Cilinging moments in a coffeeshop

While the raindrops brought emptiness and Kaleidoscope enjoyed some quite and lone moments in the coffeeshop yesterday, today with an unusually rapid transformation of weather, there was a bright blue canvas and it was literally glittering outside. As his relatively free time in the workplace was over, he thought of giving another try to another coffeeshop with the contrast in weather. This time with a friend, having strong inclination in exploring time!

Time is what dominated the entire discourse and history became a lived experience, meanwhile there were people coming out of the mall and filling their stomach with quick grabs. Just another everydayness in the coffeeshop. A few smaller groups talking, a couple amused by sudden appearance of a cat and the time kept ticking unknowingly.

Perceptively, unless there was longer looking shadows nearby, there hardly was time drifting away. No one looked at the clocks in the mobile phones or on the watch - or at least Kaleidoscope imagined in that way. A rainy empty urban yesterday seems to have left the mark in the relatively cool breeze and a relatively lateback coffeeshop today. No matter how indifferent the space is,  (yesterday was a glassy architecture today its an open air space), monsoon seems to have worked on both. Water is indeed a great equaliser in more subtle ways than we would ever know!

Was it kaleidoscopic imagination or was it a fact that time actually, slowed down for a while? The time as Kaleidoscope travelled from a distant past through the discourses, seemed to ultimately concentrate itself on the elongated shadows nearby. As if the whole world was melting and spreading on the concrete floor nearby. Time was painting the space by melting down slowly. The chairs became elongated as they were left by others. Yes, the transcendental chairs continue to exist for a long suspended time.

Monsoon does wonders, setting sun melts down the dimensions of time which simultaneously changes rapidly on the sky and remains static as the shadows paint on earth and its space. Shadows became longer- scripting way the delayed time as there is always skylight long after the Sun disappears.

Raindrops and emptiness

No matter how critical he might be about the late capital existence, kaleidoscope wont deny the fact that its wonderful to see outside in the middle of a rainy day from a built-in-space, that too when empty.  Drenched in a rain, a cup of darjeeling tea and sometime alone in the middle of a coffee shop is a chance to indulge late capital self to explore the details of civilisation.

The shop happens to be empty, only a person waiting at one corner, a gang of college friends carrying engineer's hallmark 'T scale' and a wonderful couple looking at each other! The outside is melting down through the glasspanels. Once and all none of them are involved in their mobile phones, weather does wonder.

Suddenly, there is Bryan Adams 'Rescue me' followed by 'have you really loved a woman'.

What if the rain drops are coming from all the rivers Kaleidoscope fell in love with, what if they have come to make love with the space, always meant for love - friendship- companionship. When rain comes so does the wind to make the drenching complete, to make the melting worth melt for.

Kaleidoscope sometimes do feel love is often about the space and moments - all equalising raindrops from all the rivers makes it even more prominent - more liveable.

Balls Story - Global Bengal Story

 

Installation at Yuba Bharati Krirangan. Photograph: taken from Guruchandali group, Facebook

Why can't you people see the fact that the torso is a ball. Remember the movie Idiocracy where 'balls' happens to be the measure of strength, measure of manhood and masculinity and we all know we use it quite often than not. There are three of them at least visible!

 

Two legs and a ball on top like we see cherry on top of an ice-cream, don't you people like it? Come on, its toppings, baba; don't you discuss toppings when you go for a cheesy treat of pizza, then what is your problem? Kaleidoscope's fellow citizens are watching a rapid transformation of the city. There are sudden balls and players being installed here and there. All of a sudden a few waste disposals are converted to lusty green landscapes. People were happy (excepting those who were displaced in the process, but that's collateral damage to the balls) until there was unveiling of the cherry top of the transformation! Some assumed it to be a 'cup', some said it might be a frog but no one perhaps had ever imagined this. But this thing is real, welcoming world to a Global Bengal!

 

Think of the two legs that enables you to walk for miles from Singapore to 'Shyaoragachh er tola.' Yes, you need your legs to walk. To enjoy Hague or to get a hug or to get relief from it (in Bengali) you need to walk or sometimes run. From Gandhi to Q directed Gandu, walking happens to be important. Gandu fell on the rickshaw puller 'Bruce Lee' and got a slap - but that's another story, but the bottom line is you need to walk or run to achieve, therefore folks please let it be!

