This is a collection of notes on ' Maps' I'm writing for the JEANS section in 'The Nation' newspaper . Jeans is dedicated for kids , for their enthusiasm and curiosity. This is the second in the series.
It’s cool to have a stroll; especially on a Sunday morning when roads are not crowded. Torrington and Independence Avenue in Colombo look neat, calm and relaxing. There’s pin- drop silence. A few cars are on the road. If you really want to, you can even dance right on the middle of the road for a while. You’ll see the sun facing directly at you, perfectly round, in bright orange. That is a nice sight. Don’t forget to look around. Learn to appreciate what you see. The best part of a stroll would be the things around you. Walk up to the main road or drive up the highway. You’ll see buildings around you. Some buildings are small, tall, huge and decayed. Some buildings are discolored. Some look dirty. There are things that get covered by dust. Some are covered with time. So do the buildings, inevitably. Our world is full of structures, large or small, old and modern. There are monuments of power and prestige, supreme achievements in engineering and design, comforting landmarks, testimonials to the human spirit and public relations in the highest level. Skyscrapers are breathtaking. We are fascinated by tall buildings. I don’t know why we are thrilled so much to see tall buildings. May be they are exceptional. Tall buildings are obviously a result of great deal of effort. Man is capable of doing a lot of things. Tall buildings would be one of them. We admire endurance.
Structures are helpful to navigate. Whether a building is old or new, dusty or dirty, tall or short, known and supreme can help finding whereabouts. Most often, we don’t remember the names of streets. It’s as if we don’t bother or make any effort to remember everything we see. And this is how colors, pictures, posters or billboards come to play in real life. They help us identify easily. When giving directions we may mention a color of a building or a bill board if there is, so it won’t be a haywire to track down the place you want to be. Have you noticed that buildings have different colors? Colors come in handy. They reflect a difference to pick the correct one.
Naming places become essential in city planning. Every building is given a name and so are streets. Houses are given numbers. They all help us to locate places. Journeys can be troublesome when it is difficult to find the desired location. You’ll end up sweaty and exhausted by the time you get to a restaurant or some other place. Annoyed too!
Like city planning, map marking should be done carefully. If you miss a name of a street or a popular landmark, that can confuse the traveler. Remember a traveler‘s only guide will be a map, especially if he is new to a country or a city. Naming a street is not enough. A good map should always contain landmarks. For instance, indicating rivers, jungles, a popular restaurant or a well-known theater can help to discover a place without any hazel. Maps can turn out to be tourism promoters. They will be a useful guide to hotels, religious shrines and places of entertainment in a country.
If you skim through a map, they will indicate roads in different shades and patterns, main roads in a different color and sub-roads in another color. Crosses or short lines will indicate rail routes. Most importantly line weights, shadings and symbols should be defined somewhere in a corner of a map, so the reader knows what exactly a line or a picture represents.
We should dream often. Dreams are what you want in life. Chasing dreams will help you reach goals. And there is possibility that landmarks will guide you to the correct place.
(Featured in 'The Nation' on the 23rd November 2014)
Others in the series -
0 comments:
Post a Comment