a movie and some music

a movie and some music i heard after a long time...

movie 1: born into brothels: a classic example of a strong statement represented in a simple form putting forth the message just as it needs to be. A movie which brought the oscars to India but apparently will never be screened there... placed in a red light area in calcutta through the simple medium of "photogrpahy" as the subject tells us about the lives of thse children. A small intervention in their lives in the form of a "camera" changes their lives... forever for some.. for the time being for the rest. The movie doesnt aim at putting forth a sad image meant for pondering...its just about how even a few resources within your capacity are good enough to bring about change in an environment... surely worth a watch. the photogrpahs are incredible... the representation too is remarkable. more like " less is more"


album 1: is raat ki subah nahin... this movie has 3 songs..released somewhere in the late 90s i believe,
the songs did strike me tht time..but when i heard them again this time around they are so much better... the music and the lyrics both... especially the song "jeewan kya hain"

Album 2: phir teri kahani yaad aayee... i guess most of u guys will agree that this movie though didnt do well was a good movie with excellent songs... my personal favorites : baadalon mein chup rahaan hain chaand kyon and "dil mein sanam ki suarat"

more later!!!

...well...

ok i dont mean to shock any of you guys with this post... but just something tht has been crossing my mind over the past few days...whts must be the feeling for parents to see their new born baby in their arms?

isnt it a beautiful feeling to see... feel... nurture...love... someone tht is literally a part of u...

n how lovely a feelin would it be to search the face of tht loved one in your baby ?


i think i am really becoming old!!!!

c o l l a g e

i love the way cities begin to grow over you.... today on a birght sunny day as i walked for almost two hours in ann arbor...lookin for a site for one of our projects in siteplanning i just realised how much ann arbor has grown over me..the cozy little town which can never make anyone feel out of place... big cities have their charm in their pace and chaos... i love them too... but ann arbor is one place i would surely love to come back to and look back at al the wonderful memories i left behind... coming to think isnt it amazing as to how places with varied character can excite you in their own ways...the feeling of a calm and quaint environment aand the hyper-urban,fast city both never cease to amaze me...

so my saturday went in getin up late for the party last night... we had a ball of a time...truly... shall go down in history!!! the pictures are proof enough...

sp part of the day spent in looking for a site to make a "nature trail"... food at a korean restaurant... then a walk at gallop park....its this cozy lil park by the river and the tracks... afterwhich we went for a movie... 'robots'... i didnt like the animation much.. the story wasnt any different too.. maybe worth a casual watch...

so here comes sunday tomorrow... n then the week ahead...

weekends here

its tht day of the week again... n this time around there is more to it than jsut niki's n my cooking turn for the week... talkin abt cooking... i quite enjoy it... i remember cribbing to my mom a couple of yrs ago as to how i would make my husband cook n not do anything..well things seem to hv changed.. i can already see someone smiling... dont worry g... i ll make sure u get ur share too..

n why is this friday evening more interesting... its chinar's birthday today and there is one more of our "infamous" house parties to look forward to...the week went by so fast this time.. didnt realise when i completed an exam, a review and a paper... n now its just one more month for the sem to end...

last night was fun too... after my exam which i actually managed to submit 3 hours before the deadline... am shocked my self...gav i am sure u r too!!!

.. after that there was chinaclay's birthday cake cutting... the cake didnt managed to reach anyone of us cos it was all over his face.. i personally hate cake smearing... that yumm chocolate cake was meant to be eaten man!!! so there was tiramsu... which i so love tooooo... no wonder am already showing signs of putting on weight all over agn..wonder wht it ll be like when i get bk home in may!!!

n last night was especially nice cas sid and audrey dropped by...it was great to meet him after a long time now... n meet audrey too!!!

so much from 'k' for the week...

mid week crisis

you r right chinar... guess spoke too soon...

its March 23rd. the official day for spring to begin..n the situation in ann arbor? its snowing againn... aaah... yesterday was such a beautiful sunny day n now again windy colddd n snowing...

