As I walked through the village, I noticed the style and designs of the front gates. Each one made of steel, gave a sturdy look but also carried intricate designs painted with subtle colours. May be for a visitor, a first impression is the lasting one. As the village is getting a face lift and getting transformed from the thatched mud houses into the concrete ones, the style of the gates reflects the style of the house owner. Some years back, may be due to poor economy, everyone could not afford such a huge gate. So they managed with different options like bamboos placed horizontally, which could be slid to open them.
I was just wondering how we all caught on to this idea of gates. But our infatuation towards these gates is very old. India Gate, Gate way of India, Ajmeri Gate are to name a few and there are so many gates in the old cities. May be fall out of the main gates of the fort, where the main gate was the only option for heavy traffic in or out of the fort. A well guarded, heavily fortified entrance provided that secured feeling. Don’t we have a safety door in addition to the main door of the flats in the city, and a security guard at the entrance of the building and/or the society.
May be the single house owner would not have felt the need for any additional security or may not have been able to afford guards, but they were happy with a huge gate. It was a style statement, it spoke high about them in the society. So even one tried his level best to out do the other. Some even went further ahead by cutting down on the height of the compound walls, some had it with no plaster on the walls, Some had to cut down on the budget for the house. At one of the places I was shocked to see a beautiful gate with no wall. The inflammatory pressures did affect the house owners but it hardly affected the front gates. May be thats why all the property developers would construct a huge attractive gate even prior to laying the first stone for the residential buildings.
At times I do feel our obsession towards the front gate. This obsession most of the times leaves us exposed and wanting some where. Hope we get over this obsession.
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