Being-in-the Bars: - Construction of Everyday Social Reality in two Spaces of Consumptions

Kaleidoscope is fortunate enough to have a gang of like minded people in an otherwise monotonous built-in-city. He is grabbing almost every opportunity to explore the length and breadth of the built-in-city and penetrating inside the old city which is yet to be explored and known. Such an experience questions his very foundational assumption of the being-in-the-world. 

Being-in-the-world:

In order to be as a being in the world, Kaleidoscope's peculiar species makes constant decisions regarding the patterns of interaction and interface with the 'others'. The other includes most conspicuously the fellow species members but it is not limited to it solely. With their constant action and interaction they become being in - this being in is constantly shifting and never settled. This constant critical being in happens to be explained by Heidegger in his 1962 famous work being and time beautifully!

Such being in is part of the constant world building process through which Kaldeidoscope and his fellow species members continuously pass through and it is an ongoing public discourse. Humans respond to objects according to their perception of its meaning which arises from negotiated social interaction (Blumer 1969 Symbolic Interactionism).

The built-in city and stereotypical bars

As Kaleidoscope is now transferred to one of the close to the colonial capital colleges in a built-in environment he often explores the planned and plaza like 'expensive' places. It includes the malls nearby and some of the finest bars which offers some of the finest flavours of the world! He remembers, once one of his very close relatives after having a drink in Country Roads bar - the place where Kaleidoscope often grabs his drinks commented 'it feels like home." Yes, it gave him the feel of Scotland - his present home. These are the places where people from upwardly mobile middle classes come after office, grab a rounds of drinks, eat wonderful mouthwatering foods pay no attention to the increasingly loud music and then leave. These are the bars that play the IPL matches on giant screens, keep the light dimmed and allow some private moment even within the public space. Kaleidoscope has seen couples looking at each other deeply for long pauses, holding each others, hugging and kissing under the loud music, a mix of alcoholic-foodie-perfumy-bodily-smoky ambiance. It allows a transcendence of boundaries between bodies and the world as both of them slowly sleep deep inside the darkness and increasingly loud music. There is hardly any cross table exchange of glances or words. You have options for high chairs to make yourself visible, privy sofas at corners and open sofas on the high raised dais. The three certain places together form the uncertain space. People can definitely project themselves on the high chair or can form a gang like appearance on the conspicuous sofas on dais or sleep into the privacy in the comfortable sofas. Kaleidoscope remembers on several occasions they sat on the sofas of the dais - the middle range space. Whenever he visited with just one friend they choose the privy sofas.

The typical stereotypic space that one can find in the posh park street or perhaps at many places of the world gets reproduced in the built-in city of New Town Kolkata.

The formal inside story of country roads

The radical bars of the old city: 

Kaleidoscope moves on to find relatively cheap places to drink whenever he manages to go to the old colonial city. While he wrote exclusively on the Apolitical bar in a blogpost he was fortunate enough to spend hours in perhaps one of the oldest and arguably the cheapest bar of the city named as Saw's.

Shaw brothers offer you an extraordinary large hall of a masculine space which is filled with numerous chairs and tables . the style of the furniture represents that of a previous century. The staff wearing traditional waiter dresses having brass badges will take you to the past. Shaw brothers does not allow you to keep your belongings on any of the chairs and radically brings people closer. You can have your table but you can see that there will be other people occupying your table as well. You can talk to them, argue, even share your food and drinks with a complete stranger.

Kaleidoscope was amazed with the enormous shape and size of the bar which looks exactly like a running market where people are actually in a hurry to have food and drink! But they are not. None of the consumers are in a hurry and the space no matter how fleeting it appears is comfortably settled in itself. As they ordered the waiter demanded the money - yes, its prepaid. What about food? Kaleidoscope was even more astonished - there are running hawker like waiters who will bring your food from outside. They are part of the famous delicious street foods of Kolkata. The variety will knock you out. You can have Alu-Kabli (a boiled potato snack) to Panir Tikka in veg and Fish fingers to mutton liver curry and plain fish fries including that of tiny fishes. All in unthinkably low price. The liquor you order are served at the lowest rate in the town. You can go outside to smoke where a couple of sellers are standing with all international and local brands of cigarettes, cigars and hookahs. You can buy single piece of 555 or Dunhil which is otherwise unthinkable in Kolkata.