guess i hv had enough of the winter for this year...

just dont feel like working!!!!

ok me in my cribby mood... which is reflecting in my post so i shall stop and get back to my thoery exam...

more over the weekend... looking forward to something!!!

the weekend... felt like fall !!!

sunday evenings... dont u hate em? I so do... but i guess the best way to get rid off the monday morning blues is to work sufficient enough on sunday afternoon( cos thats when dawn happens for me) and evenings... so gettin back to work is not such a nightmare after all.

the week ahead looks hectic.. a review, an exam due on thursday... a paper and an assignment... wow.. huge line up.. but wht the f... its only 5 weeks more to go..so time to cram in...

this weekend felt like one of those weekends in fall.. on sat night i think for the first time this sem i went to necto... and followed by oz...the weather was kinda warm...around 40F... finally got rid of my boring jacket... n got back home at 4 am..this winter sem hadnt done much of tht compared to the amount we went out last fall...

spring is round the corner... i cant wait to see the white being replaced by color all over again...

One of those days.......

why is design such a painful process at times? i hate these moments when u are suddenly going fine and realisation dawns upon... mostly at the famous" desk crits" at to how STUCKKKK u are.. n then there is huge bottle neck.. n the road is just so blurred...

such was the day today..when i suddenly seem to hate every aspect of studio design right now... JUST SO STUCK...

n the worst part is ... these moments just seem to come along your way in every design... at every stage.... when u simply wanna throw the trace or stop staring at tht black cad screen... only to know tht u have to get back to it...

n all i need right now is some light... some door... some direction... some hope!!!!


HELPPPP!!!!

Hanging by a moment

You make friends.. the friendship last forever.. but its ur own road..to be travelled alone..

Today as buggerboy leaves for charleston... one member on the 3036 group lesser to hang out with... my conversation with niki this afternoon made me realise that today something that is such an integral part of our lives...its absolutely temporary...

a group of strangers crossing paths through their joruney... task accomplished.. hitting the road for a new journey... whts important is along this path the friendships n relationships that blossom and show a promise to last forever...

the bottom line is... these past six months have surely taught me to learn to live for the moment.. enjoy every bit of it when u are in it... somethings are such which will happen only once in your lifetime... but surely promised great memoriess - a treasure for ever n ever!!!

...

let me keep this simple...

people dont last...
but the memories do..
wht happens to each one doesnt matter...
what matters is the memories you share with each soul...

life goes on.. at the same pace..jsut a scratch which shall never be erased!!!

Party time

a party on a thursday night... well we all very slightly unsure how tht would be with everyone having something or the other lined up for fri morning ... in school or at work... but at the end of the day...IT WAS ONE ROCKING PARTY... venue: 1032... tht place is now becomin official party place i believe... occasion: bugger boy (aditya) leaving Ann Arbor to go for his job at Charleston...

The amount of alcohol tht was consumed is unbelievable..when i saw tht i was so sure its gonna b surplus..but does alcohol every be surplus? hahah...from jello shots to yager to tequilla to vodka to bacardi to malibu... it all got over... in a matter of 2.5 -3 hours i believe...

The resident DJ pingu ( amit)... i think should seriously consider his part time job as a DJ..is he good or wht?

so loads n laods of fun...lasting through morning.. 5am...good luck bugger boy... shall miss u at 3036 and all the fun times!!!

Clarity matters the most to me

everytime i get done with my theory lecture by Michael Speaks there is great urge to blog... especially today... as the lecture finally concentrated on not just most modernism and philosophy by the role of post modernist architecture adn deconstruction and deconstructivist architecture.

