Since one of my 'beats' as a special news features reporter is supposed to be "the urban aesthetic", thought I'd drop by the afternoon PSBT session. Just an aside, this beat needs to be differentiated from 'urban aesthetic' which might be, as a parent rightly pointed out, the ergonomics of dustbins. So, back to main point. The afternoon session was on urban spaces and so on, so I walked in during Cityscapes Delhi by Meera Dewan (documents Delhi’s collapsing urban environment and recalls the city’s best-loved 19th century chronicler – Ghalib). Someone came in late, and insisted on squeezing into the seats right by me. Since I was seated in my usual cross legged pose, distanced from my footwear, I had to gather my stuff, untangle myself, get into footwear etc.
"Sorry, sorry," said Someone Late. "So sorry, sorry."
"That's alright," I said, magnanimously. Then the lights came on and I realised the Someone Late by me was Arundhati Roy.
Ruchir Joshi's film, A Mercedes For Ashish, described as "a cinematic document of simultaneous degradations of human space and dignity in Delhi, of how roads, walls, constructions-in-progress, ganda nalas, billboards, all in some way attack the human body" was right after. Many questions posed, but one stayed on.
Is it possible to fall in love in a big city like Delhi?
In love with someone in a big city. Yes, of course people have done it before but this film looked st barricades, impeding structures, distances... How does love change depending on the size and nature of your city?
The film is told through the eyes of a young person (I say that because it sounded like a guy, but the narrator's name was female) who battles the big city with its mega constructions, its constraining joint families, its intimidating distances, it's pollutants... can you still nurture love and intimacy through the onslaught of the metropolis?
Still thinking.
