Tuesday 26 February 2013

15 February: O Shopper, Stop!

Metropolitan Mall - outside corridor
One 'being stopped' exercise and one improv session
Performers: Padma, Smita, Swati, Ruchi, Shibani, Bopana, Shena
Documenter and observer: Niranjani
Audience No.: 5 to 10

We had planned to do the Do in Khirki village, but because of rain moved to the covered corridor outside Stoppers Shop in Metropolitan Mall, Saket, across the road from Khirki.
Bopana prays for the rain to stop

It was an all girl gang – which we realized was taken more ‘tolerantly’ than seriously. In the corridor we performed a slow motion walk which morphed into a Stopping exercise, similar to what we had done in Galleria, Gurgaon, but much slower to begin with – and, of course, between women only. While it raised a few questions, no one really stopped to watch for long (stopping, was presumably for shopping only!) – and comments such as ‘ladki log kuch kar rahe hain’ and the usual ‘shooting ho rahi hai kya?’ were the only reactions.  A couple of guards watched on with mild amusement.

We then moved to near where the security check was happening, with the idea of miming a parallel check and seeing what developed. It turned into an improv, which the performers enjoyed doing, but with not enough cohesion to hold either as a performance or as a public intervention. Lesson: be clear on motives and don’t fall into improv indulgence!
Similar to Khan Market, audience was distant and not forthcoming. Ah how to crack the South Delhi Sophisticate? What do do we do ?
 


Monday 25 February 2013

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.