Each theory reading to begin with is almost as obscure as it can be.. but in the end ... a good prof and great readings surely matter... understanding post modernism and deconstruction is actually making me feel so much clearer.

post modernism still stands where i understood it as... po-mo bullshit.. those words tht fell on my ears in 3rd yr undergard have stood right there.. and today jhenck's jargon just stands for tht n nothing else... but yet again it is the victory of the popular.. of tht wht is easy to comprehend.. as wht is seen all over the place in any part of the world is nothin but expressions of the po- mo world...

wht makes me happier: is understanding deconstruction... Beginning to read Derrida was again one nightmare... but it suddenly all falls in place and its not obscure... understading it with architectural references though sort of questions its existence in architecture..btu thats where lies all the excitement... the search to understans where exactly does the theory we so live up to lie in the philosophical realm.

Once again the same arguement.... as an intangible.. complex.. disconnected...intense theory ..deconsturction still stands with just a few names... whom again we as students look upto...ending up enrolling into universities which strongly stand for the same school of thought.

At the end of the day "clarity is all that matters" and I am happy that i feel like i am in the right place... and heading in which may not be the right direction btu the direction which i aim to be in... as always tagging along the path of the intangible... searching and living up to the excitement on the path!!!

C H I C A G O

Ok I have been wanting to write this one for a while now… finally got to it…

I prob would want to break it up into 4 parts…

1. my stay at Chicago
2. my work/workplace
3. how I love big cities
4. C H I C A G O

Spring Break is over… n now I am back to school in the cozy little town of AA… n it suddenly seems all that much more… reason: my week long stay in Chicago…
A well spent week… I took the train to Chicago with a friend Nathalie… the journey was quite good.. not at all as bad as people made it sound… I reached Chicago on Sunday afternoon and suddenly the mad rush that I was in the week before spring break seemed to have caught on and I actually slept in the afternoon for 3 hours at my cousins place… that’s so not me… probably the huge cozy bed and a heavy … “CKP” lunch (Jammy totally thought of u then) was the culprit…

The week began with my first stint in an architectural firm in the US… a week long “externship” … I don’t really know what I was expecting out of this week long experience but now that it is behind my back I surely get the feeling that I got much more than I expected… Having landed up with an internship in a corporate venture unlike most of my classmates who went to proprietary firms I was slightly skeptical abt they letting me into their work culture at all and it being just a boring week… To my surprise I really feel like I learnt a lot on the practical front even within a short span of a week…from a concept presentation to a boring data centre project meeting to a site meeting no different from the brash meetings which I attended back in Bombay… to the passing of the design by the city officials… this is to namu, heman, jude, sagu n tolu.. trust me getting permission somehow seems no different and painful than it does in Bombay… especially in a city like Chicago where the architectural vocabulary does not reflect that at all.

Working in downtown Chicago is an absolutely different feeling altogether… dressing up for work was so much fun… hey Chari I am sure u don’t believe that coming out of me right? The people at work were really good fun… n it would be unfair if I don’t mention the “Go Blue” lunch I went for with all the U of M alumni at work…

My stay at Chicago surely reinforced my love for big cities… I do like Ann arbor .. n I believe its t he prefect place to start living when u get here… but Big cities.. the pace.. the life… the vibrancy… just amazes me..

The week well spent… on Friday evening I met my senior from JJ… ..tht evening was nice .. uh uhm!!! Almost!!!.. here is the good part… I saw, infact went to the Students center in IIT Chicago… designed by Rem Koolhaus… finally… GUYS ITS AWESOME!!! … a really successful piece of work.. especially so when it conveys what it means to just abt everyone n not just architects…

N right across stands the modernist statement of Mies… the crown hall… it feels so cool to actually see the work which u looked up to in school…

N then some more celeb names… on Saturday morning I went to the Millennium park… my first encounter with a Gehry structure… the amphitheater he has built there… well I was awestruck.. lotsa people don’t like that piece of work…but it was surely some experience to see his work out of the books and magazines in reality .. n walked on the pedestrian bridge again by Gehry… seeing the same in the evening just complete the experience!!!! Walking along Michigan avenue… its so vibrant!!!! N the apply store…. Hmm!!!!!!

