On our recent trip to Jabalpur, we bought a 3D painting crafted with marbles. It was a recreation of Bhedaghat, made using actual stones from Bhedaghat itself. We loved the idea of bringing home a souvenir that would remind us of a place we had walked through.
The painting was large, heavy, and fragile. Carrying it by flight felt difficult. So we decided to courier it home. We specifically requested the service to mark it as fragile, hoping it would travel safely.
It reached Mumbai in 3–4 days. We opened the parcel with excitement. And within seconds, that excitement collapsed.
The glass was shattered into pieces. The marbles had come off the board. The LED wires were cut. It was completely destroyed. For a moment, I didn’t even know what to feel.
My first instinct was to write to the courier company, seek compensation, and perhaps order another painting. But the thought of going through endless customer support calls, uncertain claims, and maybe receiving nothing in return felt exhausting. And even if compensated, it wouldn’t be this painting.
Then came a different thought. What if we recreated it?
We went online looking for adhesives that would work with marble. We tried M-Seal and Fevi-Quick.
M-Seal bonded perfectly between marble and plyboard and Fevi-Quick worked flawlessly for marble-to-marble joints.
In fact, it felt sturdier than before. The original painting had used a clay-like material that, in hindsight, was destined to weaken. Perhaps that’s why it didn’t survive transit.
Next came soldering the LED wires. Once that was done, we ordered a new glass panel of the exact size and did the framing ourselves.
And when it was finally assembled and framed, it came alive again. But this time, it wasn’t just a souvenir picked from a shop in Jabalpur.
It was something we had rebuilt. It carried our effort, our patience, our problem-solving. It carried a far better story than earlier.
What could have been a moment of frustration turned into a source of lifelong happiness, simply because it gave us the opportunity to create something with our own hands.
And more importantly, we chose to take that opportunity and work through it, despite the odds.
