The initiative started with a process of familiarizing and defamiliarizing ourselves with the locality. With the ghats, the one key challenge was that the interactions with the couples would be one-off encounters, so the scope of incrementally building the dialogue would be lost. Hence, each interaction with them would have to be a complete and memorable experience in itself. In parallel, we started engaging with the residents who come to bathe at the ghats, hoping that there would be a cross-over of ideas around intimacy and gendered interactions between the couples and the community.

These conversations were often uncomfortable, and play became an increasingly important aspect of the interaction. In addition, Nilanjan designed the encounters with a sense of romance and beauty. All these factors came together to ensure that he could create a safe space for these conversations.

The first encounter was a mapping exercise, where Nilanjan asked the couples to map how far they had travelled to meet their partners at the ghats, revealing how the ghats are an in-between place for people who often live far away from each other to reunite. This led to the idea for the next encounter. He used the title of a local jatra and a popular Bengali song to create the mood and setting for the next series of encounters. He worked with the local bamboo craftspeople and electricians to create a large sign with this title – Kotha Dao Abar Ashbe (Promise you will come again). 

The glowing sign became the backdrop for the next two conversations. It invited couples in to take selfies and became a part of the date instead of disruption. It also became a sign that celebrated intimacy and pulled hesitant local residents into the conversation.

The second encounter was centred around this sign, couple were asked to leave behind their memories, good and bad, of that ghats, on the surface of the sign, and in exchange take away a tear-away photograph. These memories were left behind for everyone to read, along with the glow sign claiming the space as a space for intimacy.

The next encounter opened up this conversation further, asking uncomfortable questions about the nature and limits of intimacy. These questions however were posed through play. Two life-size non-binary puppets were placed in front of the glowing sign. Couples and local residents were invited to move the arms and limbs of the puppets and demonstrate the ideal level of intimacy that is permissible in public spaces. After they were satisfied with the position they were asked to take a polaroid image of themselves with the puppets, and were able to take home a copy.

The interaction with these puppets, and the act of positioning them in intimate embraces brought the couples and local residents together. The participants and onlookers went back and forth about how couples should behave and why that was so. They witnessed and observed positions that were divergent with their own without being immediately countering it. They listened to different perspectives as the puppets were being repositioned. All the while the glowsign gently signalled a message that gently reminded people about the beauty of returning to the ghats with friends and lovers.

Nilanjan returned one final time to the ghat, armed with silkscreen signs and glow-in-the-dark ink. Each screen was a statement made by the participants in the previous interactions, declaring often contradictory rules and regulations for public intimacy. He invited people to select a statement that appealed to them and stencilled it on the steps of the ghat. These ephemeral signs stayed for a few nights, washing away with the tide eventually.