Threads, yarns and knots

Mozart’s Requiem sounds more like a war cry than a requiem, sections of it are simply too violent. It could serve as a requiem for people like Ivan The Terrible, Genghis Khan, and Henry VIII. It is not a requiem fit for an artist, a creator like Mozart. Mozart was not Beethoven. You could blame my observation on the fact that the version I have been listening to was conducted by Herbert von Karjan. I generally find music played by the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra and Karjan to be violent. Karjan seems to play more of Beethoven. Most of Beethoven’s symphonies are known to be violent. Mozart’s Requiem as conducted by Karjan is violent. You cannot readily attribute violence to either Karjan or Mozart. Violent requiems have nothing to do with the rest of this entry. Requiems as a whole have something and nothing to do with this particular entry.

It is sad to see banks collapsing, even when you don’t have money in there. There are all these unhappy people waiting in line to get their money out, there’s all this money at stake, and there are all these people scared about loosing money. As Douglas Adam once mentioned, people on the Earth are unhappy about the movement of little green pieces of paper. Humans attach great importance to little green pieces of paper. Democratic governments try to show some semblance of concern for the welfare of the people they rule. Collapsing banks cause panics. Panics cause long queues. A bank nearly-collapsed yesterday, it probably has collapsed, but the Government is keeping it in suspended animation. The (nearly) collapsed bank has a branch at my Sunday haunt. My Sunday haunt was rather crowded today, with kilometer long queues of disgruntled bank clients. People bank at places which they visit often. Lines at banks serve as a good indicator of the kind of people who visit an area. Banks which die are rarely honored by people. People and things which are not honored don’t need requiems. We would have a lot of violent requiems if people set out to compose requiems for banks.

Different areas are frequented by different kinds of people. Habits blur the power of observation. Visiting one place week after week is a habit which negatively impacts your ability to observe people. Backpackers tend to stick to more historic markets, shopping districts. Historic markets are usually far from recently built housing. Over a period of time people stop visiting places that are far. People tend to forget what they have not seen for long. No city has a single soul, a single flavor, a single kind of people or places. Historic markets tend to have a wider range of shops, and street side vendors. Street side vendors are often irritating. Some street side vendors are extremely photogenic, mostly because of their vends. Peering at backpackers, hippies, and experiencers of Indianess is often fun. It reminds you of all those little things people associate with India, things which people who live in India hardly ever do. A friend of mine blames this on cultural differences. Cultural and regional differences are fun to explore. Exploring too many differences usually leads to fatigue and a loss of sleep. Sleep seems like the most important commodity for a lot of people. The movement of commodities usually depends on the movement of little green pieces of paper. Commodities should decide the clientele and hence the environment of a particular market. Most markets sell eerily similar commodities to strangely different people. Most commodities available in markets are mass-produced. Mass-produced goods are eerily similar. Markets have characteristics other than commodities. People and clients are drawn to a market’s characteristic charm. The characteristics attributed to markets ignore the similarities which govern all places of commerce. Different markets in Delhi have different characteristics. The older the market, the crazier it seems. The crazier the market the more crowded it usually is. Newer post-colonial markets in Delhi are generally smaller. Smaller places appear crowded even when there are fewer people. Crowdedness is a measure of population density.

All threads have a beginning and an end. This thread doesn’t end. The thread was violently cut and hence lost a large portion of its identity. Threads are meant to be cut. Threads don’t mind being cut because that’s the job they are assigned. Tying knots is an art few perfect.

Ze Panda