophagi as he walks past.