Finally more funnnn time… with nikhil chinar and bugger comin to Chicago.. we spent like just about 24 hours together.. but it seems like we did a lot… it all began with lunch in china town… man .. only cos I could see the downtown skyline as the back drop did it feel like Chicago… was pretty much the real china town… from there to the signature bar in john hancock…mayur I pretty much took ur advice… didn’t go to the observatory which was surprisingly a floor below… this was onthe 95th floor…. Once again a walk along Michigan av… the shops on magnificent mile.. I am so glad I didn’t really shopppppp.!!!!

The Millennium park was revisited by the four of us this time…. Fun pics, some great public art n chilly weather!!! N then back to where we were staying… the iit campus… oops desi land…

The partying scene happened too…we went to this club called Transit (weird name) though the place was great… the four of us and chinar’s friends… had a great time!!!!

Dinner at 2 am… at Delhi darbar… that place was just exactly the same as Baghdadi abd Bades at colaba… right from the crowd.. to the to crockery… to the water… to the food…to the raw onions served … there were no traces of being in the US…

Sun morning was surprisingly pleasant…it was actually 67F… n the perfect day to go to Navy Pier… u know tht reminded me of Bombay…and for some reason as I stood at the pier and looked back at downtown got reminded of my site visit trips to Alibag with Samira’s office and our Uran trips…when the skyline of Bombay receded into the haze (abu sonu, pd arch, gav n i) …

The trip finally came to an end with CHEESECAKE from cheesecake factory..some for us to eat on our way back … the rest for moi friends back in AA…

Oh yes… not to forget the lil stop at new buffalo…at the beach..tht was a lovely lil town… we stopped by the beach.. n hogged on our cheesecakes… n headed back to Ann Arbor directly to Tuptim for Sandy’s treat!!!!!

breaking my break before spring break

wow!!! its been 20 days since i last blogged...the funny part is i didnt even realise that its been so long... these past two-three weeks have been such a mad rush...n looking around me in this studio..wherei practically live.. guess the rent to willowtree is almost unjustified... i kinda like the studio environment..hwo much ever i deny it it makes me work better...see this is wht is up with me.. i am bloggin after about two weeks and ending u writing about my studio... i really dont know wht to write about after this "lambi khamoshii" on my blog spot... well lots has happened on the homefront in thesep ast two weeks... and prob wht i would want to mark on my blogspot would be my dear sister " charitas" engagement... i have never missed being in some place at some point of time as much i missed it tht day... luckily wht kept me goin was .. mind u not being in the studio but this party which we all had ...after the "4th dec party" ... it was fun... sober!!! hahaa!!!

so charita is engaged n to be married soon. not being a part ofthis whole thign jsut makes u realise wht "presence" means... i kinda find it wierd... can u imagine? one of the most important person in my life is about to get married and dont reeally know the person she is gettin married to.. this might not sound like a big deal as i have penned it down... but when i try to ft myself into the scenario back home i feel disconnected... i really do!!! n whts funnier is that gaurav is much more an integral part of this whole thing...strange huh!!! what with he knowing whts happening exactly in my house and me almost oblivious...

all in all... i missed u a lot chari...!!!! really missed being there!!!

This long gap from bloggin isnt helping me here one bit and i jsut dont know wht to write right now... well here is a small beginning as i promised my self to try and frequent this page...

another thing... submissions reviews exams r finally over and we hea to spring break.. .and where does tht take me to? CHICAGO.. i cant wait to see frank gehry rem koolhaus and flw all at the same time... wat fun!!! and why do i go there? for a one week internship .... am excited and nervous at the same time...

shall surely blog on my visit to "mecca" !!!

...9 years surely doesnt seem like a long time...

posted late by a week!!!

Four fruitful days… or foodfull days... or work”full” days…

n a dead city…

aim: reviving the dead city:

the Detroit design charrette… 21st -24th jan 05
and the people dedicated to this aim:

5 architects (the smarter lot) 4 urban planners( uhhh!!!) 2 urban designers(hmm.. confused souls?) 2 landscape architects( don’t really care) 1 business school student( all talk?) in 3 professional members… surely quite a team and a great learning experience…

Especially under Michael Sorkins... he is soooooooo good!!!!

