One of Those Moments

At lunchtime today in the city I wished I'd had my camera on hand to record the juxtaposition of two disparate forces on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets outside the old GPO.

There was a rather portly woman, dressed in a glittering costume, belly dancing for money to sensual middle eastern music, by the Public Purse. A group of Hare Krishnas came tink, tink, tinkling across the road from the opposite corner. They bobbed, swayed, tinkled and chanted their way past the fat belly dancer. She abandoned her own music and belly danced to the Hare Krishna beat. The Hares smiled blandly & benignly and took the opportunity to distribute literature to those of us waiting the tram. I was handed a card which told me if I chanted the Hare Krishna mantra, my life would be sublime.

It was one of those moments in the city which made me glad to be a Melbournian and also reminded me of a cartoon by Michael Leunig, Melbourne's treasured cartoonist. (see picture below - click to enlarge).

There is something absurd and charming about the cartoon. Today's small snapshot of life in the city had the same nuance as the cartoon.