καιρός remembered

The waiting room

Despite the iron barred doors standing wide open, the ‘Welcome’ sign on the wall doesn’t exactly seem like an unnecessary gesture of encouragement for potential visitors crossing the threshold of this waiting room. The contrast between the space and the sign must have struck me as strangely amusing as I walked past here on the stairs. Hence this photo.

The row of flip-flops, feet and legs visible on the right betrays the presence of a few waiting customers. I don’t know what they’re waiting for. The scene is probably set in some sort of office. In the wall at the back, we can see a half-open door leading to an office area, but there’s no sign of any civil servant or clerk anywhere.

The indifferent and – indeed – unwelcoming atmosphere of this place is not unusual for basic offices in India. But what stands out here is how clean and tidy the space is, especially the landing at the front. I had expected it to be in a much worse state.

The waiting room in the photo may be ominously empty, but anyone who has ever set foot in the public rooms and areas in an Indian government office knows that an entirely different sight is usually the case. We are overwhelmed by rows and rows of heaped up, dusty files. The sight can be so amazing and is so typically Indian, that Dayanita Singh considered it a good subject for a work of art. It was shown at Illuminazioni, the 54th Biennale of Venice in 2011.

Photo of the week: Goa, India, 2002