The Showcase

I wonder sometimes whether the world is a romantic place or its beauty is a romanticized version of itself. This song is dedicated to those who believe in the latter. I went to Khandala yesterday. The whole landscape is just beautiful from wherever you watch it. But until the point people go to that park after buying a five-rupee ticket, they just can't enjoy the scenic beauty from anywhere else. The park was crowded. Same holds true for Monkey point in Kasauli, the Sunset point in Khuri desert, Shooting point in Shimla, Radha Ghat in Vrindavan. The traditional food which people could get anywhere in that city, but they enjoy it only in Chowkidhani; traditional khadi clothes only in fabsindia or Khadi bhandar in Connaught place. I see the hygiene-lover devotees in Vrindavan diving in the Holy Yamuna, which is equivalent to a dirty drain in your city (It passes through Delhi before reaching Vrindavan, so you can well imagine). This is the showcase, the invention of our modern age. Everything needs to be narrated about, polished, mystified and decorated in a showcase for people to enjoy it. So, here we go -

A hundred-buck thing would get you earning
Of a million pound
Gets gold for shredding, trick of marketing
If you have found

A bit of romanticization
Exclusivity gives elation
Tag with confusing phrase
Embellished in showcase

The cow-dung scent is a mosquito repellant
Tourism hugs tradition
The stiff maize bread is savored and said
To be rich in nutrition
In the dirty cold river they’ll bathe and shiver
Attach a folk rendition
No sense of beauty, they’ll admire truly
Display in exhibition

A bit of romanticization
Exclusivity gives elation
Tag with confusing phrase
Embellished in showcase

Design some spots to stand and snapshot
Add some surrealism
Some camping bonfire and local souvenir
Coin some neologism
Spirituality and self-help fills the bookshelf
Sofa-adorned mysticism
Things may not be but must seem to be
Depth slain by frivolism.