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.  

Ride to a Time Machine: from Kolkata to Pakur!

When Kaleidoscpe was making a long journey from Kolkata to Pakur to attend one of his close to heart colleague turned friend's marriage, he had a feel of everydayness of the country. Not because of the scenic beauty at both sides of the railway track or because of the over crowded compartments but because of an event of ticket checking. Kaleidoscope was trying concentrate on trees and their running shadows on the empty crop fields or the alien looking harvesters at work, suddenly a woman cries out for forgiveness and mercy.

Ticket inspector and the penalty:

A ticket inspector found out that a) the woman was carrying a local train ticket in an express train for two passengers, and b) that she was travelling with two more kids without ticket. She was emphasising on her inability to differentiate between an express train and a local train - a logic which the inspector and frankly others too found laughable. When this logic failed she argued "because I am a woman, I am weak and I can barely recognise the difference... I do not travel much..." (She was constantly sobbing). The inspector replied "now a day there is no difference between a man and and a Woman... you could not differentiate/ or intentionally ignored the difference is your fault and you have to pay the penalty." The cost of the penalty was about a thousand rupees. Which, of course the woman was unwilling to pay. The negotiation process continued for sometime and ultimately she paid Rs. 200/- as a penalty and took the receipt.

As the inspector went out, she started to make fun out of the railway system and felt proud to be able to negotiate so hard. As she was smiling Kaleidoscope could not hold himself and asked her kids about their age. The smallest one who has started preparing for getting admission to a secondary school replied that he is 2 years and 9 months old. The woman smiled "I told them to tell a lie, otherwise I had to buy a ticket."

The division within the Penalty:

Just when Kaleidoscope thought that he  had enough of the early stage of socialisation process, making his countrymen hypocrite, a man came and started to discuss about the receipt which the women had got. He asked for that receipt, and told her to hand it over to him as soon as she gets down from the train. It was needed and he agreed to pay fifty percent of the fine amount, i.e. 100/-. He needed that because he had bribed the inspector with Rs. 50/- which did not earn him a receipt. Since the woman had a local train ticket, as soon as she could get down from this train at the station, she would not be charged again. On the other hand this man somehow believed that there may be a second round of checking and if he could manage the receipt, he could escape further hazards. 

The woman happily agreed and took away Rs. 100/- before getting down from the train saying: "I must buy a lottery today." Both of them looked happy.

Even when Kaleidoscope is writing he can feel those worlds somewhere being pronounced like a mantra "I told them to tell a lie, otherwise I had to buy a ticket." 

Yes, Kaleidoscope on his journey from Kolkata to Pakur actually had a chance to ride on a time machine which started with the kid and perhaps (never)ended with the grown up man who took the receipt...