Why loiter book

Ruchika hangs from a tree, while Venu and her friend Sunil have fun at a picnic It was a way of imagining things her mother might have enjoyed and expressing regret at what she might have missed that led Yadav, 30, to start photographing the carefree moments of women around her: women hanging upside down from trees, enjoying ice lollies, dancing, applying henna. The growing collection of photos — of friends, family and strangers — became the Basanti: women at leisure project.

I think leisure does exactly that. It has photos of such ordinary moments. Leisure is a feminist issue. It essentially tells you who can afford it. The co-author of Why Loiter? It indicates a claim to the city, the right to be out for fun, to hang out, to belong to the city.

Talk of oppression, freedom and rights usually centres around big, violent issues, says Yadav. It is driven by controlling what you eat, who you talk to, who you love, how you love. If oppression is about curtailing freedom of being, then I feel leisure is such a good answer to that.

Right: Rinki tries to learn English by reading a novel Lack of leisure time is often felt more acutely by rural women, she adds. Around the world women do three times more cooking, cleaning and caring for relatives than men.

A study found that women in India averaged six hours of unpaid work a day, compared with 36 minutes for men. Sushma, a teacher, spends time with her family Sneha applies a face mask for her partner, Sourabh. You are supposed to be slaving all the time in the most punishing way. But even middle-class women are not released from domestic burdens, from the importance of educating and bringing up children. She was the first person in her village to go to university — she studied at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and UC Berkeley, California — or travel abroad.

She recently founded a social enterprise creating employment opportunities for young women and transgender people in rural India, Sajhe Sapne. I read a lot, I write a lot, I travel a lot.

My mother did none of that. The more I grow up and the more I see myself as a woman, the more I miss her. View 1 comment. Mar 02, Apurva rated it it was amazing. An excellent book - well researched and thought provoking. The idea that women have a right to take risks, to loiter and denying them that is to deny them citizenship, is truly commendable. The book also argues that keeping women 'safe' in sheltered spaces, limiting their access to public spaces is a kind of violence, similar to the kind they may face otherwise.

As an Indian woman brought up in Mumbai, I could definitely identify with all the points raised. A must read for sure. Mar 22, Reema rated it it was amazing. Jan 24, Jennifer added it. Jun 29, Prema rated it really liked it. Jan 07, Ritika Varshney rated it it was amazing. Why Loiter looks at Mumbai, dissects public spaces from a sociological lens and argues for women to loiter in order to claim their citizenship. We do not have a lot of literature relevant in Indian context that examine city from a feminist perspective.

The book is an excellent read for non- academic audience. For academic audience the detailed footnotes help to understand re Why Loiter looks at Mumbai, dissects public spaces from a sociological lens and argues for women to loiter in order to claim their citizenship.

For academic audience the detailed footnotes help to understand relevant theory concerned to topic. When women loiter the state will have to provide better infrastructure and safety.

It is well researched specially the areas that talk about public washrooms. For someone trying to understand urbanization from a sociological perspective this book is a must read.

The wonderful thing about this book is its practical discussion of urban planning in regards to creating a safe environment for all of the inhabitants of the urban space. When you read essays it feels like revelation of a kind wherein you now understand how citizens access public spaces and why they access it differently depending upon their socio-economic position in society. I think there was lack of substantial data to claim some sections like in search of pleasure in the book.

If the research data were provided it would have been more impactful. The book concludes by asking us to imagine a utopia where everyone irrespective of their social location can enjoy the pleasure of loitering without the fear of physical or psychological danger. Jul 18, S rated it really liked it. This books was a fantastic read! As someone who has lived in Mumbai for most of her life, I could identify with most of the struggles described by the women in this book.

Reading this book angered me greatly, and rightly so - reading this should leave no one complacent. I've never read anything about urban planning, and I felt as if the book detailed the importance of inclusive urban planning in a way that I'd never thought about before. If there is one thing that I didn't like about this book, This books was a fantastic read!

If there is one thing that I didn't like about this book, it would be how women were boxed into identities in the third section. I could identify with many of the women throughout the book, but in this section I couldn't fully identify with any of the boxes the authors had put women in, and felt as though the descriptions were too limiting. After all, we do shift identities as women quite a bit. I felt like his fact was discussed everywhere else in the book except here, so it doesn't even matter too much.

The last section was perhaps my favourite - a reimagined utopia that should already exist, but is so unimaginable that most of us would never dream of it. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain more excellently articulated insight into how women in seemingly progressive metropolitan cities live their lives, and why we desperately need feminism even when on paper women avail the same freedoms as men which, if you read you will understand why that is a myth :P Oct 08, Sejal rated it it was amazing.

I accidentally came across this book on social media Sometimes social media is a blessing! Seeking pleasure and seeking pleasure in public. When have I as a woman taken to streets or public spaces just for the sake of it? Just to loiter? Well, never. There is always a purpose to being out of homes. To sim I accidentally came across this book on social media Sometimes social media is a blessing!