 

The question however is, what if the pant disappears before the game? Remember, already we have three balls here! Ssssshhhh... no kaleidoscope stops here and folks keep your imagination alive.

Reading riot and a river

We, a team of psychologists, activists and anthropologist were exploring different riot and riot like situations for a few years now. Yesterday was another round of fieldwork after a few months of Baduria-Basirhat violence. We began by talking to two brothers who lost their father and helped a person from other comnunity to survive, we met a handful of people who stopped their own community people from spreading the violence even further. We kept talking about the possible impact of the mistrust between the two. We kept thinking will this mistrust ever go away? Meanwhile, we met a child who witnessed mob attack on their house. When we tried to explore how did he remember? He started to sob... trauma remains deep inside. What the grownups could hide, present in a way they thought we needed to here, the child showed us the ugly face of it, least filtered. All of us fell short of words and that moment seemed like eaternity. How to face the child, how to face the world, we didn't know. Yes, we knew we have nothing more to know. For the day. His father gave words to the moment : 'I am 40+, my father is 75 we have never seen this before, see my child, only at the age of 8 he has seen it... i dont know what he thinks about them'.

Our team became silent once and perhaps for the day.

We needed a vent out. We needed recollect and become the whole and contend again. We knew river  Ichhamati is nearby! How does a river help you everytime you need? Sometimes, river waits for you at the corner of your world to engulf your exhaustion. To unburden yourself, to seek refuge after you see things after the world asks you, what have you done to it!

Newton - from an anthropologist-cum-government employee's self

Newton tells a tale of a government employee who wanted to perform his duty, nothing more and nothing less, of course, the duty appears to be a tough one- the one which people are not happy to perform. I am not a movie critic nor I have the capacity to review anything let alone a movie review, but this is going to be an experience of an interface of my government servant self and anthropologist self with the narrative called Newton.

The storyline in sum:

The story is that of a newly recruited government official, Mr. Newton and his experience in performing the presiding officer's duty at Maoist hotbed of Dandakaranya. He was equipped with pen, paper and presiding officers' diary and an already terrorised polling team. They reach at a nearby Central Reserve Police Camp by helicopter and then by army jeep to spend the night at a CRPF camp. Next day, early morning he was told by the CRPF commander  not to go to the place. After some  near-fight situation he made CRPF team to go to the polling booth by crossing a jungle terrain. He set up booth in an abandoned school building within a burned down village, apparently by the CRPF themselves. The BLO officer (a government employee, originally from the neighbouring area who carries updated voters' list) - a local Gond lady accompanies them and no one came to vote until there was an international media house planning to cover India's 'deep democracy.' Suddenly the CRPF personnel went to the nearby two villages to bring men by beating them up. Meanwhile, Newton tried to make them understand what voting is, what leader means and why parliament is important. As expected they couldn't understand and the voting procedure became a farce. Newton tried  a lot but failed. However, Gonds did understand their own rules, own Patel's (village chief) potential and wanted their Patel to represent them to Delhi. However, voting was staged and the international media house reports India's beautiful democratic procedure even in the remotest corner as the booth was set up for only 76 voters. Soon after the media left, there was a sound of firing and the CRPF commander instructed them to leave the place. The commander wanted to wrap up the process much earlier but since Newton protested he had to stay. However, since there was a sound of firing, Newton and his team started to evacuate but Newton sensed with few hints of the BLO lady that it was all staged. He first fled to reach back the polling station chased by the CRPF jawans to finally get caught and dragged back. On his way he met a group of young men coming to vote. Since the CRPF tried push them away Newton took up arm from the commander and compelled them to set up a temporary booth in the middle of the jungle. After the voting process was over, he gave away the arms, he was severely beaten up by the CRPF jawans. The film ends with Newton wearing a neck collar and the BLO lady making a visit to his office. He seems to be the same person working busily according to schedule.

The parallel movie inside the theatre

There was a parallel movie running inside the theatre mostly through passing comments and laughter.


A few examples might suffice the contention

Newton asking one of the election trainers about the reasons and possible measures to transform the work culture of the public offices. The trainer says 'you will be like them soon'
People say - thhik bolechhe, rightly said and laughter breaks
The trainer continues '... or just continue your duty honestly and remember honest is not something to be pride about, it should be a regular thing, you are not doing anything extra'

silence from the spectators and a few commented 'can this happen? Meaning this cannot happen.'

