Opinion Foggy aesthetics

But for most Indian men,aesthetics is “wot’s dat?” Earlier this week,waiting for flight confirmation at Mumbai airport,I was opposite a toilet when a man in a white lungi emerged wet from the toilet,shivering as though he’d taken a dip in the Ganges. In the corridor between him and me,travellers were passing by,beautiful air hostesses pulling trolley bags,foreign tourists and Indian executives all proceeding for security check. In full view of them,the man lifted his lungi,took out a blue boxer underwear from his bag,and jumped around alternatively on either foot trying to draw them up. When successful,he swung the lungi away in a flourish,and in swift movements continued to use it as a towel to wipe his body and hair. He then wore a shirt and a pair of trousers,took out a mirror and combed his hair. As I enjoyed this scene,I was reminded of rural railway platforms with just a tap,and was surprised that even the security guard failed to send him inside the toilet. What a contrast in aesthetics. The man was totally oblivious to everyone’s curiosity!

Take a look at a man’s shirt pocket: all kinds of papers bulge from it and of course a mobile phone too. Handset aesthetics have undergone a sea change,becoming sophisticated and trendy,as also the retail outlets of service providers. But check out how they are junking public eyespace with ugly telephone towers in the city or outskirts,no maintenance,other electric and telephone wires hanging out,sometimes becoming like a net on the road.

Mushrooming real estate in cities and small towns may have presentable décor inside,but its public view has no character,just unbecoming sanitary pipes and exposed electrical transformer gadgetry. Old skyscrapers with cracks filled with putty create designs. Is that because most of society’s decisions are taken by men?

Western Europe after the World Wars had to go for quick habitation to bring immigrants to make their roads and buildings. These 1950s and 1960s buildings with poor aesthetics became ghettos that created problems of corruption and delinquency. So they were ceremoniously bulldozed in the 1980s. India’s current architecture may face this same problem 20 years later.

Paris is considered the world’s most beautiful city,attracting the world’s largest numbers of tourists—82 million in 2007,larger than France’s population of 62 million. The tourism revenue France got that year was 37 billion euros. In contrast,just 5 million tourists came to an India of 1.2 billion people and spent 7.26 billion euros (Rs 50,730 crores) in 2008. This statistic also proves that per capita tourist spend in India was approximately 1,450 euros,higher than France’s 450 euros. Culturally and historically I don’t see that we have any deficiency that we cannot attract tourists like France does.

Paris was planned to become beautiful and modernised. Napoleon III commissioned George-Eugene Haussmann to renovate the city. Through 1852 to 1870,the Haussmann Plan redesigned Paris with broad streets for trains and better traffic flow,public utilities like water,drainage and sanitation,and buildings in homogeneous architectural wholes that unified the urban landscape. Over 20,000 houses were destroyed,slums cleared away and over 40,000 rebuilt. Huge controversy was raised by writers like Emile Zola accusing Haussman of corruption and architects like Charles Garnier deploring the ‘suffocating monotony’ of monumental architecture. But 140 years later,Haussmann’s work is the most valued heritage property and his buildings the most expensive in the world. In fact the city plans of London,Moscow and Chicago have borrowed liberally from Haussmann.

India does not have a renovating culture. If you come from south Mumbai on the Santa Cruz flyover,just look to your left. Below eye level are unfortunate slums. Just move your eye up,and you will miss the building balconies for all the people’s dirty linen washed in public,or rather,clean linen,shirts,trousers,bras,panties and saris hung out to dry for public viewing. Actually building aesthetics have given way to rods,grills,air conditioner boxes,moulded paint. Without renovating these buildings,you suddenly find new construction sold at exorbitant prices.

Since a few years I’ve started frequenting Mumbai and I find a new type of décor in apartment building staircases: pictures of gods and goddesses in ceramic. I admired this move until my client told me it was to prevent people from spitting pan juice in staircase corners. What a clever idea,I thought. But lo and behold! In another public staircase,the gods were stained with thick red spit. What is it that can instil the aesthetic sense in us as a people?

mbit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management.

mbit@shininguniverse.com