Understanding your city

All of us would benefit from exploring our surroundings in greater depth than just figuring out the location of landmarks and establishments

VS Naipaul writes about Gandhi that, when he first landed abroad, in Tilbury in 1888, he only noticed two things: that it was October and that he was the only one in white flannels. The differences between India and Europe, the quality of the architecture, the orderliness, all of that was lost on him, observes Naipaul. 

The crotchety old West Indian makes the point in a different way in his brilliant novel, A Bend in the River. He talks about Indians at a great airport, not noticing how it works, taking for granted the way that the world functions and having