Chaos
Posted by: Sophie Cunningham
27 November 2008
The general chaos that is my life continued today as I sat down to write my first blog post and saw that in fact I should have begun yesterday. Apologies all round. The excuse is that I was in meetings for a total of ten hours yesterday - oh how I dream of sitting home and actually writing - and then went to the SPUNC (Small Press Underground Networking Community) Christmas drinks. To drink. To make up for that I got a new camera today and later this afternoon plan to try it out and, if they’re any good, share the first results.
I am, I confess, in a state of yearning - mainly for the Christmas break and that sometimes bleak sometimes sweet feeling of a city that’s shut down for a couple of weeks. People disappear. Favorite cafes close down. People with children head off to beach houses, people without wait until the school holiday season is done before they take their break. The streets are quiet.
Yearning too , as I said above to have the time to read and to write without the pressure of work. This Christmas break I am off to Vietnam and already have my books organised (yes, The Quiet American). The writing will probably just be jotted notes, emails maybe blog posts. And hopefully those disorganised observations will bloom into something more substantial later on. That said, I’m not going to vietnam with a book project in mind and there is a freedom in that. Often my travel is more directed to an outcome and that can be both good and bad.
I travelled to India a few times when I was writing Bird - and obviously that country is on my mind this morning. There have been bombings throughout Mumbai and the Taj Mahal Hotel is burning. That is the place I had my first Indian meal in what was then known as Bombay. It was January 1983, and my friend and I went straight to our divey hotel from the airport, and then dutifully went to the Taj to try their Indian buffet - as recommended by our travel guide. It was great food - and very expensive by backpackers standards ($20 -25 years ago) but it was such a treat. One of those nights, as a teenager, that I felt very grand and grown up - though India can often have the opposite effect. The point of these bombings seems to have been to target tourist areas, but as is always the case, it is mainly the local people who’s lives are lost, or turned upside down.
November 30, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Shauna - you could never accuse Melbourne of not providing it’s population with plenty to drink, at all times of year! I must say I wish Melbourne felt as Christmassy as London does at this time of year. It’s always felt like a transplanted celebration for me - though the summer holiday tradition is something we’ve made truly our own.
November 30, 2008 at 11:14 am
Wow Sophie so much to respond to in just one of your posts!
I understand what you mean by the city closing down during the holidays. I spent some years living in London and i really loved that sense that by the 23rd everyone had gone back to where they had originally come from and you had the city all to yourself. London has a really mystical quality during December - it’s dark at 3 o’clock and all the Christmas lights are up. It’s cold but not too cold and it’s foggy. Very atmospheric. Mind you I didn’t really enjoy the pubs all closing in the early afternoon on Christams eve and really struggling to find a place to have a drink before the big day.
Melbourne, despite the temperature contrast, is kind of the same. Once all the shoppers have left the malls, and the workers have gone back to their homes, you have the place to yourself. The small alleys ways, with their graffiti art take on a festive feel. I’m happy to say though that it is however easier, to get a pre-xmas drink here, so at least that something we have over London.
November 28, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Wow, India is one of my ‘must see’ destinations…I have a family tree that is lost in maze of indian people and names. It is very sad to hear about the devestation, so needless…humans are intricate and puzzling people.
November 28, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I have visited India three times. The first visit I arrived at night - just on dusk. As we were driving into Bombay, now Mumbai, I was unsure as to what I was seeing on the cities pavements. After my eyes became accustomed to the almost dark cityscape I realised that there were many people sheltering under sheets of plastic for the evening. That sight will stay in my heart forever.
I also spent time in Madras, now Chennai, and loved that 500 m stretch of beach, it’s traffic cops on elephants, and those cows. However travelling on those Indian roads was no dream and the fear will stay with me forever. The left hand drive cars, overtaking the scooters travelling whole families, overflowing buses adorned with decorations, bullocks pulling carts laden to the sky along with an array of buses, pedestrians and the cows! When one is travelling in the right hand back seat of a left hand drive car overtaking is a sight (oncoming traffic) to behold.
I love the beautiful and respectful people in India and also found the news of the attacks in Mumbai depressing.
November 28, 2008 at 9:17 am
Yes, most people arrive in India at night which makes that taxi drive in all the more surreal. It’s like a kind of dream. The first city I visited in India was Madras (now Chennai) and it had traffic cops sitting at intersections on large elephants, and that 500 m stretch of beach which was like an enormous market stretching down to the sea. And of course, those cows.
Listening to the news this morning was depressing (as it often is) because the series of attacks in Mumbai are so pointless. It’s impossible to see how it will in anyway improve the situation for Muslims in India, in the way Deccan Mujahideen hopes it will. It seems obvious that it will just make the tension between Hindus and Muslims much worse.
November 27, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Perceptions of Christmas are slightly different depending on where people come from or live, I have an interest in people, perceptions, ideals etc. Christmas for me tends to include the favourite cafe deciding their staff want holidays too (how dare they?),and people going to beach houses….though for me, the beach is quite near where I’ve lived most of my life and so we are inundated with holiday makes who all leave their normal lives to merge at the best place to be, the beach. It makes for a hectic holiday season, rather than a relaxing one…but I’m hoping this year, to be one of the crowd, soaking up some lovely beach space and reading my books!
November 27, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hi Sophie
I am also saddened by the events in Mumbai. It is a great city. I was first there in 1982, and like you visited the Taj. I will never forget my first night there, arriving in the city at about 1 am from the airport, to the sight of cows wandering the streets late at night. I can still see them. It is, as you say, the local people who will suffer most, from these horrific attacks. They are random and savage and tear at the fabric of such a culturally diverse city. One of my many lasting memories is of the street artist who would chalk extraordinary drawings on the pavements of Shiva meditating in the Himalayas - the God of destruction at peace. Crowds would gather and throw in well earned donations. The artist would be back it again the next night, at another location, returning Shiva in the Himalayas to the streets of Mumbai, oblivious to the passing traffic, the eternal rush of the city.