Sarai posting 5 Each city has it's own 'amorous zones' if one could coin such a fashionable term. Kolkata in particular has seen a considerable geographical and conceptual transformation in such zones in the past two decades. I have discussed the issue of 'walking' as an amorous activity but one should also try to look at structured spaces where romance flowers amidst the humdrum of urban life and public activity. Most often these symbolic spaces were constituted by parks or open fields such as the "Maidan' in Central Kolkata and of course the vast greenery surrounding the Victoria Memorial Museum and Hall. If one's attentive one can find evidences of comic sketches that have represented such spaces in early films. The moment that immediately comes to mind is the Victoria sequence in Kalipada Das's Jamaibabu(1930) , the only surviving Bengali short that we have. The sequence represents Victoria as abounded with lovers sitting in cozy underneath of trees. The country simpleton protagonist , a typical representation of the pampered son-in law ignorant of urban values and etiquette, try's to peep at a romancing couple , bumping into them and comes close to receiving a severe beating. Apart from the fact the visual display of romance that adorns the Victoria premises till date is by no means a contemporary one the sequence also tells us much about the social shifts that have taken place with the advent of globalization. The couples in the film look ostensibly affluent given their dress codes and body language. Moreover one can presumably claim that many of them also seem to be married couples rather than secretive lovers trying to avoid the familiar gaze of kith and kin of the locality. A contemporary scenario however tells paints a very different picture in terms of class affiliations and social organizations of such parks or public spaces. Most of the people would be either middle or lower middle class people with limited ability of expenditure and the body language would be significantly different. The issue that comes up here is the production of various urban centers or public spaces that have come to dominate metro cities. One could list them in detail but majorly there are certain sorts of symbolic spaces one could speak of : public parks on the one hand versus more structured spaces like spaces adjoining media outlets and amusement parks. The latter might include theme parks such as Aquatica , Nicco Park( earlier known as Jhilmil) or Nalban Boating Complex and the sensational space adjoining space to Nandan , the West Bengal Govt. cinema complex and more lately the Millenium Park. All these places are designed for providing comfort to leisure seeking public including lovers. The difference between the two sorts is the availability of outlets providing snacks, various soft drinks and activity spaces like swimming pools or boating facilities and in latest versions even pool parlours or bowling alleys, cinema halls. The overall logic resembles the Multiplex areas of Delhi where idle strollers or couples are invited to engage in a consumerist network in exchange for a certain sort of comfort, luxury and safety that's on sale. There is of course more to it than a simple consumerization of urban space that I wish to point out by taking an example of a well known public space in South Kolkata , known as the Dhakuria Lake. This has to do also with the transformation in class constitutions of amorous public that I pointed out in relation to Jamaibabu. It has to be noted that today the class of lovers represented in the film speak in a derogatory manner about such acts of romancing in public space. The language in which they would articulate their dissatisfaction would also bear traces of relegation of such activities to a certain class of people. 'Un cultured' would be a familiar term designating everyday lovers whose number is quite huge even today. One of the media that has taken up such issues in a interesting and significant way is of course contemporary Bengali modern music particularly the band format artists. It's not difficult to notice that what sets apart that sort of music from older Bengali modern popular modern is it's deeply urban sensibility. In fact one could argue that their specificity is that they take the urban gaze as enunciating points of their musical discourses. It wouldn't be irrelevant here to quote at least one of the sensational bands whose witty cynicism has caught up quite a lot of erudite attention apart from shaping popular tastes. As Chandrabindoo would put it in one of their idiosyncratic love songs : " Nandan, Nalban , Jhilmil ekbar, ar saptahe ekbar Diamond Harbour, bhalo na eshob bhalo na , bolechen Sakya muni , cholo bhalo hoi, jomkalo hoi, bordar batela shuni" [ Nandan , Nalban, Jhilmil (we go to..) again and again, and once in a week to Diamond Harbour, these are not good things at all, says the sage Sakya, let's go and become good , become more attractive , and listen to moral braggings of elder brother] . Or to take another one from their recent album : " Raate machi, dine mosha , neche more khyapa, Nandan , Nalbane poolisher hyapa" ( mosquitoes in the night, flies in the day, the crazy fellow is irritably dancing himself to death, Nandan and Nalban (is no better) because of the silly, unwanted harassment of police.) Even a cursory hearing tells you much about a very popular perception and social discourse on romance and public space. The first song lyric point to the disturbing fact of unavailability of social space where couples could make love and of course Diamond Harbour , a small town far beyond Kolkata , adorned with cheap seedy hotels providing an outlet for sexual urges of many couples is still a maligned symbolic space in the middle class psyche. On the other hand the second lyric refers to the once idyllic spaces such as parks as transforming into more contested and problematic zones due to vulnerability of lovers to the Law enforcers as well as other agents as we shall soon come to discuss. I'm not claiming that the conflicting discourses over public romances is anything specific to Kolkata or that other cities are devoid of popular appraisals or articulations on such issues. But in Kolkata due to certain social and geographical specificities these issues has come to the forefront and therefore provides an interesting