Rosalyn D'Mello: An unconventional sort of tour

Illana Glazer left and Abbi Jacobson play best friends who revel in their friendship in the Broad City comedy seriesAbout half an hour after my Turkish delight Asli casually suggested I spend April 18 with her in Venice Mona texted to say she could meet me in Rome on the 28th I was beside myself with joy The thought of being with each of these women in two glorious historic cities made me beam It sounds so romantic I think I may have said to both Asli and Mona and I meant it Both women are incredibly resourceful intelligent witty and have such unique perspectives that being able to see a new city with them firsthand implies having an elevated experience of the entire affair where instead of it being touristic clicheacuted and mundane it almost always becomes something artistic mystical irreverent and entertaining all at the same timeIt dawned me later how unconventional my life is in that most women imagine being in cities such as the ones I will be visiting with their lovers or their boyfriends or their husbands or their fianceacutes These venues are reserved in our imagination for honeymooning Or if single women keep themselves open to meeting other single men while theyre there Im thinking of the film Before Sunrise Ive had my fair share of travel with a beloved some of which Ive detailed in my book but travelling with a female friend is a totally different ballgame The thrill is unique possibly because you feel like you can be your most unselfconscious self Often when Im hanging out with Mona whether in a supermarket or a mall or an art gallery or a restaurant or a park pretty much anywhere I feel as though were protagonists in a film Were so into each other so immersed in the others stories so obsessed with listening sharing being funny spontaneous that we seem eclectic like were lost in our private world of exchange Sometimes it feels like when were together were in this bubble that contains just the two of us blocking out everything else that is external We filter the world through this translucent shield We shamelessly walk hand in hand Mona even gets maternal with me cautioning me at traffic intersections holding my hand when were crossing the street Were both present and not at the same time We exist in that space were inhabiting but were also on another plane one in which we are both enacting the lead roles in the stories of our lives We are each others plus onesAs we grow into and out of adolescence we are conditioned to think of chemistry in a sexual way We are led to think of the one as that person usually heterosexual who will complete us who will allow us the space to be our truest selves We think of our female friends as the ones with whom we narrate those incidents to Which is perhaps why most films and television especially those written by men when they focus on female relationships premise them on the subject of men Their conversations are about recounting to each other the excitement of meeting men or the conflicts each character faces with a love interest When I rewatched Ally McBeal a few months ago I realised that I had misunderstood the synopsis of that dramedy as being about a professional womans search for Mr Right Instead I found upon revisiting it that the best moments the most precious screen time was between Ally and her roommate and best friend Renee I began to view certain shows from the prism of female friendship and found great joy in those that celebrated the chemistry between two women in all its nonsexual glory When I watched the first episode of the latest season of Broad City I was almost in tears because the shows creators Illana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson decided to zoom in on how the two of them who play best friends to each other met in New York City all those years ago revealing two parallel scenarios both of which end in their eventual chance encounter like they were destined to meet I texted Mona and told her she had to watch it and then we viewed the last episode of that season together the one in which the two of them celebrate the anniversary of their friendshipThe moral of the story of my reimmersion into these new instances of popular culture written out by women was that the plot is beginning to gradually evolve It feels like we might finally be moving towards an era in which we as women realise that our female friends could be enough That they dont have to be side stories to the main events of our lives but can in fact constitute the whole delicious narrativeDeliberating on the life and times of Everywoman Rosalyn DMello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover She tweets RosaParx Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates