Two days ago, Dipti (Bhaindarkar) and I decided to visit the Golden Pagoda that is right off Gorai - pretty close to our school. The plan was just to get a feel of vacation - something that all the other schools are having right now. After much procrastination and thinking about the heat, I gave in to Dipti's idea.
Taking the boat from Gorai jetty and reaching the other end of the city was quite fun. I had quickly made myself aware of the location of the Golden Pagoda before we left - which is when I realised that it was right next to the site of Essel World. I was quite surprised. The first time I visited the Pagoda, I had taken a road route and it seemed to be quite far. When I saw on the map, I became more aware not only of the proximity of the place, but also the geography of Mumbai more closely!
When landing from the sea side, you have to walk about 800 metres from the jetty point until you reach the entrance. Basically, the pathway to the pagoda is a shoot off from that of the Essel World. The pathway is banked with gabien walls and almost zero foliage - and in addition you may not find any internal transport to reach the pagoda. Not that it requires one, but in excruciating heat, for old people and some emergency situations, it's just nicer to have some transportation to take up upto the entrance of the pagoda.
I was quite flustered walking in the hot sun and approaching the monument under the open burning sky. While one would assume that the positioning of the staircase frontally is supposed to take you inside the pagoda axially, in reality you have to walk all around the building to actually enter it. The entrance is discreet, and hardly noticeable, lost in scale. What is further disappointing is that no one apart from those who have done a 10-day Vipaasna course can enter the main dome of the Golden Pagoda. Thus, all we could do is enter a transparent tunnel from where we saw the large column-free domed space above which, the sacred relics of Buddha have supposedly been kept! In about a minute, this spectacle was over.
Dipti and I came out almost instantly, because we were already sweating and the interiors of this tunnel had no air circulation at all. Escaping from this suffocating space, we decided to sit down under one of the massive columns. I took a nap on its plinth while Dipti sat thinking nothing (or looking around). In my usual cynicism, I kept complaining about the poor detailing, the hollow flooring, the gaudy goldens and the cheap decorations onto the Pagoda. Everything seemed extremely patchy.
After our nap, we decided to visit the canteen. Located in the underbelly of the pagoda are some carelessly kept art galleries, and further, the canteen. A large flattened sweeping space, the canteen sucked at any kind of aesthetic. Should such an expensive pagoda deserve a canteen that has column-beam lowly ceiling and the cheapest of plastic chairs and tables? It had no view, no natural light or air, nothing! I wondered what spirit of space they wanted to create? But wait - did they even think about the spirit of this complex in the first place? On exit we saw the plan of the site, and it felt like the final year design project, something of the sort of a "Mediation Centre" of an average student from the architecture school.
The return journey was nicer. The sun had set and we took the boat, where although we couldn't find a seat, we saw the pagoda in soft light, along with the louder ones of its counterpart - the Essel World rides. At that moment, a new landscape revealed - on one hand was the a place of entertainment, pleasure and earthly phenomenal delights. while just adjacent was the Vipaasna centre, the place to leave all of one's worldly desires. One was shouting out loud while the other was sitting quietly. One where life was bouncing from the ground, and other where life ideally retires. Seeing them sitting together side by side as we moved away from it on our boat on water was quite fascinating. Floating between the two ends, we kept taking pictures pondering at the absurd profundity of city life.
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