[Reader-list] Regularity

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Jaunts on Regularity / Regularity Jaunts

Street lights emitting an orange glow are still keeping the city aglow.
It’s a bit chilly. The sky is foggy. There is a semblance of winter in
this city of dust, grime, heat and dreams.
(Time: 7 AM)

I set out to explore notions of locality and regularity through the local
train network this morning (and soon I may become one of the regulars, of
the regularity regime which provides a framework for existence in the
city).

I walk down the streets. Coming from the front is a short smiling man
dressed in black athletic clothes. I realize he is the watch guard of our
building, Kadam. Soon he will wear his uniform and settle in his regular
regime.
(Uniforms and the city 
 name tags 
 regularity 
)

I walk past the pavement market of Byculla. I nearly trample over a little
flyer on which are pictures of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and a bearded man,
smiling, and advocating inter-faith harmony. I somehow cannot care for
inter-faith harmony right now because I am in a rush to board the train

(like some of the millions in the city who are too involved in the
everyday business of travel-work-travel-home – cannot miss the train!!!).

As I walk down, I notice that the pavement dwellers are still asleep
(and I wonder about their notions and practices of regularity).

I see a woman who has cuddled up in her own body and has made enough space
on the hessian mattress for a roadside dog (who is a regular there).

I now understand what the term squatting means. And I realize that
squatting is not something which only pavement dwellers, hawkers and slum
dwellers indulge in. Squatting is also a mental phenomenon. ‘Citizens’ and
‘commuters’ squat in the local trains. Mr. Lalchandani and his family
squat in their little house in Marine Drive. I squat in my one-bedroom
house with my parents. At every moment, we are squatting, negotiating,
transforming and producing space, irrespective of whether the space is
public, private or personal. Yet, I can’t seem to understand what makes us
so harsh towards slum dwellers, pavement dwellers and hawkers? What is it
about them or their lifestyle which irks us, bothers us, disgusts us (and
produces conflicts over rights and space)?

Design and Space – transforming regularity and negotiations over space
At Byculla railway station, the train arrives. It is the ‘new train’ where
seats are meant for two persons and there is ample standing space. The
design of the train is somewhat like the modern metro, except that the
doors are perpetually open in this case. The women are kind of surprised
at this design (and cleanliness of the train). There is a mental
readjustment to space. Somehow, I am accustomed to the old design which is
dark and mundane. The space in the older design is intimate and the
negotiations for space are tough. The older design also provides an added
sense of anonymity which the new design does not afford. Too much standing
space is not what commuters are used to. The confusion in the mind (and in
the biological patterns of regularity) is how to use the extensive passage
space, how to organize, how to negotiate (and women just want to sit
because they enter the trains tired in the morning after performance of
morning chores).

At each station, women who enter the compartment are a bit frazzled and
surprised before they settle down (shifts in regularity 
). At Dadar
Station, vendor women enter the train. An old woman is too surprised at
the design of the train. She is amazed, befuddled and in awe.
Gaadi ata peeshal jhaali (Train has become special)
She continued moving about, wondering where to settle down.
Gaadi ata english vatayla lagli (Train appears to have become English),
she said loudly.
Ultimately, she settled down in one corner near the door.

The metal handles in the train are bright, sparkling white metal. But they
are a bit too high to reach. Amidst the open passage space, I can watch
women engaged in their everyday activities.
Students are studying.
Some women are listening to cell phone radio.
Some are just there, watching around here and there, as and when.
One woman in front of me is reading her prayer book. The nail paint on her
fingers is scratched out. She is concentrated and focused on her prayers
(praying being one of the critical nuances of regularity framework among a
segment of women on the trains).
(The one sitting next to her is peering inside her prayer book, perhaps as
a confirmation of her faith!)
And then there are some of us who are thinking, indulged in existential
angst.
The woman in front of me has a somber and grim look, but it appears that a
flurry of thoughts are flowing below the exterior.
I am thinking of the guy in my life presently.
The praying woman who is now finished with prayers has a calm exterior
over her.
A thought crosses my mind – does the framework of regularity provide a
calm, superficial exterior? What happens when this exterior is disturbed?
What happens when violence hits the city? What are the phenomena of
violence in the city?
(I am itching for answers 
)

