TILING IN LIFE

The following are records of space ^* in Ernakulam town region that has transformed too much over the last few decades. This transformation is also an embodiment of the relations that we weave with spaces around. The life we live and the systems we give sanction to produce such spaces.

*One could always find better snaps for the older shots

The first one is a screen shot from the movie Anubhavangal Paalichakal that came out in 1971. The space shown here is the marine drive zone of Ernakulam; the lake can be seen as right next to a much narrower road.

The second is also a screen shot, this time from the movie Rajavinte Makan that came out in 1986. By now the roads have become wider and hectares of lake have been filled up. We see the slanted high rise, which was amongst the first in the big rows that soon followed (which once rivaled the only tall structures of Sea Lord hotel or LIC on the other side).

The Third is a view from the lake towards the present closely positioned row of buildings that came up on the filled up lake. They totally block the view of the lake as well as the winds from the lake towards the land. After all, by now, the wind and the view cannot be a casual privilege for ordinary travelers. They either have to be entitled in some way to one of the high rises (the ‘lake view’ or ‘sea view’ crowd) or else they have to find the’ leisure’ time to stroll on the compromise space spared as ‘promenade’ that is sandwiched between the buildings and the lake.

 

 

 

 The Fourth set of pictures (the latter two, taken by Vinay Padre a couple of days back) is representative of the fate of whatever spaces remain ‘open’/ public. Tiling is an institutional cult in the state. It is a war on earth and life. It respects no recycling of water or the life on earth (with its millions of forms). The authorities are covering up huge swaths of land.

(Another space in the Rajendra Maidan that faces the lake has now become a permanent laser show structure and half of the grassy park is now tiled in). There is an old photo and a later one that can be googled, there is the screen shot from the movie In Harihar Nagar (1990) and a current photo with the laser structure/ tiling.

 

These are gestures that go under the tag of cleaning. Cleanings as could be gathered from instances are about acts of distancing the human and non human. So leaves and earth and trees are problems or threats, but the production of plastic, pollution, consumption, and vehicles are fine.

There is absolutely nothing on offer in terms of health of life forms. The ground temperatures will swell due to the excess of concrete, and the blockade of water from seeping into grounds will alter the equilibrium with saline water, in lake side regions. So apart from the fact that civil works offer a good option for institutionalized corruption, there is no rationale in the ways spaces get appropriated and sealed away from life.  Nothing justifies such anti-social gestures, especially in contemporary times, when people have gotten more than exposed to urban disasters, flooding, and heat effects…