ASHIANA

(the map of Ashiana)

 

“WE ONLY MAP WHAT WE CANNOT SEE, IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO SEE IT”

RICARDO PADRON

Cloudy cloudy weather. The absence of sunlight has plagued the grid. This utopia had a stable and perfect life; the utopian dream. But the sinister uncertainty whether this will remain so, could be felt in the cloudy weather.

The entire city is very predictable. It is a grid. Everything is in order; a stable society functioning in an orderly manner. People from other cities would visit and secretly yearn for this permanence. The 9-5 work slots, the 1pm lunch time; it is the utopian dream.

Every individual has a code on which they function. This code had their detailed profiles. Just like the grid of the city, this code worked on a grid as well. It is a very stable code. In fact, these codes look like miniature maps of imaginative cities and have the nature of an arcological structure. These individuals are architectures in their own right, they are the architecture of this city.

The neighbouring cities though, are a different story. The rampancy of ethnic violence has overwhelmed them to have a stable living. They are profiled by their colour, body language, accent and their overall lifestyle and targeted if they stand against the categorization. This has forced a lot of people to change their identity from scratch. Many have been engulfed in uncertainty and chaos and this is reflected in their lifestyle and body language.

But not ‘Ashiana’. No. They have very stable profiles. All that is required is that each individual must have a job. Or else they are thrown out of the city. No fancy businesses. No one is in charge.

It is a stable utopian dream.