Deep Down There in the Blue

She posted this photo to Facebook.

I was worried.

Bhimbetka was a cover up, I have to admit now.

But a cover-up that we were supposed to cover-up.

I cannot hold it any longer. For long, I have held the secret within me – and now it needs to come out in the open. We were surfing the surface of the blue sea — maneuvering through rocky reefs. Perhaps we seemed like an unsuspecting couple and were approached by a two men in black suits – no tie (else I would have known who they were) – who said that they needed us to do something. They injected a very viscous fluid; my left biceps. Suddenly I felt strong – I glanced at her, if this had impressed her in any way. I did not see a positive response. Perhaps, she knew that it was the effect of the viscous injection.

And without warning, they attached a cylindrical gadget to my nose.

“We need you to smell what’s on the rock”, they said. I asked them what rock they were speaking of. The guy on the left with two silver-capped teeth just smiled, as if demonstrating the only wealth he had ever accumulated.

“Of course, if you ever publish this, we will deny it. But we may not have to, actually”, they said, “because you have no idea who we are”. I was dazed. I did not have time to think – as they dropped me in the ocean. I sunk down graciously – smoothly. I’ll admit, fear gripped me like a friend who bear-hugs you – when he sees you after sixteen hours.

Having seen “The Abyss” and many such films of that genre – I wondered how I would survive – in my jeans and my iPod-enabled-Nike. But it was probably that viscous liquid which that helped sub-marine and enabled me to withstand the pressure under deep-water. But as I made my way to bottom of the sea, and wedged myself in this crevice, there I was – smelling the rocks with a smelloscope that they had attached to my nose. It was the sweet smell of being in an exotic place with friends. It doesn’t happen any more. Friends have got busy.

I think the men on the surface could also see the blue-white light, which washed over that deep rock. People on the surface seemed shocked. But I not only smelled, that rock, I discovered great meaning — which thankfully I did not require to report to them.

And I am being tracked by that white light at the bottom of the ocean. I never saw that light (it was behind me, as you can see), but I am glad she took this photograph. Perhaps those that I call my friends will know what it means to be deep down there, being alone, and knowing it all.

Ways of Seeing – 5

The time when I was just about to leave college after graduation was a time when most elders were asking me to get further education. There will be a better job for you if you get post-grad certification, they said. I thought, if I get a job now, earn, I might be able to sponsor my post-graduation.

Seems the time has come.

My recent fascination of making good use of gadgets is iTunesU.

I listen to more lectures online than I listen to music on my iPod. The most open campus in the world! I can choose which lectures I attend. I can choose which university I attend. Nothing beats a formal education and the real campus experience, but I am not complaining.

For those of you who don’t yet know about it, iTunes has a section, called iTunesU. Some very well-known universities have put significant content online for you.

Free.

One of the colleges I go to is the Otis College of Art and Design, specifically their Liberal Arts & Sciences section.

In this section, I subscribed to their course material on Introduction to Visual Culture. This is where I first saw the photograph by Robert Frank, in my previous post.

There is an amazing body of knowledge in that photograph. I know it now because I have heard the lecture. But here is the deal. At one level, this lecture tells you all that this photograph denotes and connotes (the three lectures are about representation, denotation and connotation) and so I know a lot about this particular photograph. I know the depth and breadth of what this photograph may mean, from the lecturer’s point of view. At another level, the lecture opens up a world of possibilities of ways of seeing.Beyond that specific photograph.

I was a bit taken aback at the level at which the lecturer explored meaning in that photograph. The discrete, the abstract. The known, the unknown. The contextualised and the not. How many layers of meaning does the photograph have? How much are you willing to delve and dive in? What is your own meaning; is it clouded by the meaning that someone else has made? Finally, are all the layers truly meaningful or just abstract banter for the sake of it, and therefore, what is meaning?

What you see is limited only by your curiosity to know; what you mean is limited by your means of making your meaning.