Sunday, May 18, 2014
A rambling, idling post- A flaneur-ing post
Rahul Gandhi is described as a flaneur by TOI, which says that we need a man of action - NaMo, and not a flaky dreamer -RaGa. In a flagrant piece of lazy copy-pasting- the most flagrant such instance in the otherwise spotless 8-year history of this blog- I stick in here what wiki has to say on the term, which I found quite evocative:
"Flâneur (pronounced: [flɑnœʁ]), from the French noun flâneur, means "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer". Flânerie refers to the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. The flâneur was, first of all, a literary type from 19th century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street.
Source: TOI, which described RaGa as a flaneur."
"Flâneur (pronounced: [flɑnœʁ]), from the French noun flâneur, means "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer". Flânerie refers to the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. The flâneur was, first of all, a literary type from 19th century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street.
Source: TOI, which described RaGa as a flaneur."
I suppose it's hard to be a flaneur in India because our public walking spaces often leave much to be desired- the absence, often, of wide and clean sidewalks, for example. I think the external requirements for quality flaneuring include:
1. Wide, clean walking space
2. Packed action- establishments of interest such as cafes, museums etc should be close to each other so that the stroll is action packed.
3. There should be regular display of public art, all the better if there are public performances.
Now Manhattan is a nice place for the flaneur, which does exhibit the above 3 criteria. Europe, you'd say, is the ideal place for flaneuring. Well then, looking forward to some high quality flaneuring in the last quarter of this year.
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