Crowd is equally interesting. Its a microcosm of the vibrant Kolkata. Kaleidoscope could see people drinking alone at different corners, aged and suited officer-looking people in groups, college students, research scholars, and small businessmen radically challenging every boundaries that human species proudly reproduces in their everyday lives.

The entire space challenges the boundaries between formal and informal economy, class divisions, divisions of inside outside spaces and gives a carnivalesque appearances.

The masculine space inside

The three glasses with three shots of white mischief came on top of each others carried by a juggling waiter. No hanky panky glasses. It's straight and questions the capitalist dimension of unequalising nature often manifested in different kinds of glasses for different types of beverages

The smokers den immediately outside the space

Street food at your table and the boundaries are radically challenged

Consumers intersubjectivity:

While the consumers - the living human elements are always fleeting both the spaces that minutely alters the patterns of being-in of the bars, the broad categorisation remains the same. The built-in bar is formal, restricting and excluded space from the outside world. While even being a confined space the Shaw brothers doors are hardly closed ever. Its almost always swinging with the outside informal world stepping in and the inside liminal and uncertain formalinformal world is stepping out. The careers of street foods or the alcohol serving waiters are the agents of the radical and juxtaposed existence. Kaleidoscope could understand why G H Mead found material culture as a collapsed act bearing a sign of completion that is never complete. Thus while Shaw's door keeps moving as the agents goes out and steps in and Country Road's automated sliding door formally opens with a heavy blower creating curtain of airconditioned air flow it fixes the two radically different experiences. Like Tuan (1980 The Significance of the Artifact) notes material culture fixes our experiences much in the similar manner in which text fixes discourses.

Kaleidoscope can however, enjoy the radically free flowing growth of the material surrounding in his imagination and in his subsequent visits. Its getting built up every moment and then falling flat everytime like his own name - Kaleidoscopic!

Since, now Kaleidoscope is more conscious regarding his being-in the stereotypic late capital bars as on stage, and in those radical bars are off stage, next best thing would be to bring the off stage self inside the stereotypic bars to see if the world cares!

Hangovers in liminality: Kolkata pubs after they are banned

Let us think about a young person belonging to an upwardly mobile middle class of Kolkata having a headache on the Sunday morning. What would be your perception?

There may be many, but the most prominent one might be the like this "the person might have been to a party and drank till midnight to have the  odd headache." This may or may not be the case but this has increasingly become the popular stereotype of the class Kaleidoscope referring to here

The city too often has headaches after the Saturday nights in numerous popular party destinations. One of which happens to the space surrounding City Center I. Kaleidoscope does not want to mention the region as place because the place is never an 'assured' and 'certain' place, but something quasi-known, always changing and difficult to explain space. The space during the making out nights with party becomes even more unknown and uncertain the flow of people and professionals from a variety of places seldom known to each other. Yes there are known people and unknown specialists including the "one night standers" and "professionals" to the regular tireless selves looking for transcendence of everyday existences. Such interfaces gives a liminal dimension to the space and spatial practices.

While Kaleidoscope had to spend some time for a week at the space he could decipher a changing dimension of the number of vehicles parked over the week and sudden rise in the numbers with the weekends. Meanwhile while commuting from his usual office place through an unusual way he could talk to the auto-drivers regarding the changing dimension of the VIP road with closing of bars following a government order which bans bars and pubs from functioning near national highways. There seems to be an inflow of selves and professionals creating an even strong liminality near the city center I.

Meanwhile, there are remains of the time that crisscrosses through the liminality leaving behind a few marks, few hangovers like this:

Farmland, shopping mall and a walk: A futuristic romance

There are avenues of escape even in the midst of concrete jungle. Its not that hard to imagine a mesmerised surrounding engulfing you slowly in a place where you tend to sit for a while, for some time, for eternity. Shopping malls are never thought of such a place where you can romanticise your imagination. These are the places where you are supposed to come, buy, consume the space that surrounds you, eat or get dressed and look beautiful. Once you have finished the cycle you can take a selfie.




