[Reader-list] Thinking Freedom

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Thinking Freedom

These days, the person most on my mind is Santosh Yadav, the chanawala at
the Marine Drive promenade. Santoshji and I had gradually become known to
each other – he watching me regularly and I seeing him regularly on the
promenade. Our interactions began with smiles, then short chit-chats and
on the last day when I met him, we had a pretty long conversation where he
also introduced me to his cousins who were selling sing-chana at Marine
Drive. On that day, Santoshji spoke with me about his lifestyle. “I come
to the promenade at 4 PM in the evening and am here till 10 PM. I earn
enough money and am able to save about five to six thousand rupees a
month. I sleep behind the Express Towers. Mornings are for myself. Life is
good. Today, a lady from this area offered me a job. She says I will be
treated well and the salary is also good. I shall go and see how it is
there and then decide.”
Santoshji was recounting how life had become tough for him with the
surveillance daily from the Municipality, preventing him from doing dhanda
on the promenade. I don’t see him anymore. And perhaps he has taken up the
job that was offered to him, not because he wanted to trade his freedom
for a regular job, but because the very conditions of freedom for him to
do business are increasingly being curbed by the state and he was clear
that soon, hawkers would be evicted completely from the Marine Drive
promenade.

I have narrated Santoshji’s story on my blog before, but these days, my
thoughts are wavering on the ideas of freedom and in this regard, I miss
Santoshji immensely. Santoshji, when he had spoken to me about his
lifestyle, appeared satisfied with the way life was for him. He had no
qualms about sleeping behind Express Towers and was happy to save enough
money to send to home at the end of the month. Living on a day-to-day
basis has perhaps been life for him – not intensely speculating about the
future, the concerns of security which haunt our culture.

While thinking freedom, I remember also this vivid picture at Marine Drive
one evening. I was waiting for Rads outside Pizzeria. Opposite the
restaurant were two beggar girls, one beggar woman and two beggar boys. Of
the two girls, one was about three to four years old. She was an amazing
girl, completely relaxed and basking in the sun. She was lying down, her
head on the pavement and one foot on top of the other, swaying the free
leg in the air. After a while, she got up and the other girl and she began
dancing. I was too tempted to remove my camera and shoot some pictures of
the sight – the freedom in their dance, in the little girl’s mannerisms
was too tempting for me. But I hesitated, lest my camera bring in pretense
or consciousness.
As I think of the girl, I begin to also recollect practices in the local
trains these days. Children often come begging in the ladies compartment.
Day before yesterday, two ladies in the compartment were lecturing the
beggar boys to find jobs in restaurants – “so many children are studying
in school in the day and working in restaurants at night. Go seek some job
like that instead of begging.” This kind of didactic lecturing is not
novel to beggar children and drug addict children these days. I hear these
repeatedly, from my own friends and kith and kin. Why does our culture
reprimand begging? Is it wrong for some people to be dependent on society
and for them to lead their lives the way they want to? What is it that
disturbs our society about beggars, drug addicts, etc.?

While I write these words and articulate my own thoughts on freedom, I am
likely to be criticized about not caring for the poor and being taken up
their overt conditions. I am confirming my own thoughts on freedom whereby
I don’t want state intervention in my life as well as interventions
necessarily from organizations with good intentions to help the poor.

When I look at conditions in the city presently, undoubtedly there are
strong attempts at homogenizing lifestyles and in this respect, cultures.
Management style bureaucracy and ‘place branding’ are today’s mantra.
Underlying these notions is the desire for control. The state wishes to
bring loose spaces under its control, to curb business practices of
unorganized economy because everything must be brought under central
control. I am not meaning to present the idea and practice of control in a
condemning manner, but am questioning the very sustainability of practices
of control. Is that how life works – through centralized control?

As I think of Santosh Yadav and the little girl who was dancing opposite
Pizzeria, my mind also wanders towards ideas of security for which we are
each struggling and aspiring – purchasing property, fixed deposits, bonds,
loans, assets, etc. Is this where true security lies?

In my experiences as a researcher, I realize that ‘leap of faith’ is a
difficult notion for all. But I am convinced for myself that my survival
is guaranteed by the relationships which I am constructing and developing
with people. Maybe that’s the way life works as well 



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