PHASES OF SPACES

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd, 1986, SUNNY
Dear diary,
I have recently shifted to this small house which I have built with my own gains. There is this temple of Ganesha near our house which has pleased me from the first day I came. I spend my day in fields, and evenings at the temple with people. Life is better here than that previous small hut.
FRIDAY, JULY 22nd, 2006, RAINY
Dear diary,
With this amount of rain, it’s becoming difficult to live here. Even Nihal has his own family now. Kids don’t like this place because of the chaos which the temple is causing. Future seems blurry and uncertain. Above are some of the lines from an old man’s diary which depict how everything has changed with time. Changing thinking and thoughts, change in their perception, spreading community and hence land spread, these are things which are inseparable from the time. The way he used to spend his evenings at temple, the overall atmosphere created by sunset, people chanting mantras, many people coming together and filling the voids of spaces; it was creating an enclosure for him. A space, whose phases varied with number of people, time of the day, seasons which are again aspects of time. With changing time, the space also changes because of these various aspects leading to different human interpretations and experiences. It is the time which changes the function of a fort from a place of ruling and living to a tourist destination. It is the time which shows us phases of spaces.