WALKAROO KHAN MARKET

Place: Khan Market

Time: Initially 4pm but finally started at 5.30pm due to late arrival of two sleepy participants.

Participants: Kriti, Mallika, Niranjani, Priyanka.

Observers: Leena + all of us took turns to be the observer since we “walked” 5 times. 

A slow, measured walking in a queue, with a series of slow choreographed looks (look to the left, look into a shop window, look someone up and down).

People were curious, but very few came up to ask, except for two valiant women who had a lot to say: “This is walking na? We just want to walk… we want to live in a city where we can walk safely…. Why do shops shut early, why does public transport stop early, it’s ridiculous… No wonder we don’t feel we own this city… if more people were out and about, it would be better, etc…”

Other comments “are they on drugs?”, “fashion show?”

Mostly, people did not want to engage – barring one doorman who kept opening the door to the shop thinking we wanted to enter each time we stopped by his shop. We had to become very pro-active about involving audience, literally had to go up to people afterwards as they did not come forward. Or, we would decide to ‘look’ at a group of people who were obviously interested, but didn’t know quite how to engage. ‘Upmarket’ places like Khan Market are a real challenge.

Meaningful moment: turning to look left when stopped at public toilet. Hmm…

The fact that we had ‘solemn’ faces in itself elicited a comment such as “is it something religious?” We toyed with bringing softness or even a smile to our countenance, but decided against it as we wanted to maintain neutrality … however, we soon realized that ‘neutral’ is very elusive, perhaps nonexistent.

We were very struck by the feelings that the slowed down walk elicited in us – a heightened awareness of walking, and the place we were in. The importance of simply being able to walk – as women, as citizens.

 Definitely a Do worth exploring again.