[Reader-list] re: the act of leisure

Sun Nov 28 21:00:12 IST 2004

Dear Iram,

I was aware of the incident at CC but had not given it a serious thought 
until i read your posting. Let me explain why.

Apparently your main accusation against the cop is not that he asked our 
friends to leave but that he was photographing them against their 
knowledge.If so, let me venture to say that ,that is something we are all 
guilty of.I think it is far more revealing to photograph people in informal 
settings, when they are unaware of it. Our celebrated media revels in it.How 
many times have we seen a Outlook or India Today capturing perfectly law 
abiding citizens in slightly uncomfortable and uncompromising situations?

Starlets kissing, teenagers holding hands in Lodhi gardens..and so on.Havent 
we all resorted to a certain dubiousness of means while shooting 
documentaries or EFP’s?At least the cops usually will not (dare not), 
publicize their material.We can sue them if they try.That is not to say that 
I am defending the Delhi Police.Surely not! Our policemen are often 
uncooperative and sometimes a downright nuisance. However it is unfair to 
paint them entirely in black based on one incident.

What I do not understand is what the aforementioned incident has to do with 
leisure. If that dumb cops’s point was to prevent people from hanging around 
after midnight then maybe there is some justification to it.Delhi is after 
all notorious for its late night crimes and coupled with the security threat 
is enough to make our callous authorities paranoid and even overreact
perhaps. I think you are equating the concept of leisure with the freedom to 
move around.

The point is that society at large ( my family included )
will simply not be able to comprehend what we gained by strolling around 
late nights at CC, doing nothing in particular.There’s nothing wrong with 
that per se, its just that it does not fit in with societies concept of 
leisure. Of course if you are shooting late at night at CC , then the cops
don’t bother, it’s a hard nights work after all!(I speak from personal 
experience).

Leisure to my mind is entirely contextual..Leisure in the private sector is 
often a part of official policy. They are recreations formulated by the HR 
in an organization to help the employees de-stress and unwind , so that they 
can perform better and increase productivity. My friend who is working in 
American Express was asked to go to a resort in Rajasthan for a few days, as 
a ‘change of scene’.Any refusal to go would be met with frowns and 
disapproval.Another friend in TOI has a compulsory yoga session in the 
mornings on weekdays, due to which he has to reach office one hour 
earlier.Ad agencies are hosting an interoffice cricket tournament, with 
match practice on weekends,most schools have their own Extra Curricular
Activities after school hours..the list is endless.

Psychologists argue that such activities are necessary to broaden an 
employee’s horizon and keep him/her alert. Undoubtedly there are many who 
will consider this too as an invasion of privacy and examples of needless 
regulation.Thus its pretty clear that it is not the state alone which 
decides what leisure should consist of; rather every group, community or 
even society have their own conception of leisure which those outside the 
group may not approve of. One cannot have uninhibited freedom in a society 
bound by rules.

And what about our immediate families? We may( and do) consider boozing late 
nights at CC as leisure, but both cops and our families will be in complete 
agreement, that it is an unwanted, destructive habit. Thus don’t our loved 
ones contribute to stereotypical notions of leisure as well? The authorities 
do what they do because they know that they have both legal and sociological 
sanction behind it.The solution is simple.You cannot change the state if you 
don’t change the mindset...

aniruddha b

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