A HITCHCOCK MOMENT

"We are being watched, " John said one morning when we were having coffee on the glass covered balcony area in our apartment. "The man next door is looking at us", he added. I did not want to turn around as it would have been a bit too obvious that we had noticed and carried on drinking coffee. We were clearly being observed from a distance, but not in a sinister way - more curiosity than anything else.

 

The balcony- or a khonde as I we would have called it in Malawi - is my favourite area in the whole apartment.  Effectively, it is an extra room where we can have breakfast, lunch and dinner, have drinks, read books - you get the picture. This space is very handy, especially since the lounge is still full of unfinished IKEA furniture with boxes everywhere. Naturally, we spend a lot of time here. However,  it is a bit like being in a fish bowl. Everyone can see you and likewise, you can discreetly absorb quite a few facts about your neighbours without being intrusive as such. I am now beginning to understand why everyone has heavy wooden shutters on every window. It is partly protection from the sun and rain, but also partly because nobody can see through when the shutters are closed. And they are closed most of the time.

 

We were sitting on the balcony one evening, having dinner, lights on as it was already dark.  There was a nice buzz in the air: lots of people walking in the street, stopping to have a chat with friends in the bar/cafe down below, in the street. The local train passed every 15 minutes or so on its way to the city or back from there, its compartments illuminated. Scooters speeding through the street, couple of dogs barking. I was looking at the opposite house, casually registering that I can actually see into someone else's apartment where they were making dinner. I looked around again and saw a couple in another balcony, chatting and playing cards. I noticed laundry hanging outside the windows and another neighbour tending to her plants. I noticed all these things just by sitting there and watching the world go by...

 

And then it hit me: I have seen this scene somewhere.

Yes, in Rear Window, a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. If you have not seen this classic film with James Steward and Grace Kelly, it is well worth watching. If you have seen it - you will understand.