London’s Khawater 2: Spectator
Khawater (خواطر) is an Arabic word for “Thoughts”. It is often used to label the kind of thoughts that you have on the fly in some sort of a monologue or a lightbulb. In here, I will share with you some of my khawater that I sometimes have during my stay in London.
Location: outside London Bridge station
Time: 6:30pm
Usually, I would be utterly annoyed and you will be able to see it from miles, if I’m still there, when you are late.
I’ve always been like that. Since the day I started commuting alone to meet friends, I would leave home early to get to an appointment 10 mins early. I don’t expect you to do the same, but I certainly expect you to be on time, give or take 5 minutes no more. If you happened to be late, I do really try my best to understand the reasons why but I struggle in pretending that I’m ‘OK’ with it; I’m certain that you will see it on my face and in my mood for the next hour or so. And it used to upset me to the point where I would turn around and go back to wherever I came from if you are more than 15 mins late.
But this time it was different. Yes I had to wait, yes I was getting agitated, but I was not upset when he arrived almost 30 mins late.
As usual, I was early for my appointment, I took out my phone and sent him a message to let him know that “I’m here”. In other words, “I’m here on time and waiting for you and the clock is ticking”.
It was a busy narrow pavement next to a busy station and it was peak time after working hours. I had to move aside and stand with my back on the wall, of a bank I believe, waiting for him by the exit of the tube station. For a reason unknown to me, I didn’t have my headphones on.
I checked my social media accounts and my dating apps, and it was time for him to arrive. He didn’t message to say that he will be late — I checked. I put my phone back in my pocket and started looking around for him.
At that moment, I noticed the busyness of my surrounding. People are just passing back and forth in front of me like a parade.
I was captivated by the scene. A scene I take part in every day but never occurred to me to stop and be the spectator.
Everyone is going somewhere, some going back home from work, some going out for dinner, some have that touristic look on their faces and some and some… all just participating in the same parade for me to enjoy.
I suddenly forgot that I was waiting for someone, and found myself getting mesmerised by this display, this international show and its diversity. People of any and every ethnic group I could think of, every background, and every age. Not having my headphones allowed me to hear the languages - some I can recognise and many I couldn’t - even the accents and the tone of voices of those passersby were something to be in awe of.
Every now and then, someone would stand by my side to text, to look at the map or to smoke. No one else seems to have noticed the magnificent show I’m fascinated by.
A lady stood next to me, similar to everyone else, she is just looking at her phone. Until a guy came to her, said “Hi”, they hugged and walked away together, to blend in again into this current of walkers. It was all part of the same great show. They did remind me, though, that I’m waiting for someone.
However, I wasn’t bothered - I wanted him to be late - I wanted to absorb this moment to its fullest, as I don’t know when I will be on the bench and watching again rather than in the current participating in the same parade.
I wanted the reality to sink in. To be honest, I’ve never been the biggest fan of London but on this day I realised the beauty of this not so pretty city. And the big revelation was that this beauty, that can easily go unnoticed if you don’t stop and spectate, comes from within, from the people who make it London, from their diversity.
In the span of those few minutes of observation, I have seen the whole world passing by probably, just walking somewhere or nowhere. Happy and sad, content and worried, relaxed and anxious, rich and poor, religious and atheist, hetero and homo, anything and everything. Yet we don’t see it usually, or at least I didn’t. Busy running from the office to catch the tube and from there to our homes. Very rarely that we stop and look around. See and appreciate this multicultural metropolitan that we make London.
P.S.: I wasn’t upset with the guy when he came, but don’t get me wrong, I didn’t just let it go, I told him that he was saved by London and the show it put for me… I had to say it, at the end of the day, I’m not a saint.
If you enjoyed this, Khawater is a series of short blogs, try the first one — Daily Dance — .