To simply pass my time. Great read. Short and easy read. May 06, Sandeep rated it it was ok. The sad thing is that I paid for this book for my kindle. I got bored reading this and liberally skipped pages. Much of the book is written in abstract terms, portrayal of women in public place, there might be a lot of trait of women which have been researched and written as a part of the book.

Unfortunately, I don't like it I'm just wondering what is the motto of bringing this book. Reaching out to the masses hoping for a change in perceptions? Has the goal been achieved? Do the people who behav The sad thing is that I paid for this book for my kindle. Do the people who behave differently read this book?

Too much of emphasis has been laid on stereotypes. Book can be royally avoided lest you want to know why and how women behave in, occupy public spaces as per author's view not mine I just found out that I'm not interested in it. Writing is pretty much simple but it's lacking a charm which fails to magnetize me into submission. Jan 12, Arhitha rated it it was amazing. It shatters whatever beliefs you had, it urges you to break the shackles of your mind, being a 21 year old, from a metropolitan.

This book made me question myself. While we are all whining about how unsafe and inaccessible the city or roads or any space for that matter, is for women. This books makes a u turn questioning why are we not claiming the public spaces, it puts for the basic argument of breaking the cycle of public spaces being unsafe in return fewer women venturing out to women going It shatters whatever beliefs you had, it urges you to break the shackles of your mind, being a 21 year old, from a metropolitan.

This books makes a u turn questioning why are we not claiming the public spaces, it puts for the basic argument of breaking the cycle of public spaces being unsafe in return fewer women venturing out to women going out more and in turn making the spaces more women friendly. They offer an abundance of appendices, notes and comments that enhance the appreciation of their research and validate several counterintuitive claims about living in Mumbai.

So, a woman may move freely in the city, only if, etc. How easy it is to be spotted as out of the ordinary, and how difficult it is to function, once one has been perceived as such. There is an entire semantic of respectability she must construct each time she leaves her home.

She must be healthy, freely mobile, sexually inert and, most importantly, have a good reason for being out of doors. She must never loiter. This is the crux of the book. The authors question the assertion that a woman may not remain in the public realm without purpose.

If spotted as such, she would be perceived as having a dubious provenance, or would be putting herself at risk and the city would need to exert itself to keep her safe. Her risks are twofold: the first is from assault to her modesty or respectability , the second perhaps more insidious that she may herself do something disreputable or immodest.

Every woman and every man enters public spaces in Mumbai with this knowledge. Part of the problem is that some women themselves have bought into the respectability rubric and at times even perpetuate it.

Thus, those dispossessed, those of inconvenient religions or castes, easily distinguished by their appearance are marked, if not isolated. Women identified by caste, class, age, dis abilities, sexual orientation or ambiguities each have their own minefields to cross in a city that clearly does not offer any concessions, and prefers as much as possible that they were not on the street at all.

The city is not designed nor has it grown with any consideration for women. Nowhere is this more visible than in the lack of public conveniences. The authors provide a disturbing, though obvious, insight into what a woman in a public space has to do to find a toilet she can use. There are so few to start with. None of my colleagues was of the same age as me, and later I was told that most people my age leave the city to work elsewhere.

Trapped in a place like this, I had nowhere to go but just walk to the nearest supermarket and then back to my flat. In trying to connect with my immediate surroundings, whenever I tried to venture out for a walk or to the mall, I felt a stiffness rise within me. I did not know or understand Tamil, the language spoken there, and this compounded my fears of being alone.

I had thought that Coimbatore would be like Pune, but the social fabric, coupled with the innately closed nature of the places I visited, made my life miserable. But just the fact that I could not be outdoors or interact with people made the rest of my life shrivel.

After five months, when I moved back to Delhi for a new job, it enthused me like never before. I had my apprehensions about being a single woman in Delhi with a low-paying job. But these fears were allayed when I saw things from the perspective of being able to enjoy myself in the city in many ways.

In other words, I created a new discipline to frame my relationship with this city. Our safety is something that at a visceral level none of us take for granted but strangely enough, this need to plot, plan and strategise has come to assume the proportions of a taken-for-granted life-world for all of us.

As I ask questions of them and myself, this sense of stoic taken-for-grantedness crumbles, producing angry and humiliated stories of harassment.

Early on during my time in Delhi, I decided to walk to grow my roots there. Even if the roads were empty, even if there were only luxury sedans cruising up and down, even if I had to be alone. I walked to the nearby market, then I walked to the vegetable vendor. I spent time in the neighbourhood park and took pleasure in purchasing dairy products directly across the counter.

Before the pandemic, even when there was an option to get groceries delivered at home, I took it upon myself to go and buy things. I made small talk wherever I could, getting to know people and giving them a window to know me. Delhi is also replete with constant arguments about its lack of safety. Among women, it is an accepted afterparty code to drop a text to everyone else after getting home. What does the presence or absence of that text indicate? As I continue to find my place here, some spaces welcome me, while the others continue to elude me.

Why Loiter?