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What’s common between these two institutions—the state and the family? Their love for order and control, perhaps—both these institutions dislike indiscipline and chaos. Their propensity to impose norms and regulations, may be—both these institutions disregard anarchy and anomaly. And their tendency to regulate private property—both these institutions lay strict rules of procuring and transferring property. Hence the fascination with locks and limits—to prohibit entry or exit of the intruders. Who has access or who does not—is not a casual question, at all. Hence the inventions of doors and latches, in the first place.

While taking a morning-stroll in one of the frontier-villages of the Indian state, I was surprised by the variation of door and its latches. The granaries in Chitkul-village had a wide range of locks and latches of different sizes, colors and materials. The backdrop of seasoned and textured wood, added a rich backdrop to these lock and latches. No, I did not knock any one of those to ask anything about them. There are times, when an enquiry is insignificant to aimless wandering and chancing upon things. There could be a rationale behind the being of everything in this world. But bother to interpret every little thing.

 

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Dr. Sreedeep Bhattacharya is a fellow and associate professor in C-PACT, Shiv Nadar University. As a sociologist and as a photographer, he engages with various aspects of the contemporary material, visual, and popular cultures. He is a regular in Bengali dailies like ‘Ei Samai’ and ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ and his book ‘Flirting with Things and Images: Ephemeral Consumerist Encounters’ has been published by the Oxford University Press (2020).