[Reader-list] City, nights and fear

[Zainab Bawa]

9 o'clock

10 o'clock

11 o'clock


Night,

dark,

inside their homes - the peoples

but, this is Mumbai, does not sleep - the city that does not sleep.

Someone asked me the other day - but you said that people do not sleep here
in Mumbai. Look around, everyone seems to be asleep - and he smiled. I
thought to myself, maybe it is the weekend and so everyone is sitting tight
in their homes.

Then, returning back home at 11:15 PM at night, sitting in the cab, I looked
around. A sense of fear had also gripped me - how will I return home? When
will I return home? When will I snuggle up in my bed and feel safe. How can
this happen to me in Mumbai - the city whose prodigy I am. Fear, that
feeling of lack of safety, was creeping up my neck.

Sitting in the taxi, I asked the driver - no public on the streets?

He said - Sunday nah? Little public out at night.

But, I prodded further, even the bus services into the city have reduced at
night. What is th deal?

The buses *kya? *They run empty at nights and so, the BEST has decided to
reduce them. But yes, the streets are empty at nights these days, after the
*bamb-kaand*.

*Bamb-kaand*? You mean 26/11?

Yes. After that, people have reduced going out at nights. A sense of fear
has gripped people. We taxi drivers, our income was mainly from the fares we
got at night. Now, that has reduced drastically. All the *shareef*, good
character people don't come out at nights. It is only the *badmaash*, the
bad characters, that come out at night. Plus, so much *naaka-bandi, *police
watch. Who will come out? Which *shareef* person will come out?

Just a while before the driver was drawing a distinction between the *shareef
*and the *badmaash*, I had watched a bunch of well-dressed prostitutes and
one of their clients in the classic white kurta and pyjama, laughing and
making jokes around the corner of a hotel at Grant Road. And I had thought
about respectability. Now, I think of the *shareef, *the *badmaash*, and the
night and the city - transformation, perhaps it is happening at these subtle
levels.

Then, I watched the city last night as we rode past one end to the other.
Are the streets really silent? Is this what the *bamb-kaand* has done?
Penetrated into the fabric of the city and spread fear ...

We halted at a signal around the corner of one of the posh Western suburbs.
There she was - no fear - just dexteriously weaving the flowers through the
thread and making garlands, perhaps readying herself for the clientele in
the morning who may want to offer the flowers to their gods and goddesses,
allaying a fear of a different kind (that between the devotee and the
devout). She weaved away quickly, without care. Is she afraid, I thought to
myself?

Then we passed the roads. There they were, those people, those people we
call slum dwellers. Three hutments jutting out from the walls, just onto to
the streets. They had also called it a night, lying down in their beds,
drawing their sheets onto themselves. There they were, stepping into the
world of dreams and nightmares and desires and hopes and aspirations - some
had their TV sets on, some just oblivious of the roadside traffic and
preparing to go off to sleep. Are they afraid?

Then, we went pass the highway, those big roads that have been created to
facilitate the movement of cars (and traffic). On the highway, covered under
blue plastic sheets, supported by a few poles, they were also going off to
sleep. Perhaps they were construction workers who had settled into a little
space on the footpath and called it a night. Perhaps they were contract
sweepers, spending their last few days in the city before the rain lashes
vehemently. They were almost calling it a night, drifting off (or just about
to ...) ... Are they afraid?

And then, just a little ahead, three-four men and women, playing
hide-and-seek in the bushes by the side of the highway, perhaps some kind of
a foreplay. They seemed happy, playful. Are they afraid?

Fear - what of?

Fear - of what?

Fear ... and the city sleeps at night ...

Fear ... and we sleep to prepare for another day to come ...
Fear ...

-- 
Zainab Bawa
Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher

Gaining Ground ...
http://zainab.freecrow.org

http://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories-of-the-internet/transparency-and-politics