memories and sanitisation
are they inter-dependent?
by sanitisation, for the argument here, i mean actual physical cleanliness, though the metaphorical equivalent will hold just as good.
sanitisation essentially reduces the input to our senses. smells suffers the most. i have written about it somewhere in this blog.. essentially, we are sanitizing smells the most, while polluting sight with proliferation of glowing rectangles (TV, laptop, computer). also, suffering is the sense of touch with touch getting eroticised and societally frowned upon.
and well, memories are made of our experiences with our senses. here too, visual memory is so prevalent with photographs and videos and what not. when arundhati roy reminisces about the smell of steel railings in a bus on the conductor's hand in her book 'god of small things', it came as such a fresh insight to me, i was bowled over by the genius of the writer.
with the western onslaught, why has india managed its survival of its societal memories, whereas the more sanitized societies such as singapore, japan are much more westernised. their narratives increasingly weave around western metaphors. even in india, the 'indianness' is preserved in rural areas, lower middle class where senses are jostled with honking, music, smell of food, cow dung, texture of walls, meeting places, rituals, explosion of colors. the upper class is attached to the indian traditions mostly through fiction such as movies and books only.
we hardly celebrate festivities as they would be celebrated in slums. and its only a memory that makes us repeat it.
with increased media consumption, we are increasingly making lesser memories. what do u think?
by sanitisation, for the argument here, i mean actual physical cleanliness, though the metaphorical equivalent will hold just as good.
sanitisation essentially reduces the input to our senses. smells suffers the most. i have written about it somewhere in this blog.. essentially, we are sanitizing smells the most, while polluting sight with proliferation of glowing rectangles (TV, laptop, computer). also, suffering is the sense of touch with touch getting eroticised and societally frowned upon.
and well, memories are made of our experiences with our senses. here too, visual memory is so prevalent with photographs and videos and what not. when arundhati roy reminisces about the smell of steel railings in a bus on the conductor's hand in her book 'god of small things', it came as such a fresh insight to me, i was bowled over by the genius of the writer.
with the western onslaught, why has india managed its survival of its societal memories, whereas the more sanitized societies such as singapore, japan are much more westernised. their narratives increasingly weave around western metaphors. even in india, the 'indianness' is preserved in rural areas, lower middle class where senses are jostled with honking, music, smell of food, cow dung, texture of walls, meeting places, rituals, explosion of colors. the upper class is attached to the indian traditions mostly through fiction such as movies and books only.
we hardly celebrate festivities as they would be celebrated in slums. and its only a memory that makes us repeat it.
with increased media consumption, we are increasingly making lesser memories. what do u think?
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