Friday, April 8, 2016

A German airport and another lesson on the pervasiveness of art

Art is all pervasive. It touches all aspects of our life. Art reflects on the people that make the art. It's almost like an inside view of their personality. Do countries have a personality? The media tells us they do, like India is how as noisy yet colourful, while Japan is shown as technologically advanced even in the most normal and mundane objects. Something that made me reflect upon this happened in Germany. 

And we begin...

When you have time, your mind wanders and when you have a husband like mine, it's mostly chatter chatter chatter from my end and him quietly nodding to my genius. Jokes apart, this is a story about when we were flying out of Germany, the Frankfurt airport was empty as an airport  can be at 3 am. We were drowsy, but still excited. After clearing security, we walked around in the airport only to discover there were hardly any shops, none of which were open. Such a stark difference from the one we'd just flown out of, Chicago.

A weird thought hit me, are all airports representative of the people there? The Frankfurt airport was easily a representation about all things we consider German. It was clean, grey, superbly functional, it was working with machine like precision. The industrial decor is hard to miss, the White and Grey tiles are easy to walk on and the trains are on the dot to the very last millisecond. The salty pretzels were big in size (like breakfast should be) it was packed in a way that you could carry it easily, so was the coffee. The lady setting up her store asked me if I'd like a beer. That's how stereotypically German it was.. It got me thinking about all the other airports and it struck me! All the airports I had been too, or at least seen pictures of were in some ways a representation of the people that lived there. Another instance was Paris, when you say Paris -fashion is the first things that pops into my head, that and romance... Everybody that I saw at the airport was probably a super model -not even joking. The entire place was done up beautiful, huge stores of all kinds, big brands lined up, beautiful cafes, a spot of green here and there, carpets to welcome you and a general feeling of glam. 

The Chicago airport, embracing all it's Americaness was shop after shop.. Lots of food and carried a more casual air to it, not to forget a big dinosaur. The Vegas airport had slot machines, after all, Vegas is gambling haven! When I reached Bangalore, my idea that airports try their best to embrace the values of that place or country really cemented, the Bangalore airport was firstly smelling of amazing sambar and some masalas, other than that the music, the bright red colour, the warm lights, the general noisiness really painted the image of India. 

I don't believe in stereotypes, but I do enjoy noticing patterns in the otherwise mundane. Hey! If you don't think airports represent the general stereotypes of the country, please tell me. This was just a fun observation for me from the few airports I saw, doesn't have to be true
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Representative image because I didn't take any at the airport.
*I will be travelling over the next few days, if I haven't commented on your blog; I promise to do as at the earliest* :D

8 comments:

  1. The things of a place are always a representatives of the people there in some way or the other, isn't it? Nice observations.

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  3. A very interesting perspective. I have never looked at the airports this way but from here on I am going to look around for clues just like you wonderfully highlighted.

    My Era @theerailivedin
    The Era I Lived In

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  4. Yes probably the authorities make it a point to imbibe the local flavour into the airport decor considering the number of people transiting through. They can get a micro glimpse of what the city is about...
    Enjoy your travels!
    @yenforblue from
    Spice of Life!

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  5. Hi Maggie, wow you have travelled quite a bit! You are right, airports do present a preview of what the world outside it is like!
    The Australian airport is strapped of staff, a tad snobbish and by 7 p.m its empty, people have lives outside work after all! Go figure!
    @KalaRavi16 from
    Relax-N-Rave

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  6. Hehe crazy observations :p
    But like them all.


    @dixita011 from
    Cafenined words

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  7. That's a very interesting observation! I'd never thought about it like this, but now that you mention it...hmm...it is!!

    Cheers!
    Modern Gypsy

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