That has become part of our late capital, postmodern everydayness. Suddenly the world seems to be unbearably hot for Kaleidoscope so as to compel him to do every meeting with friends at one of those spaces. Being in a shopping mall definitely makes you conscious about how you look, how you walk, how you dress, how you eat and how you talk to others. However, there is one that carries the legacy of its past nearby. Yes, City Centre II, of Kolkata happens to stay at a place close to an existing farmland. You can stand on one of those foot bridges that connects two massive constructions to have a glimpse of it.




Kaleidoscope, happens to be one of those consumers who happened to go to the place for quite some time now. His earlier thought was that the farmland will disappear soon to give rise to high rises. He also thought how ugly the place will become if the other side of the major arterial road consists of highrises. Wouldn't it be a jungle of concretes only? Kaleidoscope asked himself several times. However, as he walked towards Chinar Park there is another wonder. Between high rises plazas there stood a small tract of village life near No-Para. A couple of buildings, a bamboo garden and a peaceful graveyard. Kaleidoscope thought again, how long one can hold on against the land grab. Meanwhile, the greenery continued to add hints of past country feeling in the midst of cacophony, highrises, reflecting glasses.




However, even after all these years, they continue to live on. The bamboo garden, the farm land continue to invite Kaleidoscope to an imagined past, perhaps to an imagined future. What would happen if suddenly, City Centre II, nearby Spencers supermarket and the like disappears from there? Ambuja group or the Goenka group would certainly loose nothing. Afterall, they have effectively rented the space to the latecapital consumers at an "affordable" high cost. They wouldn't mind abandoning a pile of concrete structure and glass panels! Would they?


What would have happened next? Trees would definitely outgrow the fashionable gardens, the farmland will continue to be cultivated. Soon, the greenery will show its signs of invasion to the concretes. Kaleidoscope, nevertheless thinks concrete buildings awaits such moments. There seems to be a pause in that eternal lovemaking  -  the pause is anthropocentric - the source of most the pauses in this planet.  

Glassy Selfie World - Narcissism and Postmodern architectures

The selfie world

The one glassy building:

Once there was a glass building with completely different and attractive looking architecture near Ultadanga - the VSNL building. Kaleidoscope, an aimless roamer in his neighbourhood was for the first time asked by an elderly fellow 'where do you want to take up your job?' Kaleido replied 'at that glass building near ultadanga'. 'Do you know which office is there inside the building' the fellow continued. Kaleidoscope replied 'yes VSNL' 'And what is that?' - yes of course kaleidoscope  didn't know the answer. He said 'i dont know but i would be happy  to see the graveyard nearby from the top of that office during tiffin time!' Kaleidoscope can't  remember the rest of conversation, but he does remember the attraction of that glassy architecture.

Many glassy buildings:

Later on he has seen many of such buildings coming up at different places of his city. Then there came shopping destinations which he thought he would never be able to go to buy. Now that there are many and that he has grown up, he doesn't have much aspirations or options to take up a job in the glassy buildings. However, looking from any of the top buildings, remains an important part of his fantasies.

While these glassy buildings are encroaching his city space, mushrooming everywhere to replace many of the thickly historical experiences, kaleidoscope stsrred seeing them differently.  There is one beside National Library and kaleidoscope is deprived of experiencing the colonial feel which was as precious as the books that took hours to appear from some hidden cave in the library. The postmodern bhasa bhawan replaces National Library. All of a sudden renovation means replacing mosaic floors with tiles, windows with sliding glass panels which reduces the open space to half and walls with wallputty!

Selfie world:

Hence kaleidoscope's world is now converted to a space that reflects your image too often. When you look at them they make you look at yourself - perhaps the front camera clad selfie mode in action everywhere. A world where there is no escape from selfie. You have to be narcissistic, you must be able to fall in love with and then transform the body according to your wish! You are made not to love everything of your body because there are other better bodies to see nearby, and you are more and more trying to change it. Yes, you chose to look 'good' because so many times you are compared with your heroes possessing 'ideal types'. 

As Kaleidoscope looks up beyond the glassy buildings there seems to be the outer atmosphere - the sky. Only attaining that high demands him to go through a series of colourful backlit flexes. Will they ever allow kaleidoscope or for that matter others to trespass them?

Perhaps trespassing is not a possibility without getting into 'properly' shaped. One should not only live but should also die sexy.

