The underrated joys of loitering
City streets have the ability to cheer you up in the most unexpected ways
Watching Roadrunn er: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021) reminded me of what I loved most about the man – his openness to unfamiliar people and experiences, and willingness to change his mind about both. Guided by a sense of curiosity and adventure, his food and travel shows were often not about food or travel at all. They could plunge into poetry or tackle politics, depending on which way the path curved. The road has this way of challenging what you think you know and feel about the world, and he took up the challenge with both courage and playfulness.
Freud and Einstein walk into a promenade
We can’t all have the skills and charm of Bourdain, but the street doesn’t discriminate. Social encounters in public spaces might not be one of the pandemic’s most discussed deprivations, but it’s a thing, I promise. Now that we’re in a phase where street life has been reasonably restored, I find myself drinking it all in hungrily each morning. I look forward to the jaunty greeting from the friend who rides his bike with a philosophical leisureliness. Gawk unabashedly at the tireless runners whom I irrationally loathe. Smile inwardly at the Freud and Einstein lookalikes I encounter up and down the promenade. And make mental notes about fashion trends that I will never use except in conversation.
In this and every other respect, I betray my city leanings. It’s natural to shun the noise and drama of crammed urban spaces for cleaner surroundings every now and then. But the energy and possibility of metropolises have me forever hooked. The constant ticking of a city road – from the morning clatter of waste collection trucks to the late night TikTok-ing on the watchman’s phone – is addictive. The city doesn’t care if you’re asleep at 3pm or awake at 3am. Whatever works.
No loafing, please
“Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ or ‘loafer’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life” says the Tate Gallery website about the art term that applies to so many Insta storytellers. We post pictures of valiant bridges straddling stormy seas. Capture corny street signs that amuse. Caption auto rickshaw rides and set them to the music playing in our head for likes. “Mumbai hamaari mehbooba hai…” [Mumbai is my beloved] says the ageing don Abbaji in Maqbool, Vishal Bhardwaj’s haunting adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I can’t say I share much with the pan-chewing version of Duncan I of Scotland, but in matters of romance, we seem to have a lot in common.
Loafing and loitering are two of humanity’s great unsung activities, followed closely by napping. But even these simple pleasures are under threat from the productivity brigade. If you’re a writer, for instance, even a simple stroll is supposed to launch a dozen ideas that must be conscientiously documented in a series of coruscating stories that will eventually be adapted for the screen. A walk for walk’s sake?! What kind of a writer would allow themselves that indulgence? Might I remind the zealots that a flâneuse promises nothing but attention and reflection. I’d fish out our manifesto for your kind perusal, but that’s such an un-flâneuse-like thing to do.
LOAFING AND LOITERING ARE TWO OF HUMANITY’S GREAT UNSUNG ACTIVITIES, FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY NAPPING. BUT EVEN THESE SIMPLE PLEASURES ARE UNDER THREAT FROM THE PRODUCTIVITY BRIGADE
A cook’s tour
There are, of course, the many eyesores that afflict urban spaces, not least the art commissioned to beautify them, like the recently launched 17-foot high tribute to frontline workers at the Linking Road and SV Road junction in Bandra. Not only are they fighting the virus, these admirable humans are now unwitting casualties in the battle against good taste. And we, the public for whom such art is ostensibly designed, have had to develop a strong immunity to hideous sights as self-protection.
But, of course, there’s beauty everywhere in cities; just not the kind they teach you to appreciate in design school. To surrender to the street is to surrender to surprise. It is to vicariously join in the raucous friendship of auto drivers conducting questionable driving manoeuvres to align their vehicles. To be reminded by brilliantly-lit billboards how little you want any of the things they’re peddling. And to be floored by a chance meeting with a beloved traveller like Bourdain at your hometown airport – a memory you will always cherish..