Today, I have the privilege of hosting talented blogger, writer and friend, Alka Gurha, of Freebird fame on my blog. Alka has a great command over language, and her posts are sharp, incisive, and witty. As a person , she is soft-spoken, caring, and lovely to interact with. Thank you for doing this post for me. Over to you, Alka…
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The Face of a Defacer
If you live or work in a metro, it is impossible to get away from that enclosed space called the elevator. Unless of course, you are privileged to have a personal one for your private sojourns!
I am sure you too have noticed the escalator walls being defaced with an assortment of scratches, scribbles, doodles and jottings. A more artistic word for it is – graffiti. By the way, many people do not know that graffitimeans more than one scribble. The word for a single scribble is graffito. The latest ‘Wordpower Dictionary’ says graffiti is “unauthorized writing or drawing on a surface in a public place.” It includes the horrible scribble we see on walls, in subways, on the sides of buildings, houses, and historical monuments. And that is the problem with graffiti — it is ‘unauthorized’ and it destroys someone’s property. It is a crime like stealing, because it steals the property owner’s right to have their own property look clean. But in a nation where defacing public property is an innocuous occupation, scribblers and defacers get away with impunity.
Owing to some enthusiastic scribblers my apartment elevator is painted once every six months. Strangely enough, the dogged ones continue to display their love for art with whatever is at their disposal – pen, pencil, sharp objects and even cola caps.
Have you wondered what instigates people to scribble? Why do people derive perverse pleasure from defacing public property? And more importantly, what do you make of the fact that people who scribble in apartment elevators shy away from defacing airport elevators? Yes, perhaps because the latest ones have a steel body so it is almost impossible to make a dent, but the ingenuous and irrepressible ones use sharp objects to satisfy their destructive urge.
For any discerning eye, it is easy to sketch a culprit profile of a defacer. Any mobile number displayed on the elevator could be that of a painter, contractor, plumber or an electrician. Free advertising!
Lately I have noticed various stickers of packers and movers in my apartment elevator. The car drivers and delivery guys usually scribble the name of maids and indulge in perverted display of dirty pictures!!
Scribbling is not a preserve of outsiders; residents too indulge in soiling elevators. More often than not, young unruly kids use crayons or sketch pens on the common area walls and the parents encourage their precocious ones to use the walls as drawing sheets. Influenced by a sudden surge of hormones the resident teen, sometimes expresses his love on the elevator wall.
Vengeance is another emotional motif which finds place on public walls and young girls find their names scribbled by jilted suitors.
Graffiti vandalism dates back a long way. Archaeologists have found ancient graffiti on the great pyramid at Giza in Egypt, on an Egyptian sphinx, and on walls in Pompeii (the Italian town buried by the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption in AD 79!). Private property owners in ancient Rome obviously felt graffiti vandals were pests as much as today’s property owners do. A carved sign found in ancient Rome begged people not to scribble on the walls.
Coming back to my apartment elevator, after much deliberation, it seems that the ‘NOW’ factor – ‘No One Is Watching’ – plays an important role. Offenders scribble only when they are alone; when no one is watching. Perhaps camera surveillance can save us from our elevators getting defaced. But surveillance is an expensive proposition. How about a signboard – ‘Scribbling and defacing elevator walls is an offence. Those found guilty will be punished’? Chances are that the delivery guy will still scribble his mobile number and the disgruntled driver will continue undeterred. Any suggestions?
Picture courtesy:FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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