The fleeting worlds:

The glassy buildings not only makes your world a selfie world, but also makes you believe the transient nature and lack of permanence and depthless presents. Hence, there once was hometown mall now central mall and no one knows perhaps may be in a few years it would be office space like Gariahat mall. Who knows how long IBM clad DLF I or the like will stay? Glasses are easy to leave as they are! Aren't they? Additionally they easily breakable and replaceable by something new. Therefore, here it is, a transient depthless successions of architectures, or do they redefine depth in time, depth in stratigraphy in a dynamic way in a way we can say postmodern!

Meanwhile, its again the sky from above and a tall building calling! Meanwhile,  kaleodoscope knows attaining that high is restricted as the roofs are dangerous in high buildings. Is it true? or does the glassy world hold you back, because you are supposed to live (consume) and not rush for the sky! Not yet, because you cannoy die till you aren't sexy!

The newly converted central mall in an extreme angle.

Civilisation and Question of Love: Part V Choices we Make

Taken at Max Life Style, in City Centre II, Rajarhat, Kolkata

Kaleidoscope wishes to discuss the question of choice which has become so much important in a late capitalist society. He teaches his students that development is the question of the enhancement of choices. One of our famous noble laureates speaks about development as freedom, Kaleidoscope like many others understands it is a freedom to choose. Therefore increasingly we are looking for more alternatives in our lives. We wish to avail services where we feel that we are having more choices. Lesser choices most frequently disinterest us.  

The bigger questions are therefore:

A. Does enhancement of choice mean empowerment?

B. How enhancement of choice connects expenses, restlessness and craving?

C. What happens to those (or them) whom we do not choose (or choose to leave behind)?

D. How do alternatives enhance our freedom?

E. How the question of love, choice and alternatives connect?

Choices and individuation

The most significant gift of the civilisation is freedom of choices. What we are taught to truly value is our independent individual existence. For example while a generation earlier it was taught that one must not forget the value system of one’s “culture”, one must be dutiful towards his/her significant others often including neighbours, with the advent of capitalism the philosophy has been turned upside down. The futuristic growth model which the state and market as scholarly twins of the industrial revolution thought needed a push. In order to satisfy such a need the state intervened family matters in the court of law through the army of state machineries, market continued to send army of products which first challenged the local products and then completely wiped them out with international standard branding. Therefore, while Kaleidoscope wears a Levis Strauss jeans he can truly identify himself with his friend Jan Kaweretzke staying at Berlin. However, this was not enough to break the bond of the family and community; therefore, the twin of the industrial revolution has given another dimension, a dimension that is stronger than such “pre-modern” bonding, i.e. the power to become INDIVIDUAL.

It means that

1.       Marry the person you like.

2.       Leave him/her if s/he does not suit you eventually.

3.       Choose from different alternatives and crave for more.

4.       You do not need to depend on the family and community for basic things like food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare and of course employment.  

Interestingly the individuation issue is way too opposite than what we are taught by the millions of years of evolution. We have been co-operative with each other, we lived in communities, and we evolved and become the major force of the planate because of this co-operative ability. Within merely about two centuries we are becoming independent individuals. Today while market is providing us with choices like never before, state is doing constant surveillance over families. For example in many countries the state can sue a person to a slightest of ‘negligence’ over their children. State compels you to send your children to school, can take away your child if you do not behave with them according to the legal terms of appropriateness.

Rationality as New Barbarism:

All these are done under a powerful concept of ‘rationality’, often which is backed by another heavy loaded term “scientific.” The scientific rationality in the intellectual sphere has fuelled in the process by inventing child psychology, individual psychology, discovering diseases which were not there before the advent of certain forms of life styles. With increasing specialisation in the academic disciplines we have invented and regularly updated DSMs, by the American Psychological Association and then thrse are used across the world without often thinking about the contextual and cultural richness of different places other than America. The rationality based on logic has taken away to a significant extent the vital inputs of affect and emotions. Rationality often speaks against emotions. For example with scientific rationality we can make fun out of our medieval ancestors, even to a certain extent our own parents who still believe that there is something called afterlife and work for divinity. From a purely scientific point of view we can say human life has absolutely no meaning at all. We are outcome of a mindless evolutionary game. If tomorrow our planet is blown up, nothing will happen to the universe, and it will continue to mind its own business. Hence, any meaning that we attribute to our life is a delusion.

