London, fractions of a second


There are many ways to observe, admire, eye-feast London. You may hate the city and its creaky tube, the £9 pints, the tuk-tuks lined with pink faux-fur blasting out naughties pop, the smell of fermented human pee in an underpass, the homeless sitting outside Tesco making you feel bad (for them, but also predominantly of yourself pretending to not seeing them), but as garish, congested, expensive and uncaring as it can be, London rarely bores you, like a vainglorious influencer provoking attention or revulsion. 

A London life is hard; a good London life takes not just privilege, but often grit and savviness too. My friend Candy loves telling me the investment bankers don't even drive to work — they take the tube. The tax devours half of their salaries, and it's sheer folly to get stuck in traffic and paying for Ulez. When even ibankers need to skimp on transportation, how do the rest manages to live well? 

A decent life we try to have. Amidst occasional outbursts of frustration about tube line closure and bus delay and councils' general inefficiency, most of us hold mixed feelings of pleasure and perverse pride to be 'Londoners', and if we'd be honest with ourselves, some wilful gullibility of not keeping a tally of money spent in those nights out. Yes, there are top-notch arts and cultural gigs, good jobs, Westminster, Square Mile and the royals, but London’s true magic for the common people isn’t its wealth and power, it is the possiblity that at any turn of the road, we find manifestations of qualities that captivate us: strength, beauty, surprise, love. It is the richness of the human experience.

London's expanse and porousness makes it possible for immigrants to find a place they can belong to, regardless of their accents, skin colours and ancestral heritage. People from across the world bring their possessions and past lives to London to put roots down, shaping the neighbourhood with their traditions, beliefs and apsirations. The city, like the modern English language, has its heritage and snobbery but is also spongy enough to let new people have their go in defining what Londonness is. That is why it is a metropolis. 

These photos are glimpses of the landscape and lives I saw in London in the past 3 years and 4 months.




Light’s Interplay
Miscellaneous observations in proses and poems.
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