Nostalgia2; Friday night fun; n Viruddha

this is one of my favourite pictures of the four of us... taken last year on my birthday... the date is screwed up for some reason.

comin back to the present...the weekend till now turned out to be quite eventful!!!

Parag's graduation... Dr. Parag now; - was celebrated on Friday evening by going to 'california pizza kitchen' then bowling n then some chattin n lil drinking in 3036- sleeping eventually at 3 am- resulting into an absoultely lazy saturday... only managing to get out of the house at 8.30pm when we all went for

Viruddha...
On the whole I would say its a nice movie. but a little unreasonably bollywood at times. Amitabh's performance and some good scenes surely deserve a mention.(But he doesnt look maharashtrian one bit!) Anushka Dandekar was a pleasant surprise. John Abraham- wasted. Sharmila Tagore was not bad too. The movie has the potential to come out as a bold film with a strong plot n narration; but it just seems to have lost focus on quite a few nodes leavin it unconvincing at quite a few places.

Nostalgia

I found this pic on my comp today... just remembering the fun times on all the weekend pune trips...

This one was the july 04 before I left for Ann Arbor last year.

Hope we all get back together soon!!!

a random me!!!

The names shall remain undisclosed but the concerned individual(S)
shall realise what this is about

How would you feel if your best friend suddenly has a 'new' friend .. who is exposing him to all 'stupid cute things' that friends apparently do for friends... n my dear friend doesnt seem to be uncomfortable with the extra dose of mush?

Anyway the point being out of experience I truly believe that the most deceptive n short lived relationships are the ones where one gets too close too fast!!!

I hope thou shall remember that!!!

its raining back home

In the past few years I dont remember such a heavy downpour having disrupted daily life in bombay so much that people are forced to just be in the place where they are... I just got a call from home only to learn that the rains have just taken over the city completely... my dad my sis n whole of his office including little ria who happened to just visit the office this afternoon are stuck at the workplace for the night thanks to knee deep water outside the office... and no trains for the staff to go home.


no electricity at home!!!! aaaaah!!!!

But sitting away right now I do miss the madness that the rains in Mumbai always bring along...

Ann Arbor Art Fair

The Ann Arbor Art fair is held every year in the month of July.. its a huge street festival which extends almost all of downtown Ann Arbor.



A plethora of artists' works from all over the country and some from abroad too display their art work... both for appreciation and sale (which one cant surely think of right now atleast)

I liked some of the exhibits... especially in the category of sculpture, photography and glass!!!







I love street fairs n festivals.. i love the energy that is present in these public spaces... it just shows how much people mean to a place!!! On my first visit to the art fair I was sad that all these wonderful pieces of art were exhibited only in plain white tents... just making the fair a monotonous walk not exciting enough for the common man... but when I went there the second time on a Friday evening... the people, their movement, their acitivty, their energy, random performances, food and ofcourse the commercial aspect of art..where they sold popular items (clothes, jewellery, books etc) for cheaper than usual did surely give me the feel of Bazaar street... but ofcourse nothing like the life which is born out of our streets in Mumbai ... Mohammed Ali road, Colaba Causeway, D.N.Road, Linking Road,Hill road, .. they are cultures in them selves!!!! and all year round mind you!!!! ( yes yes I cannot get bombay out of my head)


N thats why I feel sad when I see people craving for such culture, character .. n trying to 'create' them in their public space... I told one of my professors the other day that this art fair was too organised and just not chaotic enough for my liking!!!

But nevertheless it is surely a treat to see the whole place transformed the way it did for four days and get back to normal as I walked on the same streets today as though nothing ever happened. I really had a lot of fun!!!! And extremely remarkable to see how well co-ordinated the whole event was!!!

Manchester Chicken Broil

On Thursday evening we headed out to a village called Manchester, half an hour from Ann Arbor... on the third thursday of July every year they host the
Manchester Chicken Broil... so each of us had

1/2 chicken grilled
raddish
coleslaw
bread
n chips

the picture gives u the detailed info.

Apparently every year the number of people visiting this village this evening is seven times the number of people living in the village.