When Newton instructs and imposes his 'magistrate' authority as presiding officer over CRPF

People - 'he is gone mad'

When village leader fails to understand the system of parliament and voting

People - loud laughter and a few passing comments 'shame on our country', 'Arrey these people are like this only'

When CRPF pushes the villagers, even beat them up to make voter turn out

People - laughter continues

When CRPF asks one of the old village lady to cook one of her livestock for delicious deshi chicken for their lunch.
People- uff deshi chicken, and laughter.

When CRPF finally beat up Newton
Yes laughter again. Some even said why should he took up the gun and challenged authority.

There were several fine tuned and unsaid moments deeply embedded in the film that actually created a parallel narrative of authority relations, power positions and helplessness of all characters involved.

Experiences of a government employee

everything can't be said being a public servant but there are dimensions that can be revealed. Let me just jot down quickly. I know you are already looking at the size of this manuscript!

Dimensions of misuse of authority positions-

Lets break the stereotype that people in authority exercise authority and often do things which are white collar crime or misuse of power or plain and simple corruption. Interestingly, whoever posseses whatever authority has a potential to misuse it. For example if you are a group D staff in charge of giving photocopy of a particular application forms you can tell your superior 'sir the copies are exhausted please come tomorrow.' If that superior staff is a newly recruited, the one who might believe in you, will go back and come again. Likewise, the superior official one day will find out that group D staff will do things easily if he is given a cigarette. Or may be some affiliation to an organisation or a particular superior or senior person would help! Its a vicious cycle that continues. I began with the lowest position but it continues at different levels and with complex combinations under a catchall umbrella term 'office politics'. Newton has precisely shown with a fun filled feature these issues, often subtly. His supposedly protectors, supposedly working under him because of his magistrate power given by Election Commission of India has been undermined by the CRPF jawans over and over again first through verbally and then physically and all of them remain unchanged.

Corruption in everyday offices

There are certain things which we already have forgotten as corruption. For example to reach office late or to leave early, to do task unmindfully, to loose papers or not to search for the one because searching for one is strenuous but getting another photocopy from the incumbent is easy. We have forgotten that giving services in exchange of money (or Gift in Mauss's term!) because you occupy certain authority position is corruption (it includes private tuition as well). One major issue that Newton addresses is precisely this form of corruption. His complain in his everyday office life and then casual attitude of the polling team portrays these forms of corruption well. Dreze and Sen (1996, India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity) has referred to these forms in their book quite effectively.

Corruption and its acceptance - corruption as culture

Newton brings the accepted dimensions of corruption beautifully. The spokesperson of the Gond tribe happens to be the BLO lady who often says 'humari iyha aisa hi hota hai'- this is what happens here when they see no one was coming to vote or CRPF forcefully brings men to vote. When the tribal had to come, they were asked if they think this voting will bring any change in life and one of them replied 'no' and then continued to shake his head. A spectator would wait for a while if there is any addition to that answer- however, he utters no again.
 

As the CRPF people forcefully brought men, they seem to be accepting such beating naturally and as instructed started to cook the deshi chicken - their extremely valuable livestock.

Election experience - no one is Newton

Not everything that a presiding officer experiences can be documented. Not only because of the nature of secrecy but because of his own inaction (for a variety of reasons) that might land him to a big trouble - yes, no one is Newton. Election happens to be an extremely difficult situation for everyone. Most of the government employee is afraid of election and some of them often engages in corrupt practices including bribing the superiors or block office officials to drop their names. It was also shown in Newton. However, the director doesn't know or didn't want to spend time on but the nature of chaos of polling would have added to the black comedy meaningfully. A person would loose all his strength just in collecting materials and then reaching the polling station in scorching heat of May Indian summer. Then there are (useless) supposedly the most powerful paper works and a presiding officer is expected to sign a thousand times perhaps. These strenuous works are the checks and balances of democracy. Papers that no one reads. As a presiding officer Newton asked what will happen if Maoist comes the trainer brilliantly told not to play a hero, and give them everything they need as there will be re-election.