How does it make a person feel who continued to thins his unfulfilled aspirations will be fulfilled in the next life?

How does it make you feel if you have just fall in love and your love is reciprocated?

Yes, it is gruesome, science, or for that matter rationality is gruesome exercise.

The indifference:

With the enhancement of choices and formation of atomic individuation we have learned another thing, i.e. indifference. In fact, our building architectures, essential life commodities teach us to become indifferent everyday.

 

South City Shopping Mall, Kolkata

Mies van der Rohe Seagram_building Chicago

Technopolis office building, Sector V, Kolkata

The pictures above shows indifferent architectures designed to cater the issue of space rationally. All three has amazing similarity yet are designed for different purposes. They are all air-conditioned, indifferent towards the outside world, they all reflect, i.e. simply throws back the outside world, not allowing them to enter into the inner space.

While our buildings, air-conditioned cars, houses, and offices are indifferent, we too are indifferent. What we really care about is the question of choice. While we are having many things to choose from, our mind continues to crave for more. Even what we crave for years or decades only gives us a momentary pleasure and then becomes part of our regular life, making us crave for more. Therefore, we are increasingly becoming indifferent towards the world that surrounds us, relationships that contend us to focus on our individual pursuits which are actually shaped by the strategic nexus of state, market and science. Because there is an uneasy relationship between individuals (who also crave for relationships along with other things) state, market and science our species is increasingly becoming restless, tensed and dissatisfied.

Love and the trickledown effect of choice:

While we have an enhanced ability to choose from ever increasing alternatives we have started to believe (unconsciously may be) that we can get everything we want. We have forgotten to accept the defeat. Whenever we face a defeat we tend to seek revenge. Because of our indifference towards the world in which we tend to live, we hardly have anything to care for. When the question of love comes, it is often seen that we tend to seek everything from a finite person, and when we fail to have it all we seek newer relationships. Often badly hurting the persons whom we choose to leave. Often we do not leave, we continued to stay but in a void, constantly thinking and seeking other possibilities. Kaleidoscope can still remember one of his friends saying out of frustration that he cannot find new pornographies. Many of the so called new pornographies are actually old ones and repetitive.

The two scholarly children of industrial revolution, i.e. state and market along with their best friend science is sincerely manufacturing individuals with choices to make. Increasingly state-market-science nexus in their affair with individuals is pushing people far away from the affect and love, replacing them with scientific rationality and polishing them with choice. 

The Civilisation and Question of Love: Part III The Age of Shopping

Chaplin in Modern Times

The day kaleidoscope went to spend the night with friends, the day when the idea of exploring the question of love and civilisation was born, his friend cooked a lot. There was wonderfully cooked mutton, bhetki fish intended to be consumed in the late night dinner. The food was wonderful. There were crabs being bought from nearby restaurant which tasted awesome. It was a known fact that that much of food was not required. But they have arranged presumably out of an insecurity. Whenever kaleidoscope and his friends at the workplace drinks together they usually waste a lot of food. On each night they decide that from the next day they would not order but infallibly repeats the same mistakes again and again. Throughout much of the history people have lived under scarcity. Today's wastage has been viewed as sin by most of the religions. Only kings and and nobles were allowed for such a luxury. Today's philosophy has changed. Today we crave for more, we crave for things which we does not really need. We crave for things that was not there even the day before. 

Before going straight  to the point kaleidoscope wishes to focus on he film "pyaaar ka side effect" where Rahul Bose projects that the emotional disruption of a breakup is directly proportionate to the amount of money a person spends on shopping. Although he gets disappointed to see his girlfriend Mallika Sherawat does not shop much.

There is a song by Kabir Suman "ei sahor jane aamar pratham sob kichu" (this city knows all my first experiences ) where in one line of the song he claims to learn for the first time that one can buy anything with money. Money is a wonderful concept of trust.

Trust none but money:

What makes a shop keeper to exchange anything for a handful of papers? Papers have no material value,we cannot eat money, but we trust that we can di anything we want with money. It is a psychological construct. Money is the most efficient form of mutual trust that has ever been designed. From cowrie shell to barley bag to gold coins and now numbers. Money has systematically become most efficient and universal form of trust. Money is universally convertible and universally acceptable. Therefore, based on this mutual understanding, millions of people work in coordination. Our medium of trust as it appears converted from social relationships to economy, or more precisely to money.

