Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

I’ve written a lot recently about the concept of geognitive dissonance: geography-induced cognitive dissonance. These are moments when the supposed linearity of space gets warped, and you experience a non-contiguous geography. Times when your senses mix, and vision defers to more subtle, powerful experiences of taste, touch, smell that break at the seams of our notion of objective space. Basically, geognitive dissonance is when you’re in one place, but something causes you to feel like you’re in another place, a place you’ve been before and know quite well.

I realize that I’ve inadvertently written about geognitive dissonance many times without naming it as such.

I’ve written about how the sweet-stale subway scent in Berlin transported me to Toronto’s TTC;

I wrote about closing my eyes on Toronto BIXIs, and feeling as if I were on a bike I got to know in Montreal;

I explored the proliferation of heterogenous big box architecture…

Here are some fascinating images of Hong Kong’s density by Michael Wolf. They appear in their original context here, and he has a (costly) book on the subject as well…

Dear Wannabe/Seasoned Molester and Rapist,

I will address you as pig in this post. I know that the pigs will be angry but I will personally say sorry to them.

Dear Pig,
I was very young when I saw my mother braving you in a bus. You were middle-aged and were leaning on her, rubbing your crotch on her shoulder. She was sitting on the ladies seat and politely asked you to step back. When you ignored her numerous times, she lost it and shouted at you – ‘Step back or I will slap you.’ Everyone in the bus looked at you. You stepped back.
I was a boy aged 7-8 years but I remember looking at you with hatred in my eyes. I still remember your face.

Then my sister told me about another one of your ilk. She was returning from a wedding with mom. A car was…