shades of city · 5 chapte shades of city all the houses stood together in all seasons, feeling the...
TRANSCRIPT
1
Chapter
Shades of City
Shades of city
Hashwin Panjwani FYS- K
Shades of City
City Of Compact Cells
City Of No Place
City Of Creators
City Of Lights
City Of Faith
City Of Hubbub
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5
7
9
11
13
15
4 Title
PACTO
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5
Chapter
Shades of City
All the houses stood together in all seasons, feeling the rain and sunshine the same. That’s how they were on the streets of PACTO, spreading both upwards and downwards, shoulder to shoulder as if welded there at their birth.
The houses at the earth were parti-colored with extraordinary irregularity, smeared with a sort of plaster that was sometimes grey, sometimes drab, sometimes slate colored or dark brown washed by centuries of sooty air. Rahim’s skin is bronzed, tortured by the sun due to monotonous exposure. The stench of his sweat is evident. His messy hair and dirtied skin is a sign of rough living. Wearing the worn-out ragged hand-me downs of the upper class that towers over his family.
Those eyes were eyes of experienced, they’d seen a lot, not all of it pleasant. His hardened look and stone-cold gaze were a clue to their witness. He seems mature. Most likely a child who skipped childhood, forced to look after his multiple- generation family, and no doubt a slave to the poverty-stricken world. He works tirelessly all day to find some form of nourishment for his family’s weeping bones as the skin clings tightly to them.
When the sun goes down, and the factory work comes to a stop, with a slumped back he drags his body to the station to catch the 7oclock cable cart to the upper side to finish his night shift at Mrs Elizabeth’s home.
The upper side had buildings galloping up to the clouds. The buildings were large, smoked glass and steel, each one joined to the next by a covered walkway. Beyond the French doors of the oak- panelled suite, sat Mrs Elizabeth. That woman could have graced any billboard or magazine cover, but she was better than those two dimensional photoshopped models. Her eyes, like the indigo ocean, were pools of iridescent blue, sculpted upon her creamy face like dazzling jewels. Her silver strands tumbled out of her scalp, cascading down her back like a waterfall.
She was among a crowd of respectable women, conversing loudly, including the Mayor’s wife who wore the fanciest hat of them all; they carry the same expression, the pleasure of gossiping. Words were slipping from their big, lousy mouths and they were laughing at Rahim who was shaking while bringing their midnight martinis. The women’s club laughed into the night while Rahim sat near the kitchen slab squinting at a paper torn out of a book of complicated sums.
City of Compact Cells
5Shades of City
6 Title6
RAY
7
Chapter
Shades of City
The cityscape of RAY, was unapologetically urban. There were no trees or city planted blooms, just monoliths of concrete soaring. At night it was beautiful in its own way, so many lights. Everyone busy chasing their dreams. Irony was that they chased their dreams by not sleeping. By day you relied on the sky to let you know that it wasn’t a monochromatic world; just one in which the people were too busy for art.
In this city they only work and eat, there is no time to sweep fall leaves or plant spring flowers, hardly even enough to notice the blue above.
Lights glittered everywhere just liked stars dropping to the earth, huge and small buildings collided in a mixture of shadow and geometry, tiny vehicles rushing along tangled lines of streets creating twisting threads of light - they all intertwined together in a magnificent mess of dream.
A half-moon hovered at the fringes of the luminous cityscape, where the red blinking lights of distance radio towers twinkling in the night. An industrial-based smog of pollution coated the whole area below, acting as a milky filter. The fog softened the hard lines of buildings, and diffused the orange glow of sodium-vapor street lamps.
The streets of up-market stores, smooth black and glass exteriors, fancy names in fancier lettering. The kind of places with perfumed atmospheres made all the more inviting by music and well-groomed subservient staff; exchanging their tokens of the upper-class life for the swipe of a credit card.
Between the chaotic buildings ran a network of paths wide enough for two skinny people to pass. This was the fastest way to commute apart from the electric trams, buses and monorail. It was like the speed of light that they could not enjoy the scenic beauty outside the tube. They scurried down them like ants; always busy, always chasing the next opportunity to scrape a living from the dust.
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The City Of Lights
Shades of City
8 Title8
TURBA
9
Chapter
Shades of City
The city was a vast, intricate, labyrinth of noisy, streets and alleys. You could hear the incessant honking of the vehicles even before the sun rose. Impatient businessmen who had to get to the office, mothers who had to leave their children at their schools.
Moving to the outskirts of TURBA one could find serenity in its finest form. The sand is the gentlest hue of gold, almost earthen and muted, the humble
star of the scene. The cool water laps at my feet, fizzing and bubbling like brine. Even though the sun is beating on my back, beaming in my eyes, I can’t help but smile as the wind caresses my face. Waves ahead roar and roll down, crashing onto the shore with a soft hiss; peeling away at the deep sand beneath my feet.
Aalia whispers into the breeze, her eyelids fluttering closed as she breathes in the briny aroma. Scrunching her toes, she feels the softness of the sand, still damp from the retreating tide. She bestows her gaze to the far-off horizon, the flaring hues of the sun melting into the sky and ocean like a divine painting. The forever stretching sea is masked with an apricot colour, that beautiful umber flowing into turquoise. Through narrowed eyes she watches as each wave overlaps one another, sending the white bubbling crests descending, masking the shore with the transparent fading water.
