It was sakura season again and since I couldn’t go to Japan to partake in the festive but calm ritual, I went to the Shanghai Botanical Gardens instead. There were a few of those there. Too few for the hordes of holiday people. The few that were there, were planted and positioned without much forethought as to how they could be enjoyed. They were simply collected in the vast park, like holiday souvenirs. Many people were posing for photos like tourists of the rare and exotic. As they posed for the camera, they seemed completely oblivious to the world around them. It was as if they were in a cocoon. In a densely populated city, we imagine this is one way to deal with the company of strangers around us. Further, like cocoons, one’s environment would be smattered into many isolated parts. Easier the world could be reduced to isolated objects, objectivified to be made more comprehensible.

This evening when a well-dressed lady walked briskly past with her open umbrella, narrowly missing my good eye, I break into a smile and think of cocoons.