Monday, July 16, 2012

reflections on the kolkata rickshaw...


The rickshaws in Kolkata fascinate. As long as you are not stepping into one. A lever system based on something as treacherous as a rolling wheel, pulled by under-nourished, fatigued human being. A master innovation to capitalize the blurred division between man and and animal in an impoverished society.

The birth of man was for reasons of indulgence of higher powers. In the game the complexity level determines the satisfaction of the player. In the game of life man was the ultimate masterstroke in those terms. An element which is self generating in terms of adding more and more complexity to his existence.

Starting from the prehistoric ages till today man has evolved to a level of such complexity that the prehistoric fellow and the today's man will consider each other different species of the mammal family. The key difference is the resource accumulation of today's man over the centuries. So when the resource bank is equalized, more or less, the difference between man and the animal blurs. Both the rickshaw puller and the mule live the same life. Lift the load to survive....

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