Geeta

Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Emirates Palace, November 2nd, 2013


In addition to this, I am also comfortable sharing the following item(s):

[ ] The city of residence of the recipient of this letter/phone call
[X] The recorded audio of my 5 minutes of questions
[X] Incidental recorded audio (conversations had, questions asked, enthusiasm expressed outside of the official 5 minutes
[X] The transcribed text of my 5 minutes of questions
[ ] Complete and utter faith in the artist





Artist’s note: Geeta accepted our offer, but gave away her phone call to the woman accompanying her, who Geeta says looks after her son. Geeta described this woman as her “Half-sister (laugh)”

[…]
00:00:00-0
Yannick: Um, just out of curiosity—who would you have called?

Geeta: My mom.

Yannick: Your mom. And why?

Geeta: … (exhales) I don't know, she's the only friend I have. (laugh). So.

Yannick: Uh—where—why are you apart? Where is she?

Geeta: She lives in Oman.

Yannick: Okay.

Geeta: So.

Yannick: So you had to come here?

Geeta: Sorry?

Yannick: How did you end up living apart?

Geeta: (tsk) Uh I'm married, I live here with my husband, and he's my little boy. And um, but I'm moving to Oman very soon. But she—she's not—I'm not as close to my own son as she is to my son. So, every few minutes, she's asking us about his well being, because he's here temporarily—he lives with her. Which is—it's a bit of a strange arrangement. But I had a traumatic childbirth, and she looked after him.

Yannick: mhm
00:00:55-7
Geeta: And so, she just continues to look after him. And so—yeah. And because my sister-in-law is visiting, he's here. And my husband's visiting, my husband's studying in London. //So.//

Yannick: //Okay// So do you normally live in London?

Geeta: Nnn-no. I live in Abu Dhabi.

Yannick: You live in Abu Dhabi. [Alright]. Uh, how did .. if I may ask, who else could you have chosen? Other than your mother? Who do you not choose then, by choosing her?

Geeta: Um—by—if I didn't call my mom?

Yannick: Yeah—I mean, who-who would you have not called then? Does anyone else come to mind? Or is she the only one.

Geeta: I can't tell you. (laughing)

Yannick: You don't have to.

Geeta: (laughing)

Yannick: (laughing)

Yannick: and then-sort of to talk about the piece—it's about missing, actually. The-the idea of what happens when you miss people.
00:01:48-6
Geeta: That's interesting

Yannick: I think this is a city that's filled with people who are away from home. And then those people go away from here. And then they go away again. And so we're accumulating all these absences.

[…]
00:02:01-3
Yannick: —I mean, what does it feel like for you when you miss someone?

Geeta: (inhale) I don't know it's a blur. I—okay so, I'm going to move next month. And if I do move to New York, it will be the 10th city—9th city in the last 10 years. (inhale) So I'm—and sorry, the 10th city I live in. So I was born in Liberia. I'm an Indian. I was born to Indian parents, who emigrated to India from Erstwhile India, which is currently Pakistan. So—and I was born in Liberia, and I lived there for 8 years, then I lived in India for 10 years, then I lived in Switzerland for 1 year and I lived in (inhale) uh Paris for 2 years and I lived in Singapore for a year, and I lived in Oman for 2 years I lived in London for a year and now in Abu Dhabi in 3 and a half years and I'm going back to Oman or New York. So. If you ask me, I have—that's why I said my mom's my only friend. Because then .. your-your blood relations—or even-even not blood relations, just the closest people in your life, you keep and then everything else is just—filters itself out, weeds itself out, and—i have friends everywhere. And I have a great network of p—friends. But .. it's not an everyday friend. You know? It's just .. so (inhale) so there's no missing .. when you're a traveler yourself, and you're a nomad. You know? There's no missing. You-you miss the sense of self, you miss your own identity.
00:03:26-1
Yannick: What do you mean by that? I think I understand but I don't want to assume, uh/

Geeta: Like a bit of soul-searching, when you don't … (inhale) .. when you leave so much behind, I think you try to find yourself to retain your sanity, or just to find your purpose. … And, and I think you focus more on the future than the past. And missing has to do with the past, and it's—so you're thinking about your destination, and everyone's destination at the end of the day is death. So—is the grave. So. And then, I could go get philosophical, but I don't think that's where we're going. (laughing)

Yannick: I—you are more than welcome, yeah.

Geeta: Yeah? I—well I don't'—I think that when you think of death you don't miss anyone. You know it's like, it doesn't' .. matter. And then you always are reminded of death .. when … when you lose too much. And too often. So missing is when you've had .. when you have a possession, and you have a relationship with that possession. Personal thing. But when you don't have those possessions any more or you lose them too often, you cease to miss them.
00:04:41-5
Yannick: That's really helpful. And really beautiful, and kind of sad. Um, thank you.

Geeta: Thank you.

00:04:51-5

[…]

END

Question 1 Geeta

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