Glass Dreams
One hawker enters the compartment. She is selling food stuff. She makes
her first sale and brings out her pursue from her blouse. She touches the
ten rupee note on her forehead, suggesting the auspiciousness of the first
sale of the day. I am watching her. She looks at me and smiles, justifying
her action. I smile back, in confirmation.
A bangle seller steps in. Very tempting bangles! I purchase a feminine
glass dream of two sky blue bangles and two sea blue bangles – they now
adorn my hands! A trend has been set. The woman sitting diagonally
opposite me indulges in her feminine glass dream – two red bangles and two
black ones. But she has a hundred rupee note and the bangle seller has no
change money. I wonder whether the glass dreams will be shattered or will
be left incomplete today. The woman holds on to the bangles and requests
for change among passengers. The bangle seller is also requesting change
among passengers. A passenger offers change to the bangle seller and one
offers change to the female. The dream is sustained. She puts the bangles
back in her purse, but she takes a last look at them. She is pressing a
smile. She is contended. I wonder whether she is thinking of her lover who
she will charm with her glass dreams. A little joy in the midst of
regularity 

(Glass dreams – happiness – Price: Rs. 10/-)
(This city and its systems are still somehow managing to fulfill our
fantasies, dreams and aspirations)
(Glass dreams – desires – Price: Rs. 10/-)
(Glass dreams – for sale – Price: Rs. 10/-)
(Glass dreams – chiming – Price: Rs. 10/-)

Return Journey – Train Groups – Musings on Locality, Regularity and
Cosmopolitanism
(Time: 8:10 AM)
I got off at Thane Station. I boarded a train bound for CST junction
starting from Thane station. The design of the train is the old one. There
is still empty space in the train.
(I wonder whether I will be able catch a train group today.)
The train started moving. I plugged the ear phones in my ears and began
listening to GO 92.5 FM. Reports of yesterday’s marathon are still flowing
in today.
At Mulund Station, three women enter the train. They quickly begin to ask
where each one of us is getting off – making ‘claims’ on seats.
I am caught up with three women who are a ‘group’. Two are definitely
Maharashtrian. The third one, I can’t make out.
(Is marking a practice of locality?)
They are talking mundane stuff. I am not interested.
They are settled around fourth seats. They have made claims which will
ensure them comforts within a couple of stations’ time.

(I am still thinking of the design of the previous train and now this one.
There is a definite intimacy in this design though it causes a lot of
jamming as well. However, women can maintain their balance in this old
design because the space is intimate and it means that they are literally
being ‘held up’ by the seated women and standing fellow passengers. In the
new design, this may not be possible.)

A song of freedom rings through the radio station in my ears. I am
absolutely enjoying the anonymity of space. What a remarkable sense of
freedom to go unnoticed!

They are talking mundane stuff, this train group. And another thought
crosses my mind as I listen to them: daily conversation in local trains –
train groups – what kind of respite does it offer to these women? How does
the train group fit into the framework of regularity for these women? Who
are these women? What are their lives?
My mind also goes to back to the Dombivali Ladies’ Special, First Class
Train group that I have known for sometime. In there, there are women who
are working in global firms like ICICI finance, Tata-MTNL, new finance
firms, etc. They hold positions like sales executive, finance assistants,
etc. In here, today, are women working perhaps in government firms at
positions of clerk, typists, etc. Does working in a global firm make any
difference to mindsets and notions of cosmopolitanism? Does working in
global firms open up the mind to differences – cultural, religious,
interpersonal? – making it more receptive?

We have to become bold. I have become bold, says the woman with frog-like
eyes.
The thin, camel-like looking (stooped) woman is listening intently.
And the fat elephant-like woman sitting next to me is engaged in the
conversation.
We have to take decisions, frog says.
Elephant nods.
Camel is still listening.
Monopause is like that (frog is talking of menopause). Weight increases.
Tension increases. I get palpitations in my heart, in my chest. Monopause
is like that (and she smacks her lips, talking as if monopause is one of
the ‘regular’ phenomenon in a working Maharashtrian woman’s life).
(I am thinking about the bedroom and sexual lives of these women 

ssshhhssshhh)

Soon stations arrive and time to swap seats. Camel is about to switch
seats when another woman is about to sit on camel’s claim. Frog intervenes
and settles the matter. The other woman settles in camel’s place when the
girl sitting in front of camel intervenes and tells the woman that she had
already claimed camel’s seat. The woman verifies with camel whether this
is true. Camel verifies. The woman gets up. The girl sits down.
(I think of slum lords, claims, space, rights and entitlements and some
amount of negotiations at the everyday level).

These women continue chatting – camel, elephant and frog. As they talk, I
try to make entries into their notions of cosmopolitanism. Is
cosmopolitanism another exterior which people in this city wear? Is
cosmopolitanism superficial?

I look around the compartment and wonder how train groups get formed. What
are the bases of these transitory localities (if I can call them locality
at all!)? How do these groups fit in the frame of regularity which the
local train network brings into the lives of the working peoples? What is
this regularity? Is it changing now? How?




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