case study to decipher the underlying structure of the multilayered arguments. I have already argued this with respect to L.O.V.E. and Rupak's ideological mission, so now I will venture to confirm that suspicion through interpretations of the filed interviews of various people and also oral comments from various friends and strangers. One constant popular discourse about parks is that they tend to become shady places especially after dark. This of course is a matter of great concern for civic and legal authorities and in case of Kolkata it has been a subject of heated debate as Rupak's case goes to show. I take up the case of Dhakuria Lake cos it has been maligned with all sorts of complaints. This space encompasses a huge area surrounding a Lake ,comprising of open field like spaces, some sitting arrangements for strollers and of course various allied constructions like two swimming clubs , one open air theatre (Nazrul Mancha) for public concerts or other events, a recently formed cricket training camp, public toilets etc. Moreover it's a regular place for morning or evening walkers . joggers and especially for elderly men and women who regularly stroll or gather for chatting Amidst all this of course are the hosts of lovers who make a sort of natural claim over the space from morning to evening. Now for the so called shady business : primarily it was accused of being a den for flying prostitutes who would use certain areas as their workplaces, secondly a host of soft or hard drug users who would again claim certain places and more recently organized or unorganized gay groups who have claimed another part of it after evenings. The problematic area in the early and even mid 90's was a certain circular area in the midst surrounded by a swimming club on one end the Lake proper on another and very close by the open air theatre. This came to be known as 'Naraner thek' a very popular but shady 'adda' or chatting joint that caught attention of the fashionable local youth and the police alike. It was named by users after the owner of a happening mobile tea stall , called Naran. The tea stall was surrounded by a crooked sort of iron railing where people used to gather around in separate but systematic groups. The public mainly consisted of local urban youth ranging from school kids , college freshers to a bit elderly veterans and a host of lower class marginally employed and unemployed youth . The point of anxiety for legal authorities was that the groups were very systematic and grew bigger day by day as it became addictive for the regulars. In fact it had become a meeting point for two distinct social classes, the 'upstart' or spoilt teenagers and the more lower class ruffians who in some cases had petty criminal backgrounds. To give a stray example from my own memory : My class teacher had called me up to her room one day as a result of falling asleep in a terribly boring Geometry class in 9th standard. To my surprise instead of inquiring why I was bored to the extent of falling asleep she showed paranoid concern over the possibilities of consumption of drugs( of which I'm sure she had a pretty vague idea). Interestingly the questions asked were all related to where I go to after school and when I come home. The reason was some vague rumours and knowledge about school kids meeting up in shady 'adda' places like Naraner thek and mixing with the wrong crowd. It was not long before parent's and well wisher's concerns matched with that of the legal authorities and the area is all empty these days with couple of mobile 'chai wallahs' roaming with kettle and plastic cups to serve the few irregular people who might drop in now and then. A couple of friends who were familiar with the place when we had been 'in the gang' have a different interpretation. They argue that the leisure time available back then and the nature of preoccupations that the youth entertained has transformed dramatically with the onset of globalization and academic or work pressure. As a result the groups that populated the space has virtually ceased to exist leading to the demise of that sort of 'counter culture'. Although this can be taken as a plausible sociological explanation in urban history , this is in my view an incomplete picture as it does not explain the legal effort to destabilize that space and misses out on the social specificity of that formation. While there was undeniably some soft illegal activities like intake of alcohol , marijuana etc by minors and frequent fights amongst various groups , these were never so severe to catch public attention. One vividly remembers also the 'happening' fights among groups or drunken individuals in rock concerts at the open air theatre and frequent gate crashing into concerts by adventurous kids who could surely afford to pay for the cheap tickets. But what is interesting about these quasi radical activities is that they blurred the rigid social boundaries that secures the middle and upper middle classes from infiltration of unwanted values. There was an increasing calculated adoption and usage of 'streetwise' culture and language among kids from well to do families. If one traces the history of slang usage and body language of urban youth in Kolkata one can surely understand what I;m hinting at. I argue that this was the underlying reason for such anxieties regarding the space. The problem was not crime per se or even security of strollers but rather mapping out and regimentation of marginal culture that was threatening the decency of middle class moral sphere. The issue at stake is more clear when we look around for traces of proof. Not only is the space empty now but there have been gradual transformation in the name of development. The Rabindra Sarobar Development project has officially launched measures to beautify and clean up the space. This has resulted in secured walking areas in those places guarded by wired boundaries and secure entrance. The fate of the flying prostitutes is more ironical because their workplace has been replaced by a public urinal and an adjacent circlet coaching camp to train our would be Tendulkars. What remains however as traces of marginality are of course some thing which continues to cause embarrassment to the decent people : the street venders. I'll come to them in a min when I discuss lovers again. What is more interesting