Aasma Tulika

(colour: #696969)[I went for a walk one evening from Jisr el Wati. Walked towards the General Security building. I used Google Maps to find the [[route->route]] so that I don’t get lost.]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ I followed directions which led me to a [[security gate->securitygate]] guarded by army men. Google Maps had routed my path through a military zone.]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ I wasn’t allowed. One of the guards was curious to talk to me though. He started a conversation. Joked about whether I had reached Beirut by walking all the way from India... I said no...obviously. So, he asked if I came by (link-reveal: "plane")[(display: 'plane')] and then laughed rhetorically. I said yes...obviously. He asked me why I came to Beirut. They seemed to know about Ashkal Alwan, and got excited- gesturing as though paintng a canvas. “Artist, eh?” Did I bite my lip and say yes[[?->cctv]]]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ I tried to look for CCTV cameras around to see if all this was being recorded. Or did I? Can't remember.] <img src="https://thisisherefornow.net/fornow/walk/assets/cctv.jpeg"> (colour: #696969)[I was hurriedly ushered away from the gate and was told to follow another road which would take me where I wanted. In the end he said- “Google doesn’t know. I know. I will show you the [[way->walkaway]]. Once upon a time Google would have been right about this route, but this zone is not open to the public anymore.”]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ I walked away, crossed the main [[road->road]], and proceeded towards the other end of the military zone, where there was [[another gate->conversation2]].]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ This guard was a lot more stern. This time, I told him I wanted to get to Furn el Shabak and showed the map indicating the path he'd been guarding. His response to my question was, “Why do you want to go? You want to go to prison?” I thought I misheard him. He repeated it several times. I said no, I want to go to Furn el Shabak. He eventually gave up. Another guard guided me through an alternate route. I said thank you? ...and decided to end my walk. I [[returned->smokingroom]] to Jisr el Wati. ]

==><== (colour: #696969)[ I sat in the smoking room, carefully toggling off the recording function on my phone. Watched the screen recording of my movement on the map and audio recordings of the conversations I had had with the men, wondering how I would remember this walk if I hadn't decided to record it. <img src="https://thisisherefornow.net/fornow/walk/assets/metadata.gif" style="width:100%"> [[Want to go through this again?->Untitled Passage]] or (link:"try the route out for yourself?")[(gotoURL:"https://bit.ly/3cRNJrI")]]

==><== (colour: #696969)[Can’t remember what the gate looked like. Was it grey or green? Did it have a wire mesh[[?->conversation1]]] <img src="https://thisisherefornow.net/fornow/walk/assets/securitygate_large.png"style="width:100%">

==><== <img src="https://thisisherefornow.net/fornow/walk/assets/road_large.png"style="position: absolute; right: 100%"> [[back->walkaway]]

==><== <img src="https://thisisherefornow.net/fornow/walk/assets/aeroplane.jpeg"style="position: absolute; left: 170%">

[[A HYPER LINKED WALK->Untitled Passage]] (colour: #3b3b3b)[(All images are artificially generated recollections of a vague visual memory.)]