To elaborate this point further kaleidoscope wishes to present a few of his field experiences. The weekly markets,or he haats are always his favourite places of doing fieldwork. What makes a haat different from market is the approach towards money. In a haat even today you would find that the seller does not much interested in counting the  money or checking the originality of a note. They will just take and dump the money in their pouch. While in urban markets the picture is completely different. They will count carefully, look for the originality of the note. The difference is between formalism (neoclassical economy of profit maximisation) and substantivism (economy embedded in social relationships and mutual trust). These two forms show two clear differences. With market based capital economy we trust none, but the money. While in pre-capital society mutual trust based on social relationship is extremely important. You don't need to count money from the person you know.

You shop... you suck (?)...

The consumerism is a much recent phenomena. Most of the tag lines that popular advertisements promote were considered selfish about a fifty (or thirty) years ago. Capitalism has worked really hard to promote consumerism so that they can dispose their products. Capitalism is surviving simply because it is constantly increasing its productivity. Today the phone from which i am writing this blog will not last more than a couple of years, or i might lost interest in it to buy a new one. The sofa on which i am sitting will need a changeover because it will become out of fashion.

Holiday means celebration with Coca-cola 

We have transformed our religious festivals as shopping carnivals. There is a new religion if consumerism. Where the rich invests and the rest buys. This is a wonderful religion which asks us to do what we really like to do. It asks us to crave for more, buy more and consume more. Most other religions for the rest of the human history has told us to go for nirvana, which is bloody tough to achieve, capitalism is the only exception. 

So why do we lose love when we shop? It is true that we tend to see monetary exchange in everything. Our spending of quality time means the power of purse to buy a quality ambiance, good food and wine. The choices for a life partner is also some how linked to the status and class, based primarily on money. The trust that we have over future is our trust on money. We do not have much trust on persons or relationships. Next time when you shop, you must also remember that giving expensive gifts to the person you think you love does not mean that you can measure your love with the amount you spent. You are spending because capitalism wants you to spend. Next time when when you make time out with your friends at different restaurants or pubs do remember that you are actually commodifying relationships with the power of money. When you claim you trust a person, whom do you trust, the person or his purchasing capacity? When you say you want to see a future with a person, whom you see, the future with the person or with his/her accessories? When you think/ or even feel that you actually love a person, what comes next? future, right? and what comes with future? 

Conceptual borrowings:

Polanyi, K. (1944). The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Beacon Press.

Polanyi, Karl. "The economy as instituted process." Trade and market in the early empires 243 (1957).

Dalton, George. "Economic theory and primitive society." American Anthropologist (1961): 1-25.

What does skin have to do with transfer and posting?

Kaleidoscope as many others travels frequently to a distance place to work on to sustain. People, of course including Kaleidoscope's colleagues who commute like kaleidoscope wear a tanned skin, unkempt hair, air stroke face, dull neck, wet clothes, often swelled eyes which are never compensated with sleepy blue nights. They use body sprays and shampoos to repair the body in which they live in.

Imitations and failures: Kaleidoscope noticed a few of his colleagues who are now transferred, wearing loud make ups. They strongly believed that it helped them save their skin from the road waste that Kaleidoscope and the like wears each time they commute. Well Kaleidoscope is not a person who can wear and carry a loud make up (Kaleidoscope is consciously not  a homophobic). Kaleidoscope does not have a dupatta with which he can cover up the skin and hair. He tried and failed to follow what the other person from another department does, covering his head with a handkerchief, although the other person continue to loose his hair. So, Kaleidoscope's skin, hair and face bears the marks of the so called "C-zone", in the never quite clear division of zones according to the posting.

The others: After the transfer of Kaleidoscope's colleagues who have successfully saved their skins from the C-zone effects there was a period of communism - all wore more or less C-zone skin. Suddenly with the new transfer policies several A-zoners are now sharing the baton in the orchestra of higher education in C-zone. They are the others. They wear city skin, hair and clothing. They commute either by the AC bus or by Goddamn expensive cars, they continue to wear the city bound professorish skin, but how long is a question.

