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Chewing the cud |
Archana Prasad
Ahmedabad, and NID, brought back a flood of memories of my student years. I really wish I could have stayed longer. But even in the two days I was there, I started to breathe, relax my shoulder muscles and absorb the moment.
I encountered the timeless autowala — his style of navigating and the fluid cinematic experience he imposes on the passenger. While riding with international caravaners, while riding with local caravaners, and while riding alone - the emotions he evokes seem at once Déjà vu’-esque and impossibly new. He is so very unique to Ahmedabad. Nowhere else in this country have I had the epiphanies, the clarity of hard truths brought home to me with such singular speed and brutality, than with him, here in this city of heat, dust and timelessness.
I was stoked to be part of this caravan. It sounded right up my alley. Perfectly aligned with our current focus at Jaaga DNA to explore UnderFlyOver spaces (UFOs) in Bangalore as public spaces and infrastructure that could be leveraged for creative activities and a means to bridge communities torn apart or disrupted by the effects of hyper-urbanisation. I was looking forward to working with some of folks at the caravan on developing project prototypes that leverage tech to engage the public in playful yet meaningful ways.
Given my family commitments, I knew I could only be away from Bangalore for a short period. I thought being part of the opening days of the caravan would be great to enable this intention, and then I would contribute remotely for the rest of the journey. As things would have it, my little one fell ill and I ended up coming to the concluding couple of days of the caravan.
It was hard to insert myself in any kind of useful way into the runaway train of lovely madness that I stepped into. But the caravaners were kind and generous enough to let me peek in. There are at least a couple of conversations that I would love to see go to the next level. If nothing else, more than a few of the projects that emerged would be great to have over at the UFO’s if imagined at full scale and contextualised to the local.
I imagine that many things will come out of the several threads of conversations I have started with the caravaners whimsical contracts between two passers-by in the Under Fly Over spaces sealing in their intention towards a better day, a temple bell manned by people across countries resonating peace amidst the angry, urgent din of the surging traffic of Bangalore, possibilities for participatory city exploration performances mediated by tech and across borders of continent and consciousness.
An image of a festival of public arts at the UFOs in Bangalore that brings the caravaners together again, where we present work that leverage art and tech to bridge community divides becomes more real as I write this. I can see quite clearly that spaces like the Conflictorium, students and faculty from NID, and the happy mix of us Caravaners, could bring to bear something of a large impact on the streets of Bangalore as the next stop.