Parsons Challenge

This post is in affiliation to the Parsons Challenge as a requisite for the Application Procedure for the undergraduate admission (BFA):

The Parsons Challenge

Where do you live? What are your everyday activities? Where do you go? What have you overlooked? Discover something new within your familiar surroundings and daily life; this might be an object, event, activity, or location. Interpret your discovery in three (3) perspectives in any medium and in three (3) statements of approximately 150 words each.

In this assignment, I’ve chosen the road outside my house as the discovery.

Please click on the thumbnails of the images to view them in full size.

Perspective 1

The Slow Progressions of Life

A usual morning greets me with rush and haphazardness. From hasty wake-up sessions to driving at top speed to catch the bus that I would have probably missed, the velocity at which my life appears to travel puts me into a trance.
Each day we strive to increase the tempo of our worldly affairs. It’s all about time they say… But what do we eventually achieve? Does the morning rush put me in any state of advantage? I still get to school at the same time. The day carries out just the same. The hours pass by slowly and the forty kilometer ride back home lasts an infinity.
My life draws parallels with the road I live on. My home, once a monumental building amidst vast open fields has now been engulfed in a residential explosion. The bustling highway is one of the busiest in the cosmopolitan city of Bangalore. Yet this rapid growth of the city is hopeless on closer inspection. Though cars, buses, trucks, men, women and cattle may race down the road to reach the Electronic City that lies beyond, the highway lies in such a pitiful state. A deadly mix of potholes, untarred stretches of road, bad traffic and stray animals bolting across at the wrong times slows the entire city down.
It seems that no matter how much we try to increase the pace of our lives, there are always obstacles to prevent this from happening. The world may appear to be moving about you with great speed, but when you stand in one place and take a good look around… then you know that you’re not going anywhere.

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Perspective 2

Looking at Life Through High Contrast

The world to me is all a flurry of emotions; a blend of the highs and lows. With the spontaneity that defines life, we never know what each day holds in store for us. On some occasions, we cherish every moment because they are too beautiful or too good to let go. On others, we are suppressed with moods of anger, hate and rage. But no matter what we are faced with, we carry on and move forward…
The road is endless. It goes beyond where the naked eye can see. It moves from noisy districts to serene forest area; from safe neighbourhoods to villages that are exposed to all sorts of crime. It drives through the horizon and dares to pass through unfamiliar places. Life is this. From the comfort of that smile on your best friend’s face to being thrown to the ground in a rough game of football…From writing lyrics to happy tunes to being brought to tears and writing the darkest poetry…Every single day has its share of good and bad times, but just like the road, we don’t cease to stop. Weathered, tried and tested, we remain unmoved. The scars may show and we may continue to get trampled upon…But undefeated we stand and life carries on without limit.

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Perspective 3

A Melodic Composition

Life without music is mute and desolate. The sounds and the noises, whether pleasant to the ear or not, keep each person captured in a rhythmic beat. The same rhythmic beat of the heart that echoes through our body can be heard in the sounds that echo through the atmosphere from the busy highway outside. Sitting inside a closed room where distant sounds are muffled, you hear the heartbeat of the city.

The blaring horns of the immense trucks, the sound of wheels on tarmac, engines revving up or cars coming to screeching halts…It’s all just unwanted noise you say? Living without these things is like living in a vacuum. You feel secluded, deserted and lonely.
Music to me comes in every form. Whether it’s the deep sound on my bass guitar to the high-pitched shrieks of heavy machinery used to dig up the road… The tunes take me to another place. Oblivious to the flaws of life, I lose myself in a reverie. My mind puts me in a state of tranquility… Over the loudness of the road I live on, I discover bliss.

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