Saturday, 10 April 2010
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Slice of Life on a Hot Summer Afternoon
The sun's crackling down with its fierce March intensity. The heat forces a kind of dull inactivity. A couple of vehicles whiz down the road braving the heat.
Sitting by the pavement (sidewalk!) under his black umbrella for shelter, the 'chai-wallah' nonchalantly pours out cup after cup of piping hot 'chai' from his thermos flask for an unending stream of thirsty travellers stopping by. They'd rather quench their thirst or just have a drink of steaming hot tea in an already hot environment than move over to the 'ganna-wala' a few yards away. A couple of girls dressed in the fashion of the day - cotton kurtis and those famously popular leggings - trot by under the shade of their umbrella and gingerly climb down the rickety steps off the pavement into the lane below.
Standing in the shaded balcony of her home across the road, a girl impatiently fans herself with a folded newspaper while waiting for the power supply to be restored. A while later, the buzz of vehicles on the road has increased slightly. It's an hour to sunset and the state of limbo clamped by the sun ebbs as it sets. Down by the 'chai-wallah' an even larger crowd has gathered to enjoy an early evening cuppa and the relief from the heat...
Sitting by the pavement (sidewalk!) under his black umbrella for shelter, the 'chai-wallah' nonchalantly pours out cup after cup of piping hot 'chai' from his thermos flask for an unending stream of thirsty travellers stopping by. They'd rather quench their thirst or just have a drink of steaming hot tea in an already hot environment than move over to the 'ganna-wala' a few yards away. A couple of girls dressed in the fashion of the day - cotton kurtis and those famously popular leggings - trot by under the shade of their umbrella and gingerly climb down the rickety steps off the pavement into the lane below.
Standing in the shaded balcony of her home across the road, a girl impatiently fans herself with a folded newspaper while waiting for the power supply to be restored. A while later, the buzz of vehicles on the road has increased slightly. It's an hour to sunset and the state of limbo clamped by the sun ebbs as it sets. Down by the 'chai-wallah' an even larger crowd has gathered to enjoy an early evening cuppa and the relief from the heat...
Saturday, 20 March 2010
What's on your mind?!
'...where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops...'
Aspiring normality.
'...Up the steps of the church through the fields in the dirt; In the dark, I have seen that the sun still shines for the one who believes...'
Hot white heat, sun-baked days, mirages on roads, redeeming coconut water and royal tans - summer's here!!!
Nothing feels better than to be able to squeeze back into an old pair of jeans that you thought you'd never be able to get into again - ever!!!
Just be.
Oh! 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' to lift a girl's mood!!!
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works (action) is dead also - From 'The Speaking Tree'.
Of glorious sunsets, gorgeous evenings and big dreams!
'Kabhi tujhe milke lauta mera dil yeh khali khali haath...'
Thursday, 25 February 2010
I like how that built space 'feels'...
...yeah, that's all it boils down to: feelings. No matter how much cold logic and reason you approach most things in life with including built spaces, somewhere deep down within you, or to the more spontaneous of us - quite instantly, they do evoke and inspire feelings and that's all it takes for you to 'like' or 'dislike' or just be plain comfortable with the space you live in, work, shop or visit.
Spaces that one dislikes are aplenty. I'm talking about all those lovely built spaces that have an atmosphere about them and feel special or at least make you feel good to be there. They have a character that asserts itself and yet unobtrusively recedes into the background when you use the space making you feel like the space is your second skin. A lot of it has to do with how you perceive the space and how the creator of the space manipulates it to make you feel the way he's intended the design to work for its users. Incidentally, in a design lecture I attended recently, one of my professors had something similar to say. Built spaces have to feel right to be lived in and enjoyed.
It also feels nice to have an affirmation of one's design ideology.
Spaces that one dislikes are aplenty. I'm talking about all those lovely built spaces that have an atmosphere about them and feel special or at least make you feel good to be there. They have a character that asserts itself and yet unobtrusively recedes into the background when you use the space making you feel like the space is your second skin. A lot of it has to do with how you perceive the space and how the creator of the space manipulates it to make you feel the way he's intended the design to work for its users. Incidentally, in a design lecture I attended recently, one of my professors had something similar to say. Built spaces have to feel right to be lived in and enjoyed.
It also feels nice to have an affirmation of one's design ideology.
Friday, 19 February 2010
Monday, 8 February 2010
Finding Middle Ground
Balance. It's such a crucial and often ignored element of our lives and universe. There's always yin and yang. One needs the other. Too much of anything is bad. There has to be, and indeed is, a little of both - good and bad. They may seem less or more - our perspective adds weight, and that's all I'm saying because how we look at or outweigh the good or bad is very subjective.