“Let’s catch up at Shivaji Park”: emotively conversing on connecting and un/belonging through a public space

What is it about?

Shivaji Park, anecdotally the largest park in the island city of Mumbai functions as a relational space and cultural artifact for the authors. This article explores their “member status” based on shared childhood memories of cricket, food, and language connecting three of the authors who were long-term residents, while the first author was a temporary resident by marriage. Using informal conversation as research method supported by belonging and emotional reflexivity as conceptual frames, it investigates how the spatial context fosters a binding relationality, despite all authors ceasing to be locals. It argues that belonging/unbelonging centres around emotionally tinged representations of place. The findings indicate that ongoing changes stemming from urban progress incur emotional and human costs through a ‘culling’ of connections and belongings as repercussions. Eliding open activism, the authors hope that for some readers the text goes beyond research to inspire some forms of social query and action.

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