India Unbound
Our country is so varied...varied in terms of thought,culture and heritage...you could find a different culture just a few 100 miles from you....everywhere you go hospitality comes by default, provided you look respectable!! i had been to this place called Anaigundi on the banks of the river cauvery in the state of Karnantaka, where i found the most simple and down-to-earth people i've have ever seen... i even got the most fortunate chance to meet the rajah of village who is the direct decendent and heir to the throne of the Krishna Deva Raya dynasty... i learnt a lot about that small village in my 4 day stay by employing myself in little adventures in and around the village....every bit of the legend spun around in various layers around the 4 walls of the village intrigued me....the single thing i realised about this place is that, it's well being was largely looked into by its own people... now something caught my thought here!!! Isn't that strange.... we love our country and we sing the National Anthem with our chest high up.... we dont even think to say we are proud of our motherland and yet we hesitate to involve and indulge directly in its well being.... how many Indians would prefer thinking about their own family and feel secure about their own circle of people... perhaps that is the difference between our country and many others... we grieved deeply over the WTC tragedy and what of the Godhra fire tragedy.... we seemed to be locked away in our urban shells cut off from all ills of the society that dont concern us!!! we find so many aspiring for Engg., Architecture, MBBS but do we find any going towards politics... i see 3 main rigid systems in this society -
one of the politicians who do good and earn good!!
two of the general public with its own matrix around it, and
three of activists who either use peaceful or extreme means to get their message across - who are largely termed a manace to the society by the above 2 groups, which leaves the activists no choice but find their own solution for an ideal society..
Did u know u have every say in all the bills passed by the govt.... do you even know of any being passed!! The only shame is that if villagers can find a system that can run things at their micro level, we being citybred find more comfort in our cussions than to set the system right in our own level.... Don't you think it about time we get serious begin make changes before it is too late!!!
Temporary Blindness
It is such a rare thing to see natural greenary amid the confusing maze of the cities... to add more to the woes of nature lovers, Real Estate Developers have began futher extending the cities terming them 'Satalite Townships'... they say the universe is ever extending and that it started from a single point.I see it no different from a city, the only difference being - the city engulfs all that comes in its way!! To see a beautiful sunshine, exotic birds and wilderness is not a common sight these days. As our cities are turning from Metro to Mega to Necro poli', the trees and the entire cycle associated with that particular tree is dying.
I saw a documentary on NGC that spoke of only 1 Brazil nut tree and the cycle associated with it. If one single Brazil nut tree can define a cycle to sustain the rainforest and can take one and a half hour to document imagine a 1000 other trees. Further zooming out, imagine a Million other species and a million other forests.If cutting one tree would make so much of a difference then imagine a million others the world over, for reasons of selfish development and so called human sustainance.There would be a time when true nature would be confined to our Television sets. Perhaps then there would be a widespread realisation. I thought that this realisation was default with education, but after i read today's report of an
'engineering student turned Lashkar terorist' i changed my mind!! I then realised that it was all about Human ethics and principles, but i never knew that these principles would shut mans eyes to nature. In many articles i have read, i have always seen this distinction of Man and nature as if nature,mother earth and all things non human were on one side and the human kind on the other... But has it come to that or to amend this by speaking of them as one, is something the ages and principles will tell!!
Raindrops keep falling on my head!!
Raindrops keep falling on my head... And just like the guy whose feet
are too big for his bed, nothing seems to fit. Those raindrops are
falling on my head, they keep falling.
So I just did me some talking to the sun. And I said I didn't like the
way, he got things done... sleeping on the job... those raindrops are
falling on my head, they keep falling.
But there's one thing I know: The blues they send to meet me won't
defeat me. It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me.
Raindrops keep falling on my head but that doesn't mean my eyes will
soon be turning red. Crying's not for me cause I'm never gonna stop
the rain by complaining. Because I'm free. Nothing's worrying
me. - B.J.Thompson.
This is the only song i could think of as it poured near my house over the past one week. As i went up to my Minas Tirith and looked all around Middle earth(refering to the Overhead tank) i saw a sudden change in the choclate landscapes. i could identify that post rain left small sprouts and shoots tuning the empty rocky lands into patches of green. my own garden began to bloom exotic flowers that were'nt of the season. suprised and amazed i began to wonder what had the rain brought down with it to heal mother earth's cold and cracked surface. there is certainly some magic that i could see in just 1 rain. a magic that i never noticed before. i water my plants everyday yet i've never seen or experienced such sudden miracles occur. is it because the sun hides itself behind the clouds or the water carries all things magical, i do not know. but i do know one thing, as long as i dont question it i will still believe it was a miracle - a rear thing to see and experience these days! So i dare not question my faith hence not indulging in things 'human' - something i've been doing knowing or unknowingly since my birth. i wish that the country sides and the virgin lands around my house will remain that way for a long time to come so i can see and show more miracles that are to come!!
Architecture!!
Architecture - The discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings.
This is what i first saw in my Inter second yr when my dad mentioned of this course during one of our morning walks along the army area. i fell so much in love with it that i used to keep chking the meaning of each word seperately to find something new about it!! Even during the jolly good days at LFJC when Brother James, the Principle, used to ask me my future plans i used to say proudly Architecture and when the next question came like a harpoon - How do u get into the course? i remained blank... i kept a tab on the second question with my friend and my present classmate Bhavana.... we kept finding our own sets of infomation which came in like packets of data and finally knit it together.... Destination ADA a.k.a. Academy of architecture and design... we had the fun days at ADA... all we did was sketch and color all day and take time off to go check what was cooking in Hotel Gulnar next door... this is where i started off my achitectural career not knowing what i was in for... atlast it was time for the aptitude test and my centre was at CBIT... was slightly femiliar with the campus as my sister studied at MGIT.... gave my test,had my 6 month holiday, became a sloth and stepped into CSIIT. I was always the spotlight for my seniors or shud i planely put it 'the Bakra'!! my
unfortunate luck i kept bumping into them all the time... it all passed with my freshers... the next 2 sems was really fast and non productive... i kept longing for something i cud'nt reach for... and now dubiousness.... but the 4th and 5th sems were something i always dreamt i would do in arch. school... first my appointment as Unit Secretary that came in as a shocker to me and then the trips that followed... i came largely to be know as the traveller by my school friends as they envied me for enjoying my course... of all of such trips made to various places in spans of 2-3 months i most cherish Auroville... it was a 15 day getaway to the town where we were sent on a workshop on Arch and dome construction.... i've never done something like that before and to top it all.... No Faculty on the trip!!! Yippeee!! i did everything but the course at auroville.... On my way back before i got off at the station there was a sudden thought that came to my mind.... What would happen to my friends after this course... what would happen to me!!! Where is Architecture taking us all??...
A Humble note
I would like to dedicate this one blog to a certain person named Ravi Shankar... not the Art of Living Guru but a student of MGIT. The story unfolds:
it was just another normal day... we had our Zonal Magazine meet with a very low turnover of the volunteers... i came home and plugged to the internet to check my mail to find an offline... it was a link to a blog named Musings Inc. written by Ravi... i read his blogs but had no clue who he was nor could i recollect anyone by that name from school and college!!wondering if he was on my Yahoo! list i scrolled up and down over and over again.... no sign of his id.... i then thought it was just a mistake.... but this mistake opened my portal to online blogging which was initially only on scraps of paper... over the past one week i was wondering who this familiar stranger could be?? today afternoon i recieved yet another link to the Musings Inc. and this time i was sure it would not have been a mistake afterall... i dedicate this blog to him still wondering if he is someone i know...
