By the side of a winding, pot-holed, one-way road near Victoria Layout, where buses and cars and scooters and bullock-carts snake their way to their daily bread, there is a stretch of unused land, where suspiciously bright green weeds and foliage abound. Separating this lushness from the road is a wall. And upon this, the history of generations lies hidden.
The wall will tell you of yesterday’s inauguration of the Bangalore Metro by the Prime Minister. ‘Hearty Welcome to Hon’ble Manmohan Singhji – Respectful MLAs and Worshipful Mayor’. Walk a few steps... peel away a few months… and there’s a more worn poster, a local potboiler... "Starring Rajesh... Lust on the Orient Express". Agatha Christie’s legacy to the Kannada world. And so on. If you peel back the layers, you’ll find other hidden gems. Protest notices, Bangalore heroines, more political welcomes. Dating back even to the 80s! ("Bangalore welcomes Shri Rajiv Gandhi on the auspicious... [tattered text]... pooja has been arranged.")
The wall itself is mostly chipped, broken in parts, held together largely by the collective glue of two decades of posters.
Monday, June 26, 2006
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2 comments:
Interesting observation.. similar thought crossed my mind sometime back too..but you took the words right out of my mouth!
Smitha
Actually it is much like a tree with all those rings that tell you its age
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