is that as I went on with interviews my perception was confirmed because all the conflicting discourses of police, public , strollers , lovers share an unstated common ideological assumption and agenda. This agenda hides itself under invocations of cleanliness, beauty , health , safety etc. Rupak's accusations logically led me to consult the local police station of the area the Dhakuria thana where the officers in charge entertained my queries but did not allow me to record cos as he said he will not be able to speak his mind. He firstly listed the crimes that were causing concern which of course were all under control since he took charge!!! These were mainly : theft, pick pocketing, car thefts and some very infrequent and stay incidents of harassment or molestation. He insisted that the public was ignorant about their own interests and thus compelled the police to intervene. He acknowledged the fact that mild illegalities like public drinking in cars or in parks are common sights but he insisted that such activities should not be explicit or cross a limit to enable thieves and petty criminals to take advantage. He explicitly stated that the police dies not discourage mild drinking cos it's unstoppable but drinking from the bottle and lying drunk not only assaults sensibilities of decent people but enables thieves to steal one's car or belongings. He denied the whole issue of prostitution claiming that sometimes some prostitutes might come around strolling but that would be an exceptional incident where ploice takes action and of course he also denied the very existence of a regular sex work business area that any schoolchild familiar with the area could describe to a stranger But most interesting was his reaction to Rupak's accusation which he vehemently rejected as irresponsible and got seemingly got excited about. But his argument strangely affirms the logic of Rupak's concern. His version is that police never harasses anyone and if they do severe action must be taken. The law is there to ensure the security and comfort to the public who visit the Lake. But sometimes he said , the couples or lovers go too far. He claimed that couples often get sexually aroused and start copulating in the premises and therefore the police on such occasions have no option but to intervene. He argued that mild displays of romantic or sexual affection is natural but an extreme case is not justified because it would affect the moral sensibilities of others. Here of course unknowingly our officer is invoking the ideal subject of Law , for whom Law is working to ensure a certain regimentation of urban space. He argued to the extent that on the contrary when couples display of affection is within limits the police ensures their safety. Therefore Rupak's accusation is all baseless and he has to come up with evidence before such accusations. Of course we are no longer in doubt that there isn't any conflict ij the ideological agenda of these conflicting narratives cause both of them invoke a subject who is surely recognizable. The decent , cultured, middle class heterosexual citizen. Of gays , the officer doe not have much knowledge and contrary to empirical evidence he fails to see them. His blindness and the invisibility is of course coupled with his ignorance of sexual matters apart from normative heterosexuality so I did not explore his engaging speech or my patience on the subject. It is no longer a mystery for whom the whole healthy, secxure , beautification process is unfolding and where it will all lead to. Here Rupak's utopian fantasy of Love Park is in principle realizable albeit in other names. The Mayor or the Police would hardly have any problem cos conceptually they all share the same ideological ground. Now to come back to the lovers themselves and there perception of the situation. I went out for a collection of interviews of couples who use the Lake premises for amorous purposes. This task was particularly precarious because any sort of intervention to their privacy tends to scare or make them uncomfortable and so much skill is required to withdraw relevant information from them without making them feel uncomfortable about the situation. This of course is coupled by the anxiety over speaking about private life to unknown strangers. So I decided to use separate days for photographing the a sea cos a camera sometimes is perceived as additional intrusion and many people would simply object to being photographed suspecting us as journalists or media people who might divulge the secrecy or their identity. So one had to take care about the distance from which photographs were taken and also tried to work in a way that caught minimum attention of the couples themselves. On the other hand the interviews being beyond my expertise I had to hire some professional help from an expert friend of mine who's been working in the media for several years and expertises on this sort of work. I am absolutely grateful to Orpheus Mukhoti for his generous help on the matter and also for giving me another opportunity to see his impromptu performances with strangers on the street. We obviously had to hide the tape inside the bag to get the maximal frank responses from interviewees. The questions asked were variations of some standard queries : 1) how long and often have they been coming to that area and why they chose it in the first place? 2) their perceptions of the comfort, privacy issue of that place compared to others? 3) whether they encountered harassment in any form and if so from what kind of source and the nature of harassment? 4) do they have specific opinions or complaints about the police , beggars , venders who are around? 5) their opinion on use of a public space for purpose of romance. 6) would they chose to be near other couples rather than sit in seclusion from the amorous population and if so then why? 7) is the choice of using a place such as the Lake merely an economic issue ? 8) if they had other choices of places were their security was ,more certain than here in exchange of some money would they chose to go there instead? 