Yahaan Phaltu Bethna Sakht Mana Hai1: Idling, Storytelling and Planning

Taking its cue from the anti- and post-work writings of Georges Bataille and Kathi Weeks, this article explores the relationship among idling, storytelling and planning in a slum settlement in Mumbai, India, with the aim of reimagining cities and planning praxis beyond ‘the logic of work’. It does so in two ways: first, it explores Walter Benjamin’s writings on mimesis and storytelling. Second, it moves through a detailed ethnographic study of storytelling practices in three spaces in the slum settlement—a balwadi, a Human Rights Commission office and a teahouse. The broader aim of the article is to highlight how the paradoxical activities of idling and storytelling can provide clues for reimagining cities and planning praxis beyond the logic of work