Slices Of A City
THE PICTURES BELOW ARE PARTIAL SEGMENTS OF THE PHOTOGRAPH USED IN THE PREVIOUS POST TITLED, ‘PRACTITIONER’S PERCH’.
Residential Highrises in the distance, only two of which are visible in the afternoon haze.
IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH A NAKED EYE CAPTURES THAT MY CAMERA CANNOT. IT COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOMETHING THAT IS DYNAMIC – THE LIVING EYE – THAT ADJUSTS ITS POWER TO SAMPLE DEPTH AND BREADTH, AND THE STATIC – THE CAMERA – THAT ‘FREEZES’ THE FRAME ON THE SHUTTER CLICK.
IN REALITY YOU CAN SEE THE CITY’S TEEMING RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS GO ON IN LAYERS PAST THE REACH OF THE NAKED EYE.
Transmission pylons carrying power lines to the city.
TRANSMISSION LINES POWERING THE CITY COME FROM A HYDROELECTRIC DAM – THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE BY NOW – A LONG WAY OUTSIDE THE CITY.
GROWING UP IN A HYPER DENSE CITY I WAS ALWAYS GLAD TO SEE ONE – IT MEANT THAT THERE WILL BE SOME OPEN SPACE BELOW AND AROUND IT – AND ITS FRAME CONFIGURATION WAS A DEMONSTRATION OF TRUSS DESIGNS IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING CLASSES IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL.
Residential mid- and low-rises on the edges of the forest.
THERE ARE APARTMENTS (FLATS IN CITY PARLANCE) ALL THROUGHOUT IN BETWEEN THE RESIDENTIAL TOWERS AND THESE MID-RISES AND LOW-RISES. THE FOREST LIES IN THE FOREGROUND IN TWO DISTINCT LAYERS.
IN SPITE OF ITS PROXIMITY TO THE CITY, THE CAVES AND THE FOREST ARE USUALLY SPARSELY VISITED – ONLY THE YOUNG AT HEART SEEM TO WANT TO VISIT THEM.
Practitioner’s Perch
View from Cave #97, Kanheri Caves, Mumbai
Photograph shot on December 21, 2003 as my brother, Sunny waited patiently for me to capture what the eye saw much clearer.
Sitting on a stone bench
The naked eye sees the forest
Edged by the coils of the city
But the camera is foiled by the smog
So it romanticizes under a veil
Of sun, moisture, salt air and people breathing.
The stone bench was not smooth
In spite of so many who sat there before
It was not in its nature to do so.
The city was much newer
Full of energy, verve and direction
Energy from the sea’s pull to the bottom
Verve from the variety of tongues spoken
Direction – just away, away from the bottom
Unlike the bench, old and unchanging.
The stone bench was not comfortable
In spite of so many who meditated upon it
It was not in its nature to do so.
The camera and the stone bench
Hand in glove, the one romanticizing the other
The naked eye tracking the growth
A city of visions and aspirations bubbling over
Taking in its transmission pylons, its living towers
Breathing and rising, coiling around its vast edges.
Thatcher Designs 