This is my collection of writings for the three hundred and sixty five day writing challenge - where one has to write something daily, every day, for one whole year, based on the prompts provided - as part of an exercise to improve creative writing...
Old English stæger "flight of steps," also "a single step," from Proto-Germanic *staigri (cf. Old Norse and Old Frisian stiga, Middle Dutch stighen, Old High German stigan, German steigen, Gothic steigan "to go up, ascend;" Old English stigan "to climb, go;" German Steig "path," Old English stig "narrow path"), from PIE *steigh- "go, rise, stride, step, walk" (cf. Greek steikhein "to go, march in order," stikhos "row, line, rank, verse;" Sanskrit stighnoti "mounts, rises, steps;" Old Church Slavonic stignati "to overtake," stigna "place;" Lithuanian staiga "suddenly;" Old Irish tiagaim "I walk;" Welsh taith "going, walk, way").
Originally also a collective plural; stairs developed by late 14c. OED says stair still is ordinary in Scotland where flight of stairs would be used elsewhere.
Staircases - a spiralling twisting stepping marvel of construction that takes you to heights or is capable of plunging you to the depths. Puns aside, there is something about staircases that scares or excites one and there is no denying the inspiration it provides for photographers - the photographs can be mind boggling and deceiving as the eye attempts to reach the end of the seemingly decreasing spirals.
Staircases can be a centre point, architecturally and simply convert the entire ambience into a royal one if place correctly. Not to mention the fact that they are a great visual prop in most stories,
'he looked up and there she stood, at the top of the stairs, dressed in a pale yellow silk which complimented her ivory skin and set off her raven hair. It would not be out of place to compare her to angel about to descend from the heavens, though the moment she started to walk down the stairs, he felt that the comparison was not apt. No angel could compare to the grace of her dainty steps, as she placed on foot below the other and when she reached them...'
Now to stop rambling, but then staircase are also a pain in the...butt, literally. I remember one staircase vividly and even thinking about it scares me, it has been built so crookedly that the general opinion (among my family members) is that is had been built by two different masons, one from the top floor laying the steps down, and the other placing the steps up from the ground floor, since they did not meet as neatly as they should have, there is an odd step at the curve point, which is also a possible accident zone.
Another staircase I can recall is the one to the Naki Devi Temple at Mount Abu - seven hundred and fifty steps, which I did climb, in steps; telling myself to take one step at a time and I did reach the top. Hallelujah!
Unfortunately the stairs at my office (three flights of them) I do not grace them with my presence on a regular basis, the easy availability of the elevator seems to have diminished the necessity of the stairs.
But then stairs have existed since the dawn of civilisation or rather with the advent of construction - some of the ancient constructions are mind boggling to behold especially when one has to remember that they did not have modern construction equipment; Pyramids, anyone? Or the deep and large step wells of India where there were steps cut into the walls of the wells so that one actually walked down to get water. Or the step lined ponds that are a staple feature of almost all Devi temples. Examples of stairs and staircase abound and each major architectural style has many classical representations of them.
Staircases are so important that both the words have given rise to idioms:
Staircase Wit - A perfect witty remark, retort, or rejoinder that occurs to one after the fact or too late to be used.
Below Stairs - The bottom floor of a house as was once commonly inhabited by servants
The word is also used rhetorically and philosophically, stairs to success or stairway to heaven.
Stairs, anyone?
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I did tell that stairs are a photographer's delight!
