Connectivity

The bridge Project

The river near to my childhood home in Kerala, India, did not have a bridge across. I grew up crossing it in a boat. Many years later a bridge was built over it. It was a radical transfiguration to the landscape. As kids we were glad to run and play on the new bridge and cross easily to the other side, at the same time we lost the mystery of the river and the thrill of crossing it in the heavy monsoon in a small boat. All of a sudden we became bigger than the river, as we were looking from above, standing on a tall bridge! I used to internalize that sense of wonder I felt and started to think about it in later years and began documenting such instances.

Our needs are not localized anymore as our lives are intertwined with others' spaces. The demarkations of two lands with a river or anything like that are a big hinderance for our movement. A bridge is one of the inevitable ways to skip the obstacles to a wider space by linking the banks. Some bridges have refined designs but most of them are constructed only from a pragmatic vantage point.

The social and cultural fabric of an island for instance, is transformed as soon as it is connected to the mainland. Many early natives feel disillusioned as these changes become rapid and radical because their way of life for generations is being perturbed by the sudden transmutations happening with the new bridge.

When we step onto a bridge, our sense of self is transformed from the self of limitation to a possibility of openness to the future. Then the fragmentation ends and two lands become one unit. It has come a long way since, and we take our bridges for granted now.

The process of bridging can also be seen as a metaphor for the wise-path in resolving a miscommunication, as it functions like a conduit between two different mindsets. Bridging process itself is the part of an ongoing quest for progress. Yet the surprise element still returns to mind whenever I see a mighty bridge. It is a visual symbol of the human resilience and survival, after all.

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Nila river/ Kerala, India © sebastian varghese/summer2013