happiest in neutral

But even at those times, when he was the centre of everybody's attention, there was always something a little detached about his manner. He did not seem to want to make friends with the people he was talking to, and that perhaps was why he was happiest in neutral, impersonal places--coffee houses, bars, street-corner addas--the sort of place where people come, talk and go away without expecting to know each other any further.

-Amitav Ghosh in The Shadow Lines