To walk a city led by your senses rather than a destination is to awaken to the city and, possibly, to yourself. It’s an opportunity to expand your capacity for wonder, to discover and delight in things you might have missed had you been aiming to get somewhere. Alone in a crowd, you can take a break from who friends and family expect you to be. You can be yourself, or “off stage,” to borrow the sociologist Erving Goffman’s term. You have room to go at your own pace, to let your eye and mind wander, to stumble upon new ideas, even self realizations.
Have you ever wondered how to broaden your own experiences? Our creativity is often tethered to our imagination which in turn depends on our past experiences. By venturing into unfamiliar territories, interacting with people from different cultures who speak unfamiliar languages, delightfully shocking our taste buds by tasting the local cuisine, discovering new genres of music and their cultural contexts, walking through an unfamiliar city, observing different lifestyles and traditions, delving into novels and movies from diverse genres and geographies and much more of such activities which disrupt our usual patterns of thinking and interpreting situations, ultimately expands our perspective and hence bursting the bubble of our imagination.
The road is the reflection of the vivid differences of different lifestyles. Everyone with different form, style, speed, luxury, pain, and purpose. Some on two-wheels, some on four. Many share their journey, few on their own. Someone going slow and some in crazy speed. A few enjoying the journey, some hoping for the end. Road is like time.
Though the journey of each start and ends at some point, the road itself doesn’t end.
Recently, when we were strolling around the streets of BTM Layout, we spotted a dog pooping in the middle of the road. The owner of the dog picked up the poop and immediately dumped it inside a plastic bag which he had carried along. Having witnessed too much of weirdness in this era of social media influenced society, we were wondering if any new trend has started online! Within a minute, we spotted the above board. Felt relieved, realizing that the world has not gone completely insane yet. But are we in the beginning of it?
Clearly, the above rule applies only to the house dogs. Street dogs give a damn about this dog shit.
As a part of cultured and educated society, we too have bound ourselves into set of rules and regulations, which applies only to the domesticated humans.
Instructions are everywhere. Follow traffic rules, wear masks/ helmet/seatbelts, pay taxes, don’t litter the place, No parking, No honking, Go slow, No billboards etc.
Those who are concerned will follow without imposition, and those who are not will not abide by them genuinely anyway.
What if you had authority to put your own sign boards over the places, what would you have written?
What is the best way to observe or study an ordinary surrounding, in detail?
I believe, it is by painting the scene. It is while drawing and painting that we observe the minute little details, those subtle colors that define the ambience. Painting is the best way to evaluate ourselves and see what we easily overlook.
It is when we sit to draw a simple image, we just saw on our way back from a morning walk, that we understand how many details we miss seeing in our day-to-day life.
By the way, what are the colors of the leaves of the tree standing outside your room window?