None of the officials ever thought of or made plan for what to do if CRPF or the protectors play dirty! Precisely what happens when you go to booth. If the forces cooperate you can achieve a fair election. All polling personnel know they can dispose their duties if there is a central force protection and if there isn't any, they cannot do anything and have to compromise.

I know presiding officers beg to the polling agents to stop rigging after a while and also take upper-hand when  there is a strong security assistance and keep the election run smoothly.

Newton represents an unique case in an unique place and yes, no one is newton in real life! But wait there are many Newtons inside, waiting for the right situation that never comes.

Experience of an anthropologist

As an anthropologist working in the area of politics and governance I will focus on certain brilliant portrayal of larger and often theoretical issues that Newton addresses.

First the question of multiplicity and democratic failure. As a pragmatic cultural relativist I see the conflict of tribal world view, their system of governance and political authority as completely with parliamentary democracy as 'natural'. When asked for their choice over their representatives they readily identified their 'Patel' - the village headman. A quite obvious choice from their worldview but a comedy for us hence the spectators laughed. The laughter is not to be cherished, the laughter is representing civilisation and tribal world interface where the tribal people are supposed to get marginalised over and over again.
 

Second, to enhance the nature of marginalization we have developed elaborate system: Administration, Judiciary, Education and Security forces. Hence, when the BLO lady, a school teacher by occupation, says she finds it extremely difficult to teach these people because they don't understand Hindi and there is no book in Gondi language, it doesn't only say about language supremacy and hegemony but also questions why these people need to learn them at all - some supposedly 'superior' civilisational system? The answer is easy, of course, to make them discipline in hegemonic terms and conditions of the civilisation, yes you can remember Foucault here.

Third, the behavioural supremacy of the representatives of the state. They exercised force and violence, snatched away village livestock, burned down their villages. All are summed up in BLO's words. When Newton sees some scripts of protests on the wall of the shattered school building he asked 'did the villager write all these?' The BLO lady responds 'some reaction is expected isn't it sir? Especially when your village is burned down!'


Yes, during my fieldwork days I have seen places where Maoists are the sole help providers, running parallel government because state never looked at them, never cared for. There are other places where people are kicked of regularly by both the Maoists and the state.
 

In sum, newton portrays the naked reality of the entire issues of governance, human rights and helplessness as framed in AC rooms and executed top down. It also projects the experiences of a few people who still wants to work and bring changes. Newton  as a black comedy brings laughter to the spectators because doing what is right is increasingly seen as stupidity. Perhaps this is the time we think, rethink and try to internalise the over used quote 'be the change you want to see!' I am not sure if this quote even holds any significance especially after watching Newton and seeing the parallel movie among the spectators in the theatre, but yes we can and we should hope.

Phenomenology and its problems with serinity and nostalgia - The story of lonely travels and frozen moments

What is special about travelling alone? Well of course, you enjoy freedom of choice, you are with your own pace and peace. It might just be the other name for narcissistic pleasure, just like the selfie mania which affects billions in different ways. I am not interested to explore the late capital pleasure seeking souls or its insatiable needs and requirements, rather I wish to see what happens with lone travels even when we barely move but explore in macros - the moments has gone, the moments yet to come.

The return of the repressed and frozen moments:

How do you find a frozen moment? It is usually there and touches you at the most unpredictable point of your life. Often you encounter something else - bigger and more holistic than the mere material appearance of your being-in-the-moment. It often extends as you keep thinking about the moment that is over - quite like the way you think of a moment of pleasure and pain that comes back just like the repressed returns. The past, and nostalgia haunts you - kills you. Kaleidoscope as an individual often allows such moments to come back and to make him overwhelmed. He discovers newer dimensions in the same old moments as his memories accumulate. The impact of such moments might differ for different persons. People's exposures, their age and location shape them - so do their frozen moments.

There are two kinds of such frozen moments:

1. The repressed or overwhelmed dimensions of moments in the past or an imagined future.  These frozen moments are there inside your brain waiting to overwhelm you.

2.  However, there are other moments that overwhelms you right during the creation of such moments in itself. Those represent precisely the moments when you are inside the fleeting pace of time and space. That moment is simultaneously frozen and moving on. It can haunt you, please you and touch you forever. One thing that will happen for sure is your clinging position between real-surreal boundaries forever.

