[Reader-list] One Sunday in a City

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

6th March 2005

This morning ...

Today is a Sunday. And there is a public meeting today. The public meeting
is about the Supreme Court Judgment on the hawkers, the hearing of which
is likely to take place in April. CitiSpace has organized the meeting and
the 'public' has been invited to attend.

At the meeting, we are being thanked for sacrificing our Sunday and for
coming to the meeting. The 'public' consists of people holding residences
in the Western Suburbs and who are completely fed up with the hawkers. We
are each being educated about our rights as 'citizens'. And while there is
a lot of talk about rights and awareness, I think about the rights of
hawkers and whether they are citizens at all. How did citizenship first
emerge? Who are considered citizens and who are not citizens? Why are
citizens call citizens and not nationzens of statezens?

Ms. Punj, one of the convenors of CitiSpace addresses the issue of
hawkers. "They threaten us. They encroach on our compound walls and a wall
is private property. They are a nuisance." The term nuisance is a
prominent term in urban talk. Everybody complains of the nuisance that
hakwers are, squatters are, beggars are, street children are - N for
Nuisance! We are told of how public space is being encroached by hawkers
and how we must protect our public spaces.

While the meeting is proceeding and Frequently Asked Questions about
rights, hawkers and property are being addressed for the benefit of all, I
start to look around and analyze the virtuous public that has sacrificed
its Sunday and come to this meeting. Around me are some familiar faces and
some unknown. While the organizers are spreading awareness and talking
about rights, men and women in the crowds are socializing with each other.
This appears to be an upper middle class crowd. As I watch people mingle
and exchange "Oh hello's" and "Hey, hi's", I think that Page 3 is not a
phenomenon of just the rich, famous and glamorous. It pervades practically
all of the middle class. Page 3, to me, is 'socializing', 'networking',
and 'making contacts', with economic and political connotations. Being an
'active citizen' is a part of the package of Page 3 - the aware citizen
and the citizen who participates in the politics of the locality and
cleans it up.

The meeting ends after a while. We have been asked to photograph hawkers
near our homes. Photographs are strong proofs which shall be presented in
the courts in favour of eviction of hawkers.

As I walk out of the meeting, I think about 'democracy', the problematic
notions of 'public space' and 'representation'. CitiSpace is soon becoming
a 'representative' of the publics, a protector of 'public spaces'. What
are the criteria to be representative of publics? Can a representative
represent all of the diverse publics?


This evening ...

This evening, just like yesterday, I am writing down the people who I see
at Nariman Point.
Two security guards
One boy trying hard to kiss his girl
One guy trying hard to photograph his girl
Two girl friends
Three men - dressed in Western casuals
Two men in Maharashtrian casuals
One womanish girl with a manly man
One simple-ly dressed boy with rubber chappals
Three 'gujju' chokras (Gujrati boys)
One chana jor garam seller
One regular tea-coffee seller
One huge crane lifting rocks and stones and throwing them in the sea
One man, looking lost, walking slowly and lazily
One couple - man pensive, woman contented
One man
Two men
Two men
One elderly man
One elderly couple, walking at a distance from each other and the coming
together
One youngish mother with her son
One old man in shorts, walking
One man with a large blue plastic bag
Two heavy busted and hipped women
A flurry of 'worker-like' men
One man with his two children by his side and his wife, sindoor-clad,
walking behind
One burkha clad woman with her man
One Oriental looking man walking

There are seven-eight pages of records of people I saw at the promenade
today. But an interesting thing that happened while I was making these
notes was that a young boy and young girl were walking around the
promenade. The boy had a camera in hand and he would approach people, say
something to them, ask to stand against the sun and then the girl would
ask some questions. I thought they were video-shooting for something,
maybe a student film or some such thing. They approached me and asked if I
would talk with them. I asked, "Who are you? What are you doing?" "We are
researching here," the boy said to me, adding, "We are doing a survey for
the State Bank of India and asking people about their views on the bank."
I asked again, "Why here?" He responded, "Because you get all kinds of
people here - a cross section." He then went on to interview and ask me
about the bank.

As he finished, I started to ask myself does a public space have a single
homogenous use? Does public who must use the space be defined? What kind
of a public space is Nariman Point?

As I walked ahead, the Sunday crowd was all over. They come from all parts
of the city and also all parts of the country. I walked backwards, from
where I had started. The duo were still doing their filming. They sat down
after a while I spoke with them and told them how I was researching
Nariman Point. The boy said to me, "This place gives me serenity. I feel
calm here. Come here once in a month or so." What does the promenade mean
to him?

Limmerick of the Day
The day was long and went on and on. Ultimately, along with some friends,
I sat down at the Chowpatty beach. A hawker was selling paan. He talked a
lot and we asked him where he came from and how he feels at the beach. "I
am from Madhya Pradesh," he replied, adding, "hafta kills. Everybody must
be paid hafta." And then he went on to say his limmerick which is:

Pheri ka dhanda hai
Phansi ka fanda hai
Har jagah dekho
Sab taraf hafta hi hafta hai!

i.e. Business of hawking,
Like a noose in the neck
Look around everywhere,
Its all about bribery!


Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html