067 - Space and Dreams
He [human being] knows instinctively that this space identified with his solitude is creative; that even when it is forever expunged from the present, when, henceforth, it is alien to all the promises of the future, even when we no longer have a garret, when the attic room is lost and gone, there remains the fact that we once loved a garret, once lived in an attic. We return to them in our night dreams.
- Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard
This issue of Daak captures the the idea of a writer sitting in a cafe and dispatching his notes of the world from one of its chaotic corners. At a diagonal away from him, against a wall, sits another with two books next to his laptop - one is Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and hidden below it, a blue hardbound called Dreams. This city abstracted to perfection.
Coming two days late, with Ganpati Bappa wishes and Modak dreams, this is Bombay Daak issue 67.
Time Well Spent
Talent Magnet: Why London Attracts the Art World - insight into what makes London a thriving place for artists despite common big city problems of high rent and high competition.
The World’s Last Internet Cafés - will any internet cafe remain in the world by next September, when it would be 30 years to the first one?
And Empty Grows Every Bed - ‘Loneliness is as present as faith throughout the book. The loneliness of travel is endemic in photography’s history for those who leave the studio and travel in search of their subjects. Soth experienced it and recognized it in others.’ Anne Wilkes Tucker on Alec Soth's 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'; compelled to share this just on account of the title. 1
I realised I was in one Internet, or as I was introduced to them back in 1999, cyber cafe two weeks back when I stepped out to get a few printouts and copies. I caught a middle aged man in grey shorts and black crumpled polo working on his resume on the lone old school desktop in this tiny stationery and copier shop. He was applying for positions such as CEO,COO as I noticed from behind while waiting, which raised plenty of questions in my mind. This city has spaces for every dream.
Kabooliwalla2
A Twist in the End by Manu Joseph
A short story in which a writer moves through many spaces and waits for another. Captures a bombay dream of many and gives an ending that only short stories can brazenly attempt.
Time Spent Elsewhere
I think this letter is about how big dreams are getting crushed under the force of ever reducing space in the city, and the crowding under the claustrophobic public spaces of those lonely on account of it.
Ways of Seeing
Alec Soth is a constant across Seasons on Daak. This post gets it title from the poem Dream Song 1 by John Berryman, who too was crushed by the weight of his dreams.
This was a candidate for Time Well Spent as well