Setting the clock somewhere in time:

Lets assume two persons who couldn't finally went on spending their life together by sharing the same balcony, having coffee in the same table or reading the same book together, met once again. They know they have two different pathways which can perhaps never meet. May be, they aren't even interested to share the same balcony any more. Lets assume, they met and had some time to spend together. Several possibilities are there, some of them are beautifully worked in movies like Before the Sunset or Café Society! The one thing that happens for sure is the setting the clock in somewhere back in time and space. Its like doing or reliving the essential dimensions of the relationship. This can happen in nostalgia to a person, to a place, to a moment and in any combination or level between these three. Such clock setting happens every time you tend to think. With frozen moments you can actually rewind and replay as Kaleidoscope does quite often. He goes the point where he dropped her lover, left the river, smelled and made love and listened to the stories of fallen lives of the forest library. Some are captured in the camera as Kaleidoscope roamed around the world alone and explored world more serene, a lot more moments, however, are actually lost in time, or did they? The precise point in the mundane history has not been jotted down, after several years the time would be more holistic and engulfing but those clock setting moments are there forever to relive.

Your everyday phenomenology:

Pic credit https://metodix.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/orientaatio1.gif

How do frozen moments and their potential relivability become accessible to the mode of observe - construct - contend on which the social scientists have faith for centuries? Understandably, of course, it should be done through a combination of Husserlian being-in-world and being-in-itself/being-for-itself simultaneously with Sartre's being-for-others. The person looking for the frozen moments must travel through these three stages to find out essence of the experience - essence of the phenomena. The first order construct of mundane everydayness in Husserlian natural attitude needs to be accessible to the thinking souls so that these can be questioned, dealt with and brought down to their immediate experiences and exposures. The first order constructs are the moments when you are experiencing it at your immediate being-in-itself. A slight analytical distance would land you to being-for-itself. As you live on like Kaleidoscope, you relive the moment once in a while and you tend to create the second order constructs and like that of a phenomenology inspired researcher you can (if you try) find your being-in-the-world - the subject-object, subject-subject, object-object interplays. Here, lies the typical phenomenological descriptions that supersedes interpretation or explanations to give rise to third or fourth or perhaps 'n' number of dimensions and constructs. One can actually follow a standard qualitative methodology to describe and find out schema of human experience rooted in the phenomena of being-in-the-world.

However, the problem persists as long as one is overwhelmed and engulfed by the moment in itself as he tends to live on - typically the second categories of frozen moments as already discussed. The fleeting pace of time and place, the simultaneous frozening of moments and experiences on the move! The phenomenology takes a break and paradoxically suspends itself from what it wants us to suspend, i.e., the natural attitude, the preconceptions, the constructs. As the phenomena in its origin is overwhelming,  its later phenomenological intervention engulfs the entire experience once and for all. It perhaps calls for a new methodology or otherwise remains to be superficial to limits of the second order constructs. Even when such frozen moments are auto-ethnographic, they could never address the crisis of representations - too much to the writing culture groups - perhaps way to much to the objectivists and even constructivists.

There isn't any solution to this problem as of now than to immerse oneself once again to the circle of reasons, circles of constructs and circles of human cognition.

Meanwhile the interplay of time and space/ past and present, experience and constructs continue, continue to amaze every now and then - making the world a beautiful place with memories.

Walking through a river: After a drink or two

Now is the time for you to see beyond focus, like you always have after a drink or two.

While there are moments of juxtaposed boundaries kaleidoscope like to call as postmodern, there are also materialistic times that make focus disappear once and forever.

What does it entail? A pair of wet eyes because of a departure whether you had expected or not, or an overworked late capital dream that hardly finds time for the better things of life, but continues to subscribe to the dream meanwhile lose the eyesight.

How does it do? There lies a pair of legs that drags the bloody machine still busy with a handheld device hardly getting a time to see the spectacle of the festival over the waste water canal that goes to the river nearby. Ah, River! the word echoes for a while. The pair of eyes look up for the smell and sound of water kissing the shore. A screen engaged eye cannot see the world outside.

The spectacle remains so does the river in the distant past. Like ghosts from the colonial past kaleidoscope listens once again the lines he uttered-"Now is the time for you to see beyond focus, like you always have after a drink or two."