Hawk a Day

INDEPENDENT PATENT I pass several suppliers of plastic bags, sheets, bubble wraps in Bhogal, Jangpura, Delhi. Shri Shayam Tarading Co, similarly Harpreet of Pigmento India supplies all kinds of plastic boxes, from a distance it's a jamboree of translucent lights. Plastic in the form of shrink wraps, boxes, films, clips, (hair, paper), sheet, bag, bottles, dusters, shoes, if you can think of other plastic items please add to the list. Goods untouched by human hands until we break the seal, open the bottle, tear the plastic - the seal for our protection is no longer exchangeable once touched, deemed as used. Once the touched plastic is in the trash bin it is dirtier than previously opened. The touched plastic then gets mixed with all the other filth of the city to be buried or burned in enormous land fills outside the city. A strange filth this commodity is, it's timeless, it's second skin, the abject that clings to us…our legacy. Ali Mohammed recorded Saturday 20th October 2012, T point of Guru Govind Singh Road and South Avenue, between Sarva Priya Vihar and Malviya Nagar , South Delhi, 9.00am

flotsam of cuteness finally discarded >> found and collected from the Kabari wallas on Sunday 21st October 2012 A typically example of cuteness is a child's doll or a stuffed animal. "A ball-jointed doll is any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints. In contemporary usage when referring to modern dolls, and particularly when using the acronyms BJD or ABJD, it usually refers to modern Asian ball-jointed dolls", ( source wikipedia ). Broken dolls found in Kabari wallas gunny bags are mainly BJD's. Manufacturers are predominately in South Korea who also supply the round socket eyes for the BJD's. Surfing the net brings up numerous examples of decapitate dolls fetishism: necro porn >> be-head, de-breast, amputate. A roller coaster De-Sade fantasia played out to an ever growing audience. Rajesh from Saunh village, Fatehpur , Uttar Pradesh, only collects Kabari from Sarva Priya Vihar, Begumpur and Kallu Sarai. Deposits his collection in Bagumpur three times a day. Earns between 400 to 600 rupees per day. Always asks for loha, (metal). He has been a Kabari walla for seven years, at Galli no 11 Sarva Priya Vihar , New Delhi

Axis >> moving in circles around the earth. In response to Bannir Singh recorded Monday 22nd October 2012 Karela – origin Hindi, Sanskrit >> kāravella, commonly known in the west as bitter melon/gourd, travelled from India to China in the 14 Century. Also grows in Africa and the Caribbean, it's edible. (source: wordreference.com) Karelā stuffed with onions, not sure of it origins, I mean north, south, west east India, don't know. But I do know Mum cooked it in East Africa, always fried and stuffed. Of course any dish can be cooked and eaten anywhere by means of buying or growing, what changes from place to place is the meaning of a dish. Dishes carry folklore, Literature and an evolving history. The authenticity of a dish is complex, in Africa my forefathers stuffed the Karelā in a particular way as their forefathers did in Rawalpindi before partition. It is quite possible the culinary imagination of how to stuff a Karelā has evolved in many parts of India. Arguments about the authenticity of a dish only happen when there is in-flux of newer versions and if my mother did not stuff that Karela in a particular month, with particular kind of red onions to contrive a certain taste, I doubt I would think of innovation/change without considering memories of interpretations Bannir Singh, vegetable walla recorded corner of street no 8 & 9, Monday 22 oct 12, Sarva Priya Vihar . I have been recording him since 2008, his voice has almost gone. He collects vegetables from Okla Mandi between 6 and 7 am

Third Person Narrative I see no address, but the house is specific enough, it probably was late 1930's, pre-independence, situated just off Mall Road in the city of Patiala, Punjab . Mall Road cuts connects the main artery leading to Chandigarh to the north and Delhi to the south. Mall Road also known as Thandi Sadak, cool road was popular for post dinner strolls. Over half a century ago it was sprinkled with water on hot summer evenings by men carrying goat-skin water bags (MASHK) around their waist. Arteries of mall road are still considered fashionable areas, they have bulky colonial style houses, set back with empty and well watered lawns. On the east side of the street where the forlorn house sits there is a cluster of low rise shops, modern and dainty is the ever expanding Gopal Sweet Shop. It takes a moment to realize the abandoned house with its over-grown grass, Milkweed and bushes, must have been identical to the intact neighboring building. A heavy mesh metal fence blocks the driveway, hints of missing details suggests a heavy labored doorway. There is no signage, no names, no door bell, no emblems to speak of a family. I see no "No Trespassing", the barricade is a hindrance to no-one except for the ones looking for the ones gone. A plot of land is legally granted, a wall built around to protect. But now it lays abandoned, to abandon means to cease control, to not preserve or protect, to discontinue, to not support, to desert, to curse, to condemn, to censure, to excommunicate, to prohibit. Madhaan Singh originally from Bharatpur , Rajasthan lives in Chander Vihar neighbouring the town Vikas Puri , West Dehli, visits Sarva Priya Vihar, GK 1, GK 2, most Tuesdays, Thursdays & Sundays, recorded in galli no 11 at 12pm in Sarva Priya Vihar , South Delhi

