[Reader-list] Sarai posting 2

[Subhajit Chatterjee]

Sarai posting 2

(All names have been changed to protect identity of the narrators.)

I would like to start off by taking up some conceptual frameworks within which my research is to be located. My primary concern is the ways in which urban space in Kolkata is used for purposes pertaining to the realm of romance and intimacy. But before charting histories of particular spaces and the city in general one should reflect on the actual mapping on the city in terms of the perspectives of such users of urban space.
I would imagine that Michel de Certeau's article on 'Walking in the City would be helpful start of with , particularly his contrast between two perspectives on city space : the impersonal cartographic gaze  that envisions the city as an architecture and the outward gaze of the inhabitants who 'live'the city day in and out. The pedestrian's gaze one might say if one were to be concerned simply with walking . In fact Certeau's text does immediately remind me of Midnight Cowboy and the whole  technology of looking at  New York from 'down below' in the streets.But I would like to interpret Certeau's notion of walking as a metaphoric concept embodying practices that go beyond the act of walking.
Let's come back to the point after considering an example from my own memory. Years ago there used to be an amorous couple , friends of mine who used to meet up almost every evening to walk. If you happened to be passing through the area near Gariahat you could not have missed the pair, boy , girl and a cat on the girl's lap ,walking down the lanes , circling around the neighborhood passing people, building , cars, shops 
.all  the while talking , till they reached back at the point of origin to wish each other off from the day. Years have passed now, almost a decade gone ,  but going down that road in most evenings I still see the woman walking with the cat on her lap, walking alone now for her boyfriend as I personally know has walked off to a different register of life. The boy in question has been a heroin addict for the last few years struggling through the procedure of 'rehab' , mostly unsuccessful ones which lead you back to the same road. Yes , literally down the same road , for as I saw her walking with a gloom suspended over her face , I could almost visualize the boy walking down the road ,  meet the dealer , craving for the next 'hit' and worrying over  future ones. What is involved in such everyday stories however sensational they might be? How does one locate this act of walking in social terms? Is 'walking' in itself a subversive activity? What relation does walking have to our imaginary of public space?
I would like to use 'walking' as a concept that is the paradigm case for inhabiting the city. Of course the couple in question were not only walking literally, they must also have stopped, sat etc. and then even while walking they were symbolically doing something more. What is the significance of the fact of articulation of a most intimate exchange in a space that is explicitly public? 'Walking' in this sense is a journey through urban or semi urban spaces , journeys that have no destination or objective other than itself. It has a relationship to ways in which public spaces are claimed or used for purposes that are legally or socially unsanctioned. Whether this in itself constitutes any sort of subversion is another matter about which we would have to think further.
Courtship as we all know are practiced in various sorts of manner and do have intricate complimentary commercial networks ranging from cinema halls, restaurants, cafes and card shops, gift galleries. In metro cities today dating is a major target for circulation of carefully constructed products. But 'walking' still happens to one of the amorous practices, perhaps of a somewhat archaic kind given the contemporary 'erotechnics' that permeate city spaces. In Kolkata at least, it is still a predominant mode of courtship particularly for the middle classes. From an economic angle for lower middle class citizens 'walking' does form a solution to the financial limits that threaten to dissolve private lives. Such 'archaic' (from the point of view of global cosmopolitanism) activities are of course complimented by comparably archaic network of street workers particularly sellers of various chats, the most popular in Kolkata being the 'phuchka'. 
The matter of course is more complicated, for it is not the economic angle that influences people to walk, the purchasing power of the Indian middle class does not require them to take recourse to walking and cheap food. It is in most cases a matter of choice. Today it would be difficult to imagine whether such an activity could have been a part of a rural or pre modern culture.People very well might have walked but what is specific with the kind of walking  I'm talking about is the nature of anonymity involved. 
Secondly I'mn not claiming any specificity of this method of courtship in Kolkata for the way in which I use'walking' as a concept operates in other Indian  contexts as well.
I had conducted oral discussions with two men from Kerala who had interesting stories to tell about such notions of 'walking.' Manoj and Ajay belong to middle class families  from different ditricts in Kerala and are both within the age range 25-30. Manoj used to court his girlfriend mainly in the universities but he claims that in towns of Kerala one is always generally recognised by people who in most cases would probably also know your family. So they uesd to take a bus ride in the afternoon from Calicut to Tellichery which is about a 2 hour ride. Now this ride was not visit Tellichery but rather to spend time with each other in a space where you would be anonimous. It  was the journey itself that was important for them. They would have to catch a bus again as soon as they reached for there were as usual time restrictions particularly for the girl. Once as Manoj reported they were disheartened, as they had to catch a bus back and did not get two seats side by side . Ajay has had similar experiences and claims that sometimes ever train rides happen to be important venues for flowering of romance. Foe eg. Many times he has travelled from Calicut to Pattambi which is about 2 and a half hour train ride. But as he points out that sometimes they even failed to achieve the desirable anonymity. Once while they 'sweettalking' in a bus they realized that the whole bus was looking at them trying to pry into the conversation which lost all its intent at such a moment.In fact Ajay has one more funny story to tell about Kannur where he comes from. A friend of his, failing to obtain a private space for a romantic conversation went to the Employment Exchange with his girlfriend ,where amidst all the busy schedules they would just sit in some corner. Nobody would notice them precisely because of the nature and purpose of the space. But after two three days some workers sensed their logic and instantly drove them out. 
I wish to look at similar instances and experiences primarily in Kolkata  but also in other places as well  I will try to understand  their social , legal aspects and ways in which  the theme of romancing (in) the city figures in popular representations like film and literature. I will be using interviews, oral narratives to locate a particular ongoing struggle to obtain render public spaces private. I believe that the logic is not simply about the empirical fact of unavailability of space but has more complex social and psychic resonance that have to do with ideas of urban space and citizenship.

Reference: Michel de Certeau, 'Walking in the City' in Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley, California, University of California Press,
1984.

Comments, suggestions, criticisms are welcome. I would also appreciate if any one has stories or materials that might relate my field.

Subhajit Chatterjee