THE CAGE AND THE SHOES

It was yet another day. The morning alarmed him back to consciousness. His eyes filtered the early morning light through the windows. Every day was a caged existence. He woke up to exist and then to sleep again. He was a routine. His mornings were automated. A bottle of water, a flush in the toilet, the gargle in the mouth, a flash on the face – his tryst with water in the morning would bid him good bye.

His eyes would then, search for The- morning –Hindu. He’d feel a part of India, every time he flipped through the pages. He negotiated and created an India of his own, every day, as he became a part of The– every day -Hindu.

But today was not to be yet another day. This morning was not be The Hindu’s. Today’s was The– unusual – times of India’s; An India with which he could not negotiate and relate with. The times of India were not his times. If at all, an India existed in it, it was not his India – he never wanted to negotiate with an India which was not an India of his times. For, he existed in a cage - a window, a table and a chair. His boundaries pre-determined his actions. He could not-NOT be caged. His space existed before him. Until his today was visited by a not-so-hindu times of India.

Her days were not to be the same anymore. Her frozen -black and white- smile smiled back to her. She kissed her smile with her nose. The print smell was still fresh. It filled her lungs. Her breath could suck it and exhale every bit of it. She loved doing it. She smiled back. The frozen smile reciprocated it from The – usual- Times of –her- India. Her games were not her sports; her play was not her act and her masks - not her roles; for she was a champion. She was the India she dreams; the India she acts. She was present in the times of India.

Her phone sang, her shoes got life and the road ran back as a drop sweated it. She ran fast, the roads retreated faster. She was of the roads, and they belonged to her. She hit them every day. They were a routine in her life. She could not just be frozen.

His c‘age’-ing eyes. Her fr(l)ee-ing shoes. They belonged to each in their own spaces: One over tables, frozen on a chair; another on the roads, freed by the shoes. One defeated by the ‘unusual’ times that portrayed the frozen smiles; the other enabled by the ‘shoes’ that freed her into the times of her India. His caged existence could not stop her freed exploration.

P.S: thoughts, words and phrases are stolen and used without acknowledgement.

TRADING TRADITION.

Any tourist spot means business. A small vacant land or a piece of log would be ‘museumised’ for eternity – a wonderful idea that makes business. Why do places/spaces demand this attention? What makes it different, so much so that, we rush to them spending the most, we possess? The simple available answer (that we love to think) is – ‘the place demands this necessity’ … or … do we create and attribute this necessity? For instance, a whole commercial system works around the aura of this place – exotica, if I’m allowed to pronounce this oft-repeated term. Who creates this place and generates this system of differential attributes? The travel agency, the government or the place itself? Perhaps, ‘WE’ do. We ‘want’ a place to be different – out of the ordinary. Difference -here perhaps- is commercial. We make it commercial. We attribute commerce. Hence we play an important role in constructing a commercial aura of a place. Hence, the habit of visiting places by spending money signifies a lot about human behavior.

Now, why do we visit places at all? Tourism – we know, is more about being at the right place at the right time rather than just experience ‘being travelled’. The destiny becomes important than the travel. Then why would we just spend money to 'be' in places? Perhaps, the concept of ‘spending’ here is conceived as an investment - be it time or money. It is an investment on an aura – a status – a good feeling – a feeling of superiority therefore, an investment on the sense of exclusion. This sense is a ‘want’ that has to be ‘cultivated’. This ‘want’ is a construct. A ‘want’ is an act of sophistication, not a ‘need’. Perhaps, the industry meticulously works in converting all the ‘wants’ into ‘needs’. And we happily play our parts in desiring the wants to be converted into needs.

What if the government of India comes with a law that would co-sponsor the citizens to necessarily ‘tour India’ at least once in their lifetime, so that they experience the idea called India? What would happen then?

What was then necessarily, an act of sophistication would be converted into a compulsory act of necessity. Conversely, the discourse of exclusion breaks down as every place would become a place to be toured and everyone would become a tourist. All ‘spots’ would become sites of repeated attendance. Touring would become an act of/by/for the people - the commons. ‘De-aura-fication’ happens. Chaos would rule. Tourism then, would become a wonderful ‘working idea’, just like democracy, wouldn’t – it?

A system of exclusion would be converted into a system of legalized inclusion. Tourism would then be a necessary practice. The mass – the people would give meaning to it. The aura of a tourist place would change; nevertheless, the ones who tour them also would change. Everything changes or... would it?

This discourse of hope we wish and promise: The hope of a not-so-‘business’-like- activity of ‘busy-ness’ is an idea which, would not seem to mean business.

Oh… what a business that’d make, sir jeeeeeeeeeee... perhaps what could be better traded than an act of tradition?