Sadly this blog has been lying in the drafts since week now ,… n all the high and excitement seems to have died down…

All in all just to mark these four days in my memory as an experience filled with lots of interesting work… loads of yummm food… they just kept on feeding us with rich sinful food for four days… horribleee weather… a rare opportunity to work with great people!!!

ME

Lost in a crowd
Which in reality doesnt not exist
Yet, not a vaccum...

a few familiar faces...
few moments of happiness..
moments of exile...
can i call them my own?

Looking back...craving for the world i left behind...
that I can call mine
with the hope that it shall be mine through eternity...

Drowned in this 'spectacle' I have created for myself!!!
...in this quest for a new identity and identification!!!

As I stand, deeply integrated in the milieu...
Yet, experiencing the disconection .. of being a spectator in my own realm.


..................................

A lone obsservor ...a lone participant... to the act of my own life...
an experience of my own specatacle I have shared with none but the spectator that I call myself.

Philip Johnson

architect philip johnson... my first understanding and inspiration as an architectural student... dies today...at 98

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/arts/design/26cnd-john.html?ex=1107752400&en=1aacf8f80a5200e6&ei=5070


surely the first inspiration for the basis of my philosophies and basic understanding of the subject... even today he stood as "the architect" to me who carried forward the modernist icon succesfully into the post-modernist era...

... his work shall always be etched into my memory...

nothing can me more irritating than a task incomplete without no fault of urs... n no way to complete it!!!

Questioning context…

Of late the importance of context has been pondering over my mind… be it as a way of life; a set of people; an architectural expression… yes I do avoid writing on architecture on my blog but I think this would be a more generalized interpretation of the term.

In my undergraduate days.. the times when I was well rooted in to a certain set of surroundings… assured of an absolute existence in and around that precinct… context meant only in terms of contextualizing my architecture in terms of site place people culture and all the other assumptions and understanding we base our architecture on. But today having completely shaken from the “rooted existence” that I led Context probably stands out as the only relevant means of identification, understanding and relation.

Why is it that we miss rather relate to people most only in the context of the situations we shared with them or the places we co-existed in? Suddenly meeting an individual who is an integral part of your life in a different part of the world at an absolutely different time and place shakes the foundation on which u believe u have known that person…

When we so strongly talk about extending culture into our architecture isn’t it absolutely contextual to the culture of that time and place? Recreating 18th century statement amidst a contemporary urban society puts it out of context of it time and place… or trying to reinforce an urban condition in a predominantly rural set up puts its out of place.
However with globalization taking its toll on the world and architects like Peter Eisemen and Zaha Hadid becoming an inspiration for students be they positioned anywhere in the world the “contextualisation” of architecture though claimed to be existent is blurring across the globe… yet a contemporary architecture of its place though built on theories of its time becomes successful only when it actually roots itself to the context of the place; people and existing culture of the set-up it is serving.

Why does it happen that when u r existing in two different worlds at the same time they both begin to exist as parallel worlds not intersecting in their paths… a co-existence of the two worlds at any point of time places the other out of context.

Education… culture... art… existence… society… people… places… architecture.. all fall in place only in context?

All that is solid melts in the air...

yes.. i borrowed the title from a reading of my theory class..
(on modernism and post modernity)...

but it so aptly fits the weather in ann arbor since the past couple of days... every morning for the past two weeks now i hv been so used to gettin up to this blanket of snow in the courtyard behind my house tht this morning waking up to an actual real green lawn was surely a pleasant surprise... since yestreday surprisingly the lil cozy yet collddd town town has beenall misty and foggy and realtively warm .. reminded me of one the places u go to for a nice holiday..well tht surely implies my desire to not work .... n today its this lovely rainy day... when all the white has been replaced by the green underneath ... feels like a hill station... i guess this is gonna be the warmest day for the season... gonna try breathe as much into it... before the white wraps the place all over again!!!