Proposal submitted by John Xaviers for City as Studio to SARAI, CSDS
In the form of a graphic novel/essay, I would like to explore Delhi-Gurgaon bus journey. These buses which are always crowded become the space and occasion where physical touch is permissible across class and gender, which might not be acceptable in circumstances outside the bus. Gurgaon as the bustling periphery of the NCR sees horde of Delhites going that way on a daily basis for livelihood. The rich resort to private cars while many from the middle class who are not comfortable with public transport make use of car pools. The left-outs, who represent a wide cross-section of middle-class, from office executives to manual labourers, travel in buses. Since the buses are crowded, a forced intimacy through physical touch is established between the travellers, irrespective of class, caste, gender, region, religion, age, weight-group, bearing, etc. The proposed graphic novel/essay is an attempt to chart the Gurgaon-Delhi bus journey as the site of psychosocial sexuality, wherein the politics of touch and touch-avoidance is played out. The protagonist of the proposed graphic novel/essay is a young office executive who is new to the city of Delhi and fresh out of college from Cochin. She is availing PG accommodation in Vasant Kunj and her office is in IFFCO-Chowk, Gurgaon.
The novel would trace the first thirty days of her introduction to Delhi as enacted in Delhi-Gurgaon bus journey through a range of experiences from unwanted attention, lesbian anxieties, erotica, discomfort, romance, disgust, sympathy, impatience, patience, etc. in a private aural world of the I-pod underscoring personal fantasies, work-related anxieties and urban landscapes.
John Xaviers, 2009
Proposal submitted by John Xaviers for City as Studio to SARAI, CSDS
In the form of a graphic novel/essay, I would like to explore Delhi-Gurgaon bus journey. These buses which are always crowded become the space and occasion where physical touch is permissible across class and gender, which might not be acceptable in circumstances outside the bus. Gurgaon as the bustling periphery of the NCR sees horde of Delhites going that way on a daily basis for livelihood. The rich resort to private cars while many from the middle class who are not comfortable with public transport make use of car pools. The left-outs, who represent a wide cross-section of middle-class, from office executives to manual labourers, travel in buses. Since the buses are crowded, a forced intimacy through physical touch is established between the travellers, irrespective of class, caste, gender, region, religion, age, weight-group, bearing, etc. The proposed graphic novel/essay is an attempt to chart the Gurgaon-Delhi bus journey as the site of psychosocial sexuality, wherein the politics of touch and touch-avoidance is played out. The protagonist of the proposed graphic novel/essay is a young office executive who is new to the city of Delhi and fresh out of college from Cochin. She is availing PG accommodation in Vasant Kunj and her office is in IFFCO-Chowk, Gurgaon.
The novel would trace the first thirty days of her introduction to Delhi as enacted in Delhi-Gurgaon bus journey through a range of experiences from unwanted attention, lesbian anxieties, erotica, discomfort, romance, disgust, sympathy, impatience, patience, etc. in a private aural world of the I-pod underscoring personal fantasies, work-related anxieties and urban landscapes.
John Xaviers, 2009