ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Observations category.

In Bedlam

Sleepy eyed in a quiet town, with just a bed-time snore to brand the night for all it was worth. A giggle there, a whisper there. The night rests sombre along the shore of reminiscences. A closet of dreams and a nightstand of slivers and sheets rest beside. An empty plate with a fork looking up. A camera and a lamp long dead from a burnt out fuse. A cordless mouse. Two books and a jar of cream, and pens, and two name tags that point to a faraway place.

Cream-coloured paint on the wall, a dreamy clinic for wandering night eyes; the vent, smoke detectors and invisible sneaky bugs of a metal bush. Deodorants just twenty feet away beside a basket of goodies that now just cups the wisps of air from behind the curtain. Either that or loose coins that make their home into the cracks of its browning chest. Others are straws, and hangers, and toilet rolls strutting underneath the shade. A padlock  here made of silver: Chicago-bought, and a white floor littered with shoes.

Then, a snore and a sigh: the city sleeps.

In Bedlam was published on October 15th, 2010, with the tags , under the Observations, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Fall, Again

Fall, my most favourite season of the year has kicked into full force. It is mostly characterized by a changing, unpredictable weather along with beautiful leaves falling onto the ground. Everything about this season is like a deja vu for me, and every step reminds me of what it was to take them just a year ago. It also presents a problem of writing about it without being unnecessarily repetitive. The leaves are the same, all brown and ever present like dry concrete tears of the dying season. The cold is the same, and the air still smells like harmattan from a faraway place, and all that would it would take to make it similar to an equally stimulating experience in the autumn season in Jos Nigeria would be rain, and total dryness.

The dying here is gradual, and equally beautiful, depending on where one is: driving by the Mississippi river on the way to Principia or riding a bicycle to school through a long path of trees and a charming lake. What can never be said enough is the sweetness that accompanies every breath taken in the cool sun of October, except of course one is standing under a set of trees where hard dry nuts are also falling down in droves.

Fall, Again was published on October 10th, 2010, with the tags , , under the Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Random Sights of Signs and Lights

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Random Sights of Signs and Lights was published on October 10th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Observations category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

On the Nobel Week

With announcements of the winners in Economics, Medicine, and Physics earlier in the week and the winner in Literature to be announced tomorrow morning, the Nobel Week has lived up to its promises of secrecy, surprises and newsworthiness. Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is one of the favourites to win the prize for literature. I hope he wins.

In this age of electronic books, blogs, e-readers and e-lives, I am hoping that the Nobel prize will one day catch up and give a nod in that direction. Nobel Prize for peace to Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook would not be out of place for instance perhaps if shared with the founders of twitter, blogger and Youtube as well. They have brought the world together and provided new means of understanding and expressing ourselves to each other.

On the Nobel Week was published on October 6th, 2010, with the tags , under the Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

Lagos in the Office

After making the large prints of three of those photos I told you about a few weeks ago, I walked up to Amie at the office this morning and asked her which ones she liked the most. Her answer was unequivocal, she chose the one showing the Lagos traffic at night. When I asked her why, she said it was because she loved (big) cities. Sigh. A few minutes later, I asked James the same question and he chose the same picture. His reason was that it was more lively than the pictures of glowing lamps and a church window. In any case, I immediately began to rethink my earlier decision to take the photo home to install on my wall. As a third person suggested much later, I could actually put it right there in the office and let people admire it whenever they come in.

I tried that today, and it has thankfully failed as an experiment.

First of all, there’s not much space on the wall of the office to fit a 16 x 20 inches drawing without causing some aesthetic discomfort to some of the other cultural photos already there much of them smaller. Second of all, much as I gave it a chance to stay on my table where I can see it, I have painfully realized that I can’t stand the sight of that long energetic Lagos traffic for eight hours non-stop every day. Better to put one that shows more of a world at peace with itself, even if through the little light entering through a church window. I’m afraid of how agitated my days might be if I keep the Lagos traffic in front of me for much of the day. I have therefore taken it off, and now I’m taking it home to hang on the living room wall where I don’t spend much time anyway. All those in awe of (big) cities will gape at it and find their rhythm. And when I want to study, maybe it will help me to focus, or give me the needed spunk when I need the energy. And maybe not. In all, I have come to agree that it is a beautiful piece of photo that captures some of the fundamental elements of the Lagos evening: traffic.

I had taken it one late evening on my way from the Lagos Island, and it shows traffic on only one side of the road. A candid colourful shot of daily experience.

Lagos in the Office was published on October 5th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the Observations category. There are currently 6 comments on this article so far.