Once Kaleidoscope and several others
(KB, KP, SB, AP, SC)
 had to travel by a truck to reach to teach
(Photo credit: KB!)

So next time you need to find out Kaleidoscope in any of the conferences or get-togethers you must seek:

A. Tanned Skin
B. Unkemped Hair
C. Unpressed Clothing
D. Swelled eyes


You find one, ask him straight... "Are you Kaleidoscope?" Even if the answer is no, it is a Kaleidoscope...

The Spectacles Called Durga Puja

Durga Puja represents a perfect example of transformation of local festivals into high profile festivals for touristic consumption. Although, the spectacles, as Kaleidoscope is observing since time immemorial is yet to gain touristic attention compared to what even the monotonous evening prayer gets at Varanasi.

Constructed space and spectators in AE (1) block of Salt Lake 2012

There may be two major positions, first, urban festivals gives boom to the city economy as we all see a rise in the consumption habit of Kolkatans. Second, and more importantly there is an element of ethnic pride and we can argue that the puja reinforces the content and meaning of collective identification.

Shibmandir's Puja at South Kolkata. It is classic mix if tradition and modern going hand in hand. The ritualistic part is controlled by the Temple committee and the decorations, etc. by a separate committee.

One must remember Urban spectacles are produced - in the sense of Henri Lefebvre and always include the process of commodification, hence, we see this

Gates with advertisement is one of the most important source of revenue - taken at Ekdalia Evergreen pandal 2012

Competition between different Puja pandals are now sponsored (taken from website)

Aestheticisation: 

The aestheticisation of every day life comes alive a few months before the actual commencement of the puja. Kaleidoscope is no exception. He accompanies the queen to several "good", aesthetically charming stores to buy materials of aestheticisation. It costs huge... but Kaleidoscope and the Queen finds it a pleasureful pursuit to buy clothes in this once in a year indulgence of consumerist selves. 

People taking snaps... one of the major pursuits of the Puja event is to look beautiful, capture them and preserve them.

The construction of spaces for consumption:

The Puja opens up the possibilities for the creative construction and transformation of a space. Most of the big puja pandals starts organising themselves immediately after one puja gets over. Within in a few months, the open space selected for the puja observes a great transformation. There are use of symbols, and material objects that signifies the transformation and makes the consumption possible.

Mudiyali Club 2012: constructed by the Zari and other glittering materials used for the decorating the idol.

Shibmandir 2012: the theme was DNA and human cloning

Hand pulled rickshaw has been aesthetically used by the Kashba Bosepukur Puja PandalL the entire construction is made by Pine wood.

Add caption

Part of the Kashba-Bosepukur Pandal

The essences:

There are almost ritualistic restrictions in experimentations with materials of the idol. There are several experimentations with the forms, but the materials i.e. mud covered straw and bamboo structure with paints. 

A typical "ek-challa" idol, taken at Saltlake AE (1) block 2012

Worshiping of "Bhanga thakur" is done by the Brahmin Professionals: Taken at Saltlake, BJ block Puja 2012

Spectatorship: 

The space that is created in the name of the Puja is lived and relived by the spectators. It reminds kaleidoscope that of Lefebvre's "third space." Each year, with ever increasing energy the space for the puja which constitutes a mix of tradition and experimentations with tradition is lived by the spectators - all with new clothing, aesthetic looks and energies to find a space in over crowded spaces.

Long queue of Pandal hoppers outside the FD block pandal, Salt Lake 2012

Spectators of the Puja at Ekdalia Evergreen 2012

There are late night pandal hopping, eating, spending money in commuting, making plans for spending money with dear and near ones... and so on... the space is relived and consumed as a whole. 

Concerns:

Kaleidoscope and the queen are hopping pandals for last several years. They ritually visit to the thematic pandals and also the pandals with little or no change. They, like many others make plans, fight over plans, save money, spend the savings without regrets, eat, drink, spend days without regular tasks. They feel that the entire city becomes art gallery. Yet, the touristic attention towards Durga Puja is much less. The consumption is still restricted to the Kolkatan's, who in turn gives their savings to the business houses. Apart from the domestic consumers, the city does not earn much concrete stuffs from the outside. There is a huge potential of making festival tourism that can circle around the great transformation of the space. Kaleidoscope and Queen discussed and debated the issue. They worked with The Boss, to make sense of the festival, transformation and consumption. They might write something out of their experience... however, Kolkata till date fails to utilise the tourism potential of urban space transformation.

