Bhubaneswar is oh so obsessed with Konark Wheels – I mean they are everywhere – but mostly put up in some form or another over compound walls of houses and offices and those green coloured grilled-railings along the roads. Did that dude Narasimhadev ever think that his Wheels would one day become an overused symbol of the modern capital of Orissa? Hardly much of all the stuff that he developed exists today. If you didn’t know, the Sun Temple at Konark kind of fell apart few hundred years ago. Some say an Afghani spoilsport called Kala-Pahad (that would mean Black hill in English) was to be blamed for the collapse while some say that it was simply because of the messy construction itself that couldn’t stand long enough under all those cyclones and storms that till date keep saying hi to Orissa. No one really knows why exactly most of the temple fell down, but what matters is that it did.
The reason I am saying all this stuff about collapse and all that is for you to realize that there could have been something else, that looked grander than those Wheels in the temple when it was actually built by Narasimhadev- who knows, some kind of gigantic penis shaped sandy graphite dome may be? All I am saying is that you can never really tell that Narasimhadev had the faintest of idea that those Wheels, that were nothing compared to that magnificent penis that he got ‘erected’ – would some day end up dirtying so many compound walls in the current state capital. You might laugh over what I am saying but all that could be so true – you know. I mean even in the existing structure that remains, if you look beyond those Wheels, you will see for yourself enough number of carvings spread all over the granite walls that show pot-bellied men and women feeling each other in funny poses – I mean you might call that kinda thing erotic too – but I find them more funny than erotic.
Why did these nice eastern folks of Orissa pick up only those Wheels to represent their culture? Maybe ‘coz the wheels were real big. Things that are big usually end up becoming symbols you know. Of course, being big cannot be the only criteria – they also have to look good and majestic and all that. What would you say – be the symbol for London? For a long time I thought that it had to be either the Big-Ben or may be the London Bridge. But if you ask me today, I would pick the London-Eye or that Gherkin instead. The funny thing is that though the Gherkin is good and big and even majestic but it’s also so much like a penis – that’s one problem it has. So is the Bullet Tower in Barcelona actually. They aren’t just these huge good looking buildings that look like penis. I was passing by some Ashoka trees in the evening today, and I must say that they didn’t look any less to me either – call them green penis if you would like to , but penis indeed. An even funnier thing that I found out only later was that these Ashoka trees are dedicated to none other than the horny Indian God of love and sex and all that – Kam-dev! Gosh – this world revolves around penises and yet we feel ashamed to be dick-heads! Too much!
