To engage is to connect, to be present, to commit, to be involved, to see, to think, to bear witness. It can be to do battle. It can also mean to stay the course, to hold, to attract, to retain. I am intrigued by the way these different meanings seem to be opposed—a battle may be transient, but an engagement in marriage or work means something that you hope will be the farthest thing from that. What ties these seemingly disparate meanings together is that to engage is always to be alive, to be conscious.

I thought of this during the intense days of the Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF:STIR) in Mumbai last weekend, which was truly a festival of engagement, not only

because it put before us all kinds of films that are themselves ways of engaging with design & art, but because of how it gave attendees ways of connecting with each other, with architecture, and with the city. Film and architecture are both forms of engagement, and when you engage them with each other, they both benefit.

This festival was not happening just anywhere; it was in Mumbai, one of the most intense urban places. Perhaps it is possible to be here and not be engaged with the city, but I have no idea how you could do this, since Mumbai insists that you engage with it. It does not offer retreat or serenity. What it offers, is presence.

But is that not true of every city? Cities exist to facilitate engagement. Mumbai may demand more, but it is in the city's nature to elevate the notion of engagement. The city, every city, is a marketplace, a common ground, the physical manifestation of the very idea of community. To engage is not to be alone.