This article has been referred to by ANGELICA MARINESCU in an article entitled "ETHNICITY AND RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM: CELEBRATING DURGĀ PŪJĀ IN THE SUNDARBANS OF INDIA" Roman Journal of Sociology (2014): http://journalofsociology.ro/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Full-text.pdf

Commodities in "Co" words: the Habitus and the Continuity

Compatibility, co-operation, co-habitation and co-construction - in sum, words with "co" occupies important position in the each of the domesticated selves in and around the world of Kaleidoscope. These "co" words add newer dimensions, colours and textures to Kaleidoscope's world as well. Since, Kaleidoscope likes adding dimensions, colours and textures to life, he is expected to enjoy this part of his being.

(2012 World Press Photo Contest Winners: 1st Prize Daily Life Stories: Marco leads Monica from their bedroom to the living room in Buenos Aires. Monica was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Alejandro Kirchuk)

The problem is created by unrecognised entrance of invisible hands through reflecting mirrors of the shopping malls, sexy appearances of other beings everyday, everywhere, available better living devices: and the list is every increasing, multiplicity of options and supposedly taken for granted hike in ways of being. Kaleidoscope dislikes, hates, and yet adopts them at the expense of his deferring 'base' and ever procrastinating aims.

The core question is "Can he isolate the entangled invisible hands, co-words, and his presentable self  - in sum his habitus?" The answer is NO. "Is it possible for Kaleidoscope to overthrow the invisible hand?" the answer is most probably NO, "Can he manage to survive without the additional parts which would then be thrown away with the hand?" the answer is obviously NO.

It actually does not matter! 

From bread to being: mcdonaldization

Kaleidoscope was out for the mission "meeting The Queen" a self appointed secret mission in western ghat. It was an wonderful journey through western ghat in an air conditioned bus. The bus halted at some place to give time and space for intake and unload as it always happens in long journey. Kaleidoscope got out and started taking snaps.

While he bought a green coconut mixed with his favourite brand of cigarette he noticed this

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The archaeology of bread and Mc D:

[two months back - in front of an attractive Mc Donalds restaurant ]

Kaleidoscope: This is unreal you love eating bread so much

The Queen: This is no bread, this is healthy Mc Donalds, and I love Mc Donalds!

K: How could you love this fast food [As if K hates fast food!!]. It has two intentions, first, to make you fat and second, to drain your money to America.

TQ: First of all Mc D [Until this, K didn't know what is Mc D but given that he is smart he quickly understood] is not fast food, its healthy food. It contains fresh vegetable, mayonnaise ... ummm I just love it

K: Its meaninglessly expensive and I can't find why should I leave Chinese and Indians to consume bread

TQ: Because you have never tried, its fascinating...

[The debate continued]

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When the bus started Kaleidoscope noticed that the Mc D was located in the middle of a village to attract passers by. kaleidoscope knew having something is better than nothing but Mc D is next to nothing. He smiled and concentrated on the scenic beauty of western ghat.

[fast forward - the journey to the mission of meeting The Queen]

The mission went successful with effective Mcdonaldization in breakfast and in early lunch with The Queen. A fast forward journey required fast forward food and Mc D is another name of efficiency in fastest stomach filling, quantitative time management and predictable environment - everything is same and yet not monotonous.

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[pack up]

While Kaleidoscope looks at his anchor and his vessel he discovers an echo of sounds "I am busy", "I am running out of time", "Have to complete according to the 'terms of references' which actually same with what he hates about Mc Donald. Now Kaleidoscope knows that conflict with The Queen is rooted in his 'being busy' - being Mc Donald. He recognises that he has already transformed himself from emotional to calculative and rational being. That his calculative and rational being is a new barbarism.

Kaleidoscope also understands the irony: The Queen is totally in love with Mc D but cannot tolerate the McDonaldisation of Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope on the other hand hates Mc D but has a Mc D self.

Kaleidoscope decides to cope with his McDonaldised self!

READ IF YOU LIKE:

Ritzer, George. (2004). The mcdonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage