As an international student, I tell people back home in Pakistan that my first year had long, drawn-out, contemplative episodes which oscillated from sad to ebullient. But, what plagued me throughout the first year was a lingering sense of ‘otherness’ in my academic pursuits, because I had to actively think ‘talk in English’ before speaking, and halfway through the sentence I would notice the silence and my English would falter. I must add, I am fluent in English more than I am in my native tongue (Urdu). Similarly, during readings I would feel that I was dealing with dense concepts written in an academic style I had not been very familiar with. This initial background meant that when my group met to discuss our Making History project, I could not relate to banter about which soup is more filling (Tesco or Sainsbury’s). Neither did I understand Tory or Whig politics, nor why the UK had a “Green Party”.

So when I got to discover the “public space” of Trafalgar Square through its history, and its status as a melting pot of immigrants, tourists, and Kings College Students passing by, I had found a nexus connecting a lot of disparate worlds together. Nelson’s Statue decorates the square around which sit the British Lions, sauntering in the sun. Admiral Horatio Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, defeating Napoleon’s fleets fortified by the Spanish, becoming a decorated symbol of British prestige. The square itself was an ode to an imperial British past, and stands today as a travel destination for its fountains and children. One questions how much the intentions of its constructions have been forgotten in the identity it has assumed! On one pillar in the square, looking towards Whitehall and 10 Downing Street, is the Lamassu (or was when I was studying it), made from date cans by an Iraqi artist. That art installation chides the decision-makers of 10 Downing Street for the Iraq War which led to (amongst other bigger offenses) a destruction of the date industry of Iraq.

I was struck by the way in which I could envision the past of a place I stood in two centuries later, and the way in which “Britain’s” conception of itself had changed. I was then also taken by the ways in which my group-mates reacted. An earnest sincerity in their anger at the racist undertones of the square’s history and a desire to truly change the wrongs of selective history writing were equally matched by their ability to talk to me about things which would have struck me. They actively tried to find common ground between us interpersonally, as I them. The project was a unique one, because we decided, given the square’s life story, that we would do a “Draw My Life” for Trafalgar Square. I huddled under a high table to draw on charts (which the History department charitably gave to us) and a group-mate attached her camera to a hoover pipe and taped the contraption above my head from the table.

Afterwards, as a team, we discussed what we wanted to focus on and we all decided unanimously to ask the question: “Should Nelson’s status be taken down due to its racist undertones?”, which was a question, I confess, I had not thought of. The spirit of teamwork extends to Making History projects as much as it extends to a team sport. We must be respectful of the ways in which people in our groups can be “othered” or “misinterpreted”. You will find that, at the end of the day, despite differing intellectual and cultural standpoints, diversity only enriched what you possessed. Had I not been a master doodler, had my teammates not have sufficient storage space, industrial grade tape, and a hoover in her house ready for sacrifice, or another teammate decided on our research question, this Draw My Life, and my simultaneous cultural integration, would not be the same. The History Department helped too! So, communication, small talk, and visiting sites (this can be done virtually too if even one member is isolating or abroad) will all serve you. I felt like I had truly started deciphering London as a city, its residents and their daily musings, and the buses which could take me from campus to 10 Downing Street. Public spaces, I believe ever since, are inherently personal.

(Also, if I have kept you in suspense, Sainsbury’s soup wins.)