The concept of potential energy has always amused me; the idea that there exists something ‘physical’ that cannot be seen is so bizarre..But then there are instances during our daily routines which suddenly hit you- they leave you thinking that maybe that’s what hidden energy must be like..Yesterday while lighting the incense stick in front of the idol of God, I realized that if you slowly move the tip of the stick in a vertical line downward in the same line as the tip of the flame of the oil lamp, the incense stick gets ignited before it physically meets the flame- it’s such a powerful revelation! I cannot stop thinking about it; it has the capacity to arouse, elevate!

Talking about night-outs being a normal syndrome for an architect, I was showing off to my grandfather- “It’s a lot of hard work-”...He then recollected the one time he had stayed up all night- and the funniest thing, I thought, was that my grandmother was listening intently, too! She hadn’t heard this! Can you believe it? They’ve been together 50 years now, and there are things still, that they do not know about each other! They say one lifetime is not enough to know a person; it’s so true!

How important is it to have a good ‘general’ knowledge? What is the purpose of being ‘aware’? Is it a good way of understanding where you stand in relation to everyone else? Is it a good base for communication skills? How is it going to matter to me, whether or not the governor of Karnataka addresses the joint session of the assembly in the sixth decade of the Indian independence?? I mean, how is this going to make my life what it is?

It’s time for a line. A line that demarcates my understanding of the self. A line that starts to define how I am. A line that decides what I want to be. “You are what you want to be”, someone once said. I am beginning to believe.

Infrastructure can create warmth, and industrialization can bring beauty. I thought otherwise till today. We as architects have forever been cursing the ill effects that technology brings- but I realized today that we’ve been too busy to recognize and appreciate its hidden side. While navigating through the good-old-traffic-jam at hosur road this morning, it hit me- we don’t always need trees to create shadow and relief from the maddening sun; the elevated highway blesses, too. Funny.

I have come to realize that architecture has shown me a path of creative freedom, a different form of expression. In this very process, I think, I have let go of some of the ‘intellectual’ that I used to be. If someone asks me a riddle, my mind comes up with alternate answers- creative, but alternate- I am not answering the question. It’s a little disappointing.

Spirituality, in my head, until recently, was a vague mass of un-definable thoughts; spirituality was something that cannot be categorized or broken down- it was simply a direction of thought. But after a few inspiring talks with Medappa, I am beginning to give it a shape, a structure; I understand what its basic intent is, what it envelopes, and what it comprises of. “It is a science”, they say- I do not yet understand why then, there is still no unified theory. Somewhere, something is left unattended, I think.

" गुरु गोबीन्द दोउ खड़े कके मागु पाय,

बलीहारी गुरु आपने गोबीन्द दीयो बताय। "

I understand now, more than ever, what this means. Kabir rocks! :)

"अगर भगवान् हमें जोडियों में बनाते हैं, तो क्या तुम्हे अपने जुडवे भाई का नाम मालूम है??"


I love graphs. They are such simple, yet accurate form of representation of data. I think they should be used more extensively; my brother and I once argued about the 'achievement' of the human race over time, with the help of a graph. He drew an exponential curve upwards with time, and I drew a straight line parallel to the horizontal axis, although with a certain offset. I don't remember how we came about discussing it, or even how it ended; only that it made a difference to my process of thinking..If my thought process was an algorithm, that argument made it efficient, I think. Loo-oo-oong way to go still.


To make someone want to do something good for themselves, or to inspire them to stir, is such a rare quality. I want to have it.


"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has arrived."