What is it about fingerprints on the walls that make people gush about the authenticity of it all? Some people call it creative and artistic too! I could never understand this. More like hand prints, of human hands dipped in a paint or pigment and the entire Imprint on a Wall, these are not great visuals - my first impression is that of a crime scene that needs a quick investigation followed by some serious shaming.

There is nothing so pure or artsy about them. I am not complaining about how some people have abused heritage sites with this irresistible urge to leave their imprints all over these places of cultural or religious greatness - instead, I am talking about my failure to really interpret what makes this such a lovable thing to do.

No one has majestically different hands whose imprints will create a Picasso-niche imprint. Most of these will be scratched away or painted out some day. Some vacationers tend to think of these hand imprinting exercise as a very anthropological way of marking their territory or adding that family aura to something that only a society or community actually owns. However, nothing of the sorts is the reality. Imprinting your hand over anything, often creating smudges, is no art!