During our interlude outside Bar No. 7, punctuated by cigarettes, three of us were engaged in some lukewarm conversation, some banal banter. As you do on a Friday night. There was a guy leaning against the bar window, smoking. A bunch of people doing the same in front of the other window to the left of the door. As our conversation sauntered so did two women, right into my peripheral vision. I was facing the pavement. There's a natural rhythm to the mise-en-scene when you're relaxed, in good company, and in good humour. The crowd, the conversations, everything feels cool, everything flows. Such was the case in the hollowed-out cobbled-stones street behind Nardoni Divadlo (the National Theatre) where we stood, 9 degrees Celsius and all. Looking back it was all like a dream-like haze.
The two interlopers strolling into my line of vision felt the need to switch up the scene. As our conversation stuttered on, one of the women tackled the other. Instead of choogling across my line of sight, their footsteps agitatedly retreated back to the very edge of my vision. Crashing against the giant door (neo-classical, art-nouveau, idk what the style is) of the building next to our Bar. But it was all good, it was all amorous. They went at each other's faces, kissing. I'm sure that door felt the passion too. Everybody on the street registered the sudden burst of passion displayed on the pavement. I could see a twinkle in my buddy's eyes, and a quarter smile vanish faster than it formed. Not the horny kind. Rather, one of amusement. Ultimately, it didn't matter to anybody. I guess it added to the general come-as-you-are vibe of the evening. Anyway, while they went at it, we went our way back into the Bar.
I was leaving town soon, and I confided in another friend about how I'd miss the liberties of Europe. People minding their own business, in a centre-positive kind of way. He nodded saying "ya, the layer of laissez-faire...". One of the most irresponsible economic positions actually describes the sociocultural climate of the Old-world West fairly well. Nobody gives a shit what you do, just don't go assaulting and murdering.
How does a region historically addicted to war get so chill?
...and before you lazily say cultural liberalism is "an East-West thing"...remember people lazily condemn prudish Victorian Britain to be the reason so-called historically liberal India is so conservative today...
I shall investigate the matter for all of us...