A question

This relationship of the old to the new is inevitable… it has to exist in order to make a successful architecture… in order to have cities rich in character!!! I don’t like Singapore. What makes Euope interesting? An amalgamation of its rich cultural past and its present showing the promise of a great future…

It is a shame how in India we either completely disregard our past and aim to ape the west under the pretext of globalization giving into faceless glass blocks in our failed attempt to not let go off the past reproduce or rather ‘try’ to reproduce the glory of the past.

We don’t want a Shanghai or a Singapore. Neither do we want just a Taj Mahal to be iconic of our built environment for several years. Can we have a Bilbao?

Do we have an answer?

To begin with can u think of one contemporary building in India iconic of our times?


(this one was written a ew days ago.. just put it up now.. doesnt make any sense to me right now thou. i ll put it up anyway)

The Law Library and Angel hall are two buildings chosen together primarily for the reason that one of them already has an existing extension to it and a proposal for the extension of the other .

What interests me is how these extensions though are absolutely manifestations of the contemporary sit well within the existing setting... complementing but not overpowering nor overshadowed by the existing buildings.

This brought me to an interesting thought. Isn’t it more challenging to design around the existing and also adaptive reuse ? A complete ‘tabula-rasa’ has nothing exciting about it all right?

I love the way how both these new extensions stand out for themselves, do not have direct symbolic reference of their parent buildings.

Law Library




reflecting in the new!



distorting the old?


an interior view

Angel Hall




The existing!!!



Extension to art museum by Angel Hall... the acrylic case of the model spoilt the image.

Art n Architecture Building

Summer is probably the only time when one can peacefully walk around in ann arbor not worrying about getting into an enclosed space to get away from the cold…

So I thought I could do something worthwhile n post pictures of Ann Arbor over my next few posts

To begin with it shall be a partial picture of the TCAUP-the Art and Architecture Building

The next in line would be the Angel Hall and Law Quad...

Just a thought!!!

out of the blue...

Are you an outright pessimist?

Or an absolute optimist?

I SO am a pessimist... I would go ahead n proclaim that IT IS the thing that drives me the most... I cannot appreciate optimism for more than a minute...

but Now I shall tell you why that worked for me... cos my boy friend is an ABSOLUTE OPTIMIST... I know I can think speak n almost live negative cos my betterhalf will surely surely point out the brighter side to me ...even if its just to make me feel nice!!!

Ah yes.. n the optimism works for him probably too cos I am always sittin on his head to curb it the next moment!!!

lazyhead

I am back from Mumbai... N i dont feel like blogging...

trying hard to think of something to write about.

I got to ann arbor after a unexpectedly long journey characterised by delayed flights n long long waits.

coming back to the US meant a completely different note this time...

an amazing feelin to meet gaurav here in ann arbor and show him around my school and the lovely cozy town.

the weekend was loads of fun at mackinaw island with himani sameer and gaurav... the mackinaw bridge is beautiful... the city quaint... and the island very european... the lake a lovely blue and extremely cold!!!

other highlights of the weekend...watchin charita's weddin cd with 'family' here..:) and cookin with gav for the first time ever!!!

now back to ann arbor n feelin extremely lazy to do anything at all!!!

Apple

NO, this one's not about an i-pod!

Its about a restaurant called apple in Bandra... we went there for dinner today

archit pd, sonu abhay, mehul n i!!!

Inspite of being one of those 'ambient lighting, fancy furniture, poor concept,' pseudo interiors... desparetly trying to create an identity, the food was good- continental; n a good bar and for some reason an unlimited supply of bread rolls with flavored dips!!!

They have a cake shop too called 'apple cake'; kartik claims that it is as good as oven fresh..but i dont agree one bit!!! i strongly believe 'ovenfresh' has the best pastries and desserts in mumbai!

Though u know the funny part about this restaurant 'apple' was- they had an apple kept on every table (reminded me of that funny short story from darna mana hain); n for some reason they put apple in our drinks- sangrias!!!

sangria is actually cold drink made out of wine with brandy, fruit juice and soda right? for some reason this one had wine- tequlla-vodka water n apple pieces!!!
(or so he said-cos the alcohol seemed to be almost missing)

Do u miss that breeze?

A gush of wind
A moment of happiness

Fading away
Bringing upon a sudden sadness

Searching for that wind again
Searching for that moment

Will it ever come again?
Will it last?

Longing to be in its arms
Looking for answers to questions it left behind!

