Lonedon(everyday banter)
Last night I came home through the night bus, the bus was packed to the point that there were some people standing don't the second floor. But to my surprise, it was completely silent. No one was talking though everyone was sort of drunk, in a joyful mood, it was a Friday night after all.
Interestingly everyone was looking at their phone and on social media, scrolling I suppose, I wasn't any different. I was looking at my eToro though, I had my stocks in Gold and Palladium jump up the crazy cause of the war investments into metal! Go figure!
At one point this girl stood up and said you wonderful people need to talk to each other more. Love you all and gave a flying kiss and to get off in her stop, everyone was laughing and saying right back at you. But then the rouse came down again when she left. We were back inside our phone.
I guess we didn't want to get involved in other people’s lives, everyone was in their own world. London is lonely, I call it #Lonedon. I hope this catches on! People are mistrusting and reserved a lot I see and I talked to plenty about this and they all seem to agree.
I guess maybe its my attire, there was this guy who told me, I am getting homeless vibes from you. I snapped back well what if I was? Is that a problem? He took a while to respond and said no problem. Perhaps because I was tuning in to what he was saying perhaps attention has to be rebutted?
However, that is one of the better memories of mine of London. I would rather get a response than to be nodded off or just not heard in Lonedon. I find this incredibly divisive. Why are we not making the best out of this multicultural environment? Everyone in London I met is from somewhere else, its so lovely to hear 20 different languages on a single walk to your university. And yet no one seems to be interested in getting to know someone new-even drunk on a weekend. Breaks my heart to be honest.
And poses a question why are there lines everywhere? Is this a soft form of racism? ageism, genderism…are we all looking through the prism of these isms everywhere?
It's subtle although very vocal because you hear the silence screaming at you in this place. You cannot quite talk about it but you see mistrusting people from a mile away. Confronting these are not the easiest sometimes.
Instead of being a champion of diversity, London has become one that tries to keep the border very uptight. How will this be a melting pot then? Isn't this rather more like a salad these days?
Of course who gives me the right to talk about diversity in a place where I have been for little more than two months? It's important exactly because I just arrived. I feel the cultural shock and am sure anyone who comes here for the first time feels this shock.
But it's not just a cultural shock, let's call it what it is. It's a very very lonely place that has lost all its spontaneity because of mistrust. Forget the isms the institutions here are all mistrusting too and cater for specific tribes. You cant enter clubs if you are alone, or if you look like two guys who shouldn't be there, you can enter if you are a girl or in mixed groups, you cant enter if you have too big a group. So many interesting laws. What happened to mixing and matching. Geez
Fuck you London for being so uptight for catering to the ones you think are worthy. It could be a shock that comes to the poor maybe or those without a proper social connection perhaps, but if we are trying to make things better for everyone if we are championing human rights and diversity all around the world, why are we not championing it at home? Charity begins at home after all.
This disconnect is really fascinating, and I want to understand why it exists. Maybe you can drop your stories where you felt disconnected.
