Living in Basement

Living in a basement is definitively associated with numerous inconveniences. Yet, after having spent almost two years in such location, I managed to find one feature distinguishing basement from other apartments in a way that recompenses all of its nuisances - the window. A view from the narrow gap which is positioned merely few inches above the pavement provides remarkable experience of learning the city’s life.

The view my window offers may not appear intensively interesting at first, as, for the most part, it consists of wayfarers’ legs moving in opposite directions. However, after several hours of observation, it is possible to notice that the pace of people is at variance not only according to hour of the day, but also shifts throughout the week and year. And the pattern in the manner of how the passer-by’s gait changes embodies the city life’s rhythm.

As the day commences, footpath is congested with citizens hastening to their workplaces. From their tread one can scent somnolence, and lassitude. There are however individuals bursting with the energy and sense of fulfilling their ambitions. As time passes many of the pedestrians become children and students. They toddle without hustle, still with a dose of excitement. Later on, in the midday hours the crowd dilutes, as if preparing for the rush of the afternoon. The pace of people returning homes indicates their fatigue and hope for finding time to calm at homes. Evening is definitively the time of the young people. Roaming teenagers and students are filled with jaunty and light thoughts, and the positive energy surrounding them spreads among all the surrounding. The later it becomes the more chaotic and disordered the moves of the striders become. Finally, as the dawn draws closer streets become deserted, save for the communal service workers, and whole cycle is ready to restart.

Another dissimilarities in people’s way of walking can be observed with the shift of the seasons. Wayfarers tend to saunter much slower in summer, due to the high temperature’s influence on our mood and energy supplies. A perceptible amount of caution characterises feelings of pedestrians in winter, since the pavements become treacherous and dangerous places when covered with even the thinnest layer of ice. Spring and autumn, on the contrary, are the times of slalom-walking among the puddles and avoiding being mud

...