Aastha Bhargava: Third Places

The different take on ‘sense of community’ America has was the first cultural adjustment I found myself making when I moved to New York from Mumbai about a year ago. What the author talks about as a matter of the past or something that seldom exists today was how I lived my life back home. I’ve actually had that third place and I couldn’t help reading this article drifting now and then back to memories of home where my life was dominated by community and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of examples in the article I could relate to.

In Mumbai, I lived in a building complex composed of residential buildings, gardens, a large playground and parking spaces, all enclosed in boundary walls separating us from the rest of the city. Our ‘third place’ wasn’t a coffee shop or a bar but a beautiful seating area-large enough to accommodate about thirty people in the middle of the main garden, opposite which I lived. I remember spending late afternoons as a child looking out of the window waiting for friends to congregate. Everybody knew everybody and what was going on in their lives. New neighbours were personally invited to join us every evening where people of all ages would sit and chat together, sometimes share snacks while children would play. There was also a grocery store which primarily catered to our complex (and delayed payments were not a problem).

We did everything together- celebrated festivals and dealt with problems. One incident the article reminded me of was the time I faced an emergency in the absence of my family and I remember feeling overwhelmed not by the circumstances but by the support I received from my neighbours. From helping me make crucial decisions to insisting on providing all my meals- they took care of everything without me even asking for it.