Capitalising the Socialist appeal - consuming the pizza hut and rearing up a consumer

Kaleidoscope had a day off and since it was possible for a quick visit to eye doctor the family decided to go together. To their surprise the checkup was done amazingly fast and as it always happens before the puja they needed to spend their hard earned money. Yes it was time to spend so that they can beg for the rest of the month. 

What is the better way to consume the world than to start with a pizza. Pizzahut, was opening and the complaint was on the relative hotness of the shop! Bodies could determine easily if they are going to consume well, in sync with what they plan to consume. 

Sir, ACa are working at full strength, just give it some time! - a sales girl said and they concentrated on the garlic bread and a fantastic pizza. 

The kid is happy in consuming the pizza. And then, bang, the shop is selling socialist appeal as they pledge to provide equal piece to all. 



So it was a happy ending after all as they could spend much more for the consumer's spree before the Durgapuja. 

The kid returned and see what he did. 

Are we really upbringing a consumerist self? Long live revolution Kaleido thought! 

... rain, love story and the absent trace

When does it rain as it rains? Does it rain exactly when a lovers look for an engulfing moment? Does it rain when souls cry out their thirsts? Does it rain when the world becomes a bit carefree for what goes around always comes around? 

The biography no matter how short lived, first makes the light disappear and then shower with the blessings of water. Water is equalising, water is ecstatic, it flows, as life goes through modern times into the liquidity. 

Like the river flows through emptiness, the air suddenly becomes a bit more drunk that it usually is, lovers meet, touch, feel and become one. Momentarily and then the absent trace runs through the body that bridges the carefully kept secret. 

Let ther be mor rains, more gaps get bridged, more moments born like the lover's youth and mountains oldage and like the return of seasons! 

Did you transcend?

It was late, it was around 2-00 in the night. Or was it really late for the endless succession of depthless weekens? perhaps not. The night was still young with music, dance floor and the young bodies. Bodies of lie, bodies of denial. 

A perfect moment to begin a crime story. A murder, or perhaps the death of an idea of a better tomorrow. 

With some alcohol running through the vein it doesn't matter, whether you kill a person or an idea! 

Killing a person is concrete and might pull more attention of the readers, much better than end of an idea! 

So be it Kaleidoscope withdraws and pours another glass of cheap whiskey! 

sleep? what is that for!

Did you get enough sleep last night? 

Did you get enough sleep every night? 

Do you earn enough to have a proper sleep in the night? 

How much do you think is enough to get a proper sleep every night? 

These are not easy questions. Kaleidoscope travels with fellow sleef deficit bodies. Usually busy in their mobiles in the morning that shows that they did get just enough sleep to browse to select the favourite play station. 

Usually then the sleep engulfs them and on his return the bodies are usually unconscious in their deep workaholic sleep. 

Isn't it time that we should seriously think about work - sleep balance? 

The lonely peg

 What does it mean to be alone? For some others, selfie is the the loneliest thing that a human being can do. For some, the worst feeling is to drink alone. 

The problem lies with the definition of "alone"! What if I say that I drink with moon, mosquito and the mystic smell of the madhabilata which I so dearly allowed to invade in my privacy? What if I say that even when I am alone, I am not really alone, I am inside and I have inside the souls that keep on defining what I am?

Does a peg or two in the middle of the night define loneliness? Perhaps yes, perhaps no, perhaps love!

 

... moments you carry home

Moment by moment we live with a promise of living together beyond those moments. 

What happens beyond moments? Do we live separately! Perhaps not, we live with those moments. Bodies carry the marks of those moments, soul is etched with the words you have been whispering, the warmth of breathing on your skin speaks of the absent trace. You don't really leave thoae frozen moments, you live with them perhaps for ever. 

The fast times, crossing the physical space and creating distances no matter how materialistic it appear your moments envelope you! The absent trace is never quite over, so is your presence being never enough. 

Co-constructions - The other name of Love

The world engulfs you towards a liminality when ideas flow and inspiration comes from the space and the person whom you belong to. It was a sudden plan that invited Kaleidoscope to jump into and then develop a co-authored lifeworld that begins now but feels like it has always been like this. The co-authorship promises for a co-constructed journey to a liminal world and back. 

Kaleidoscope knows the transient nature of such journeys but the journey continues and keeps on repeating even when it's over for the moment. The touch remains on his skin, the smell recalls the warmth and memories of a nostalgic world. 

The co-constriction nevertheless is a lonely game when it's not raining, the co-construction is fulfilling when it is raining. Like a traveller without a travelogue Kaleidoscope contonues to embrace the absent trace through the smell, warmth and hugs that brings him close to the soul that saves him a million times without even knowing. 

Image- The Persistence of Love by Salvador Dali

Lovebirds on the go

Kaleidoscope could feel the bridging gap between the young and energetic girl and the boy sitting face to face at the fag end of the Tata Magic van which carries twelve passengers instead of its capacity for the seven. As the magic sped up the back-stage of the car started to transform itself into a different world. Their love filled gestures, holding hands, touching and whispering smiles were infectious. A windy ride with a beautiful couple exploring each others in the middle of nowhere - Kaleidoscope knew, it was a wonderful world! 

Post-truth moments: Two photographs, two narratives

 

The above two photographs are used quite widely by the IT-cell workers in India especially during the election. The first one, tried to supplement the narrative of Mr Modi as a common person with a humble beginning. The Left side image is a superimposition of Mr. Modi's face on the original photograph which is given on the right side. This photo circulated so widely, that a RTI finally revealed that it was fake and that this photo doesn't represent Mr Modi as sweeping floor.

See: 

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/01/21/modi-photoshopped_n_9035576.html

The second photo is an original image where Ms. Mamata Banerjee taken at a moment when she was ending her Namaskar gesture of folding hands. It is so strategically posted that it appears like the Islamic way of addressing with an Aadab. The image was circulated by people like the one above most probably through a fake account. If not fake, then it is by someone who follows and supports Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or may be someone who works for their IT-Cell. The prefix of chowkidar was part of the strategic social media campaign which translated Mr Modi's emphatic gesture that he is the watchman of country translated as Chowkidar. 

Disclaimer:

This is a supplementary material for an article to be published by Routledge under Knowledge, Power and Ignorance: The Indian Context an outcome of the IDSK seminar, see http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Knowledge-Seminar_Notice.pdf for more details

The sweet sound of "Uthan"

The space is empty and yet it is full of silence and absent trace. This is a possibility where  kids can play their favourite games, two teenage love birds can speak a thousand words without uttering anything while they keep on tossing the feather through their badminton rackets, as you grow old you can spend the lazy winter noon with the neighbours or aged friends.

The time passes by leaves an absent trace on the same space, mornings are noisy with the mobile vendors with the fish and vegetables, the lazy afternoons are full of gossiping soul, late afternoons are noisy with kids and the evenings are full of light and love. No matter how imagined the space is, it is the courtyard, we call Uthan.