9) what about the upcoming amusement centres and parks in this context? Other than these standard questions conversations often led us to their personal histories of romantic life or on their opinion about romance and sexuality in general. We have talked to about 13 couples and some groups of girls and boys. We could have easily taken more samples but the responses were most often similar and predictable and the underlying ideological assumptions were sufficiently clear through these samples and therefore my purpose had been served. Here I give the important gist of the oral exchange we had which would serve to further the argument I have been making. Most of the couples pointed to time, economic condition and geographical proximity as a major factor in determining choice of places of romance. For some the distance from their own locality was crucial to maintain secrecy and to others proximity to work places or educational institutions would be a plus point. A ,majority of them who maintain secret liaisons for whatever reasons would use school or coaching timings to avoid giving excuse at home. We even interviewed Paromita a school bunking lover who was there in her school dress. Paromita and Soumitro have been coming there for the past 5 years since the inception of their affair. For others like Sunondan and Amrita it was respectively 3 and 4th in a series of affairs and both of them acknowledged a certain nostalgic sensibility towards the space they have even shared with their earlier lovers. A certain knowledge , intimacy and habituation with the space was familiar in most cases. Most of them however came from moderately middle class backgrounds and claimed that on and off they also had some money to visit more sophisticated places. The preference of Lake was designated to the general open air atmosphere with cool breeze and greenery which some claimed even stimulated the romance as opposed to an artificial and more fancy atmosphere at theme parks. What they meant probably was the mediation of money and the exchange of consumer goods with access to space was more apparent in those places. Some responses also invoked the 'health-nature' sort of discourse to prove the qualitative superiority of parks and lakes over more techno oriented amusement spaces. However one opinion was common to almost all of the interviewee and that was about the issue of safety and harassment. The veteran lovers would lament the qualitative detorietion of atmosphere and attitude of local people , while newcomers would simply complain that there were mild or intense risk of harassment lurking in every corners. The major sources were identified as the police, venders, local ruffians and to some extent beggars. Although everyone had not had the first hand experience of police harassment but most claimed to know some friend or acquaintance who had reported being harassed by local constables or plain clothed policemen. Subhra and Joyonto went to the extent of complaining that sometimes in early evenings some constables would pass comments . whistle or directly taunt them for being indecent when all they would have done is to hold hands and sit a bit closer. The second and more major complain was about the way in which venders and beggars would harass them to extort money. This could comprise in forcing them to buy snacks at elevated prices sometimes. This wouldn't involve physical force at all but simply insisting to buy or sellers who would stand there for a long time staring directly at the couple so that the persons had to buy to gain access to the privacy they had come to enjoy. Beggars intervening couples at regular intervals for money is a common sight in the area and this is also a issue of embarrassment for couples for they would refrain from describing beggars as agents of extortion. But their tone mostly suggested that structurally they constituted the elements who were unwanted in that spece. The local ruffians according to the interviewees would often extort in a similar manner using fake 'Puja' bills and demanding chanda (donations) on refusal of which the couple would be party to taunting gazes of a group of young fellows. Such responses promoted us to take up the issue of Love Parks according to Ruapk's conception : whether that sort of an arrangement could be a solution to their anxieties? Most responses were positive although some claimed that the economic exchange and commodification be veiled as far as possible to allow a spontaneity or naturalness to the atmosphere. The total simulation of a Dhaukuria Lake minus the irritants communities would ideally serve their purposes as long as the seams remained invisible! The police were similarly maligned for failing to perform the duties that our Lake Thana OC claimed they regularly did. So apart from a concrete disagreement about actual proceedings of legal matters there isn't much difference here. My suspicion about the uncanny proximity of couples in benches and most often in a single bench also turned out to be somewhat correct. Tahagata and Swagata emphatically claimed that such proximity unites them as a community against harassers even in cases where there were no concrete harassment's. They would not mind that much even if their romantic reveries were heard by a stranger couple if that unstated liaison succeeded in disarming the confidence of unwanted intruders. When asked whether they would come to be aquatinted with other couples to enhance a sense of community they claimed that they were not interested and such intimacy among couples did not happen except for stray instances. As an unit they preferred to remain anonymous but as a persecuted community they required a symbolic collective feeling. Hence the activities of beautification project often appealed to them as that would lead to rigorous regimentation of the space. While one or two couples did acknowledge the co presence of sex workers or gay groups in the vicinity mostly they viewed them as harmless but ambiguous entities. As long as they don't transform into agents of harassment they wouldn't have a problem. But their ideological assumptions of a sanctified space would eventually displace them from the ideal space the moment they become visible. I'm not pointing towards any social bias or phobia towards marginal groups which may very well be there in most people but rather to an underlying agenda that reveals the nature of urban space in general. ___________________________________________________ Meet your old school or college friends from 1 Million + database... Click here to reunite www.batchmates.com/rediff.asp