Do I wish that moment shouldnt have happened at all?
Do I wish I can forget it all?
DO I wish I can move on ?
Do I wish to be where I am?

Its red again!

Once again I colored my hair red!!!

But this time its so different

Reasons:

1. I no longer have straightened hair ... its wavy now
more like the shabby look or as i call it ' the bhangi look'...which I was longing for!!!

2. The red is so much more brighter RED ... (the last time it was wella...those colors are mild; this time its l'oreal... those are brighter n deeper apparently)

N why red again?
copper n bronze i thought were too mild.
blue n purple.. i didnt dare to go all the way!!!
So I settled for the red!!! I fear its too 'jhatak' itself thou!

I am not sure if both of the above are things to be happy about!!!

Cos i really dont know if the previous color n style looked better!!! but who cares!!!

But yes I shall wait for reactions n then decide!!!

Do u feel better now?

Just felt like staring at something that makes me feel happier and lighter...

Blue is surely not a happy colo(U)r

N so The CHANGE!!!

Whats your colo(U)r this season?

searching...

Its not just about the place after all.
It surely is about the people...
Its not the same any more!

I do not know where I wanna be right now
I do not know what I wanna do!

I do know that there is more than one place I wanna be at one time!
I do wish for another me!

Why do i always wanna be somewhere else?

Ah Finally...

It is that Sunday morning when the rain gods have finally blessed and the monsoon's here hopefully to stay

I love the feeling of getting up to a cloudy sky and the smell of wet earth!!!

The whole city just seemed to liven up last afternoon when dark clouds and thunder were followed by few heavy showers.

It took me back to the days when getting wet in the first rain was a ritual for us. One shower and all the kids in the building would be down jumping and running around in that dirty ‘chikhal’… wonder what fun it was!

This used to happen just about a couple of weeks before the schools would reopen… thats like in the 1st week of June. And now we are praying for the rains in almost the third week of June… how I miss the rains…also for those nice heavy rainy days when one couldnt make it to school thanks to flooded roads and slow paced trains.

Hey I saw ‘Batman Begins’ yesterday. I liked the movie. Just thought there were a few assumptions and abrupt jumps in the sequence for a movie based on the birth of Batman- the legend

I Am ExTREMeLy IrRITaTED RiGhT NoW !!!

Of cutting chai and college

…as the title goes its not so much about the cutting chai, or the number of year spent in college. It more about the endless battle between where academics want to take us and where the profession is heading. At a point almost wanting to conclude a wrong career choice n feeling absolutely defeated in this rutt of what is called ‘practice’ I finally feel a little better to see some more people sailing in the same boat. What is inspiring though is a ray of hope ; a lesson learnt that small steps can surely make a change.

Prof. Upasani, a teacher who I shall never forget for having shaped a lot of my thinking and outlook towards the profession and academics. A conversation with him today brought back to me that it is not about running away as much as being a part of the system and creating a path by being a part of it.

A plethora of insensitive people striding through the glory of money and fame reigning at the expense of superficiality. A handful pedagogical voices trying to make a difference- fading away in the struggle to be heard. There has to be a mid- way!!!

At this juncture comes a perfect gift from a friend who has never failed to put ‘that smile’ on my face. A book –Bombay Meri Jaan –writings on Mumbai; and rightly so ; this is the place I know the most; I belong to and shall come back to give it my share.

Incidentally on my last birthday he gifted me ‘The Inscrutable Americans’- apt for the times then and now a book on Mumbai- at a time when I was beginning to feel choked in the city (wrongly so) that defines me the most.

Thanks a lot– it surely is a dear friendship ‘incorruptible’ by time and space – a fresh as the ‘wonderwall’

Parineeta

Based in Calcutta of the 60s the movie with its treatment and detail sort of begins to feel like a good film only to realize towards the end, just like in Devdas, the director is carried away to make a ‘Bollywood’ film taking glamour and drama to unnecessary unconvincing levels.

The treatment surely makes it worth watching once.

I liked Saif Ali Khan and Divya Balan; she fits the role well But a complete disaster is Sanjay Dutt who seems more like the father of the girl he is suppose to marry. I don’t know why he acts at all!!!

Now I wanna see Mr. And Mrs. Smith. Heard the movie is ordinary but who cares, Brad Pitt is a good sight to look at irrespective of anything else in the movie.