Replicate

26th August 2024, Asan Barrage

A-Frame houses more suitable for the Swiss Alps find themselves far from home. There is of course the cursory connection of mountain cultures binding high living folks from Europe to those of Asia. To me, it is just a photogenic photo opportunity but the urge to design a barrage-side tourist lodge on the lines of Swiss chalets is beyond my understanding. Along the edges of the Asan Barrage where thousands of winged European tourists congregate, I have always found this tourist lodge devoid of tourists of any sort. While the chai and pakoda continue to be good each year, I can see the disuse creep in slowly but surely. In the lap of the Himalayas, an attempt to become a tourist magnet seems to have gone wrong. One suspects that originality of solution was not the priority here but it was blind replication.