Enclosure Garden is generic of Old English meaning 'geard' - an enclosure, (source http://en.wiktionary.org/) . An enclosed ground essential to 'garden', so established by the English. People built walls, hedges, planted trees to claim ownership of land which also kept out trespassers. Alick Percy-Lancaster was the last englishman to hold post of Superintendent of Horticultural Operations, Government of India. Percy's task was to maintain all the shrubs, tress, plants: annuals, by-annual, perennials, and all seasonal vegetables in the Delhi Muncipality Area >> source: "A Sahib's Manual for the Mali" by Alick Percy-Lancaster complied by Laeeq Futehally from "Garden Chat", a monthly magazine brought out by Alick Percy-Lancaster pre-independence. image > Lists of annals to be planted from September to October from the book, "A Sahib' s Manual for the Mali" by Alick Percy-Lancaster, page 151 Unlimited Edition Tulsi (Ocimum Sanctum) also known as Basil, considered in India holier than the holy, worshiped, sacred and has healing properties. The growth of Tulsi in homes, garden, balconies and allotments is spontaneous, I have even seen it grow in cracks on pavements. People, we have a bit of land in Ayanagar , village by name neighboring Gurgoan . It is part of a collective and Tulsi grows abundantly here, I shall be giving away saplings, the seeds have been cultivated and potted in newspaper by our Mali Brijlal. Just send me a message before-hand via FB and I can tell you where is the nearest place for you to collect saplings. Hawk_a_day: 23rd Wednesday, October 2012, Lal Singh comes this time of the year to sell Kath, (compost), he works as a Mali, in Defence Colonly . his compost is made from sewage sludge gathered in Nizamuddin , South Delhi. — at Galli 5, sarva priya vihar

National Suspect "The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 guineas the moment it is produced". "The challenge stood for over 67 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the American locksmith Alfred Charles Hobbs was able to open the lock and, following some argument about the circumstances under which he had opened it, was awarded the prize. Hobbs' attempt required some 51 hours, spread over 16 days", (source wikipedia). The Bramah known as the 'Detector' lock patented by Joseph Bramah in 1818. The Bramah patent is still in service, now known as Bramah & Chubb. I purchased a lock from Suchvinder Singh, our local locksmith and key repairer on Thursday 25th October 2012, 2.30pm. Took me fourteen minutes to dismantle the back with a hammer and screwdriver. Products that have a specific function but not necessarily form to any particular cultural taste hence design is not the criteria. We try to purchase products with recognizable patent, this one is called NOKIA, in my humble opinion it's aesthetics supersedes its functions. Suchvinder Singh promised this one has 20 permutation and will be impossible to pick in my life-time. Hawk_a_Day: Thursday 25th October 2012, 2.30pm Suchvinder Singh from Gakhal Pind west of Jalandhar, Punjab , he is a locksmith and frequents Sarva Priya Vihar , South Delhi, occasionally. Suchvinder lives in Sanwal Nagar since he was little, he mostly repairs but occasionally sells locks, just like his father did.

attempt to navigate a continuity of movement on a day that I heard the voice of Om Karthi. On 26 october 2012 Om took 10 rounds in Sarva Priya Vihar arriving in galli no 11 at 30/35 minute intervals recorded 26 October 2012 in Sarva Priya Vihar , South Delhi Om Karthi from Kanchala Village, State of Karnataka > Kabari walla: collects bottles, metal, paper and occasionally asks for shoes

Plotting a Tree Leo as you know I have been working on this on-going quest for the itinerant voice in exchange for a photo. I do keep thinking of fixing the kinetic memory of four dimensional into a two dimensional space – hence the www would allow me to map these experiences in cyberspace for netizens to locate and dwell. But I keep resisting, in this age of despoliation brought by our connectivity, half truths are invented as realities. It also depends on mine or your perspective of a dweller. The constructed Mapping of my narratives is or could be a fabrication: an idealistic intention to play, to analogue the ineffable, but then we try and do this all the time in one way or another – I've lost count of how many photos I have battered with my hawkers only for them to come the next day for more. The need to keep at it suggests the self-indulgent ego in us to deconstruct, to be representational, to utter, to fantasize… so perhaps there is no difference between a moment, a place, a truth, a half-invented truth, a lie – it all depends. An obscuring trickery, leading many a netizen astray. Bannir Singh, vegetable walla recorded corner of street no 8 & 9, Monday 22 oct 12, Sarva Priya Vihar . I have been recording him since 2008, his voice has almost gone. He collects vegetables from Okla Mandi between 6 and 7 am