She wiggles as a shiver cascades down her spine. I wrap myself around her with my chest rising and falling against her back, breaths in unison feeling the warm blood in each other’s embrace.
I wish we could stay like this forever, just us. But as the sun starts to set the beach becomes more people than sand. It turns into a crazy array of colours, all right there with no coordination. It’s like they just got vomited there. But what can I expect? There is no escape from the metropolitan world no matter how far I go. Just a few moments to last a lifetime.
The City Of Cool Breeze
9Shades of City
10 Title10
FIDEM
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Chapter
Shades of City
The city is completely ironic in its own ways, the beauty of the city can be described by it’s devotees, the way they look forward towards certain festivals. The entire city is on a spree when the festival is around the corner, there is no day or night during that time, everyone in the city is in the absorbed in the festivities. The welcome of the festival is done on beats of dhol , nagara and other instruments, everyone around shows their dance moves right on the street and welcome their idol, the city has eight huge temples, which are 24x7 serving, people across many different cities or countries to have a look at the mesmerizing view.
The period when the festival is going on every household has its own small temple decorated. On the other side there is a temple situated right in the middle of the city in holy water, it is a dome where people go to wash their sins and pray for a healthier future. However, it is completely ironical the idols after the festivals come to an end are immersed in the same holy water. The last day of the festivities the entire city is up till early morning, everyone is dancing and wish that their idols come back next year and bring prosperity to their life.
This is just one festival in city there is month filled with three big festivals, the first 8 days of the month everyone dances all night and keep fasts and on the 8th day there is holy Pooja where women are worshiped and the gifts are distributed among the poor and needy. In the middle of the month there is big festival where there are many carnivals to defeat the evil, the evil is burnt and the good is rejoiced. By the end there is a festival of lights where the entire city looks as beautiful as a bride, every street is lit. The city has its own beauty but it’s the people who reside in it who actually make it beautiful. The nature of every being in the city makes each festivity worth a watch, it’s an absolute bliss to see everyone getting colored in the colors of their idols.
The City Of Faith
11Shades of City
12 Title12
CREATORES
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Chapter
Shades of City
Every inhabitant of CREATORES was an artist of its own kind. Whether it was expression on the streets or the ramps. The fashion designer is an artist. The artist has a form of emotional clarity that extends into their art form to become a beautiful message for the subconscious brain. It was a message of elevated hope, of cherishing the human form, of saying we are worthy of living our dreams together in a cohesive and emboldened society.
The town expressed its culture in those colours, patterns and shapes. We were proud of our fashion. But we made our clothes to last too, kept items for a decade or more, only replacing them when they became thin and holey.
Over the years new gods came into existence and the devotees scattered amongst the gods. Each holding a unique power. Their influence is so deep- rooted that each one aspires to be like them. Instead of eating sweets on days of worship the deities avoided food to look like the porcelain sculpted gods and goddesses.
These gods are worshipped most by the artists who want them to wear their masterpiece and showcase it to the world by a soulless promotion of impossible images to a youth that was already under multiple capitalism-induced haymakers. It is a contradiction of everything the artist stood for. He said he was all about body-positivity, of raising self-esteem and helping others to nurture their self-love. Yet when it came to showcasing he was somehow blind to his collusion in the sabotage of the younger generation, and for that matter, of all of society.
That was the story of CREATORES centuries ago. It got a lot better when the Gods got more power than the artist to tell their own stories. Soon the artwork was made for all. The art fitted great and the health of the young deities improved. That was evolution.
The City Of Creators
13Shades of City
14 Title14
TUMULTUANTEM
15
Chapter
Shades of City
I had never been claustrophobic before, but in that almighty swell of humanity I felt the panic rise in my chest. When they moved I had to also and if my feet failed to keep up I risked being trampled underfoot. Even in the bitter January cold I felt the warmth of all those bodies pressing in.
The crowd has a life of its own, the vibrant clothes shine in the morning light and the people move like enchanting shoals of fish.
The walls of TUMULTUANTEM were concrete to the construction of a modernist skyscraper, all sharp edges and corners. The buildings were nothing short of monoliths, the bastions of the city’s pride, stamping its arrival on the map of financially significant places to trade with. Yet no-one had communicated this vision to the citizenry. The street that should have been such a joy to walk was littered with garbage and the detritus of dogs. Enjoying the street view would mean taking your eye off your shoes, and no-one was about to do that.
The road lay before me like a tarmac ribbon; albeit, one that had been worn over time. A white line ran down the centre, relatively unbroken compared to the scarred and potholed concrete.
A procession of headlights on the highway, tail lights snaking their way down the road, cars bumper to bumper, exhaust fumes belching out, blurred headlights through the driving rain, traffic at a stand still, traffic jam, traffic nose to tail right down the high street, the highway became a giant parking lot.
The noises engulfed me, completely capturing my brain, rendering any logical thought or conclusion impossible.
Clatter, clanged, rush of footfalls, infectious laugh, full throated, joyous, malodorous sigh, unnaturally loud, scrape, slow drip of water, portentous, squeaks, muted roar of traffic, echoing, swish of bicycle wheels, shout in triumph, hiss of traffic in the rain, roar of traffic, thunder booming, rain on the window pane. I got lost into chaotic rhythm.
The City Of Hubbub
15Shades of City
16
Shades of City 17
