'Roti , kapda , aur makaan' have been our understanding of the fundamentals in life ; bollywood-wise, too . . We're 'progressing' now - network , electric energy , and internet . . We've taken for granted the primary ; we're in the second circle now . . I wonder what the third circle is going to be - companionship , 'happiness' and love ?


Only the fortunate get sleep whenever they want to . . .Like me ! He he he . . . I can sleep anywhere , anytime , irrespective of location - it's god's way of loving me ! :-)


It is very , very difficult to surprise me ; i am too curious for that . . . But i cannot stop being amused by a certain friend of mine who has surprised me , over and over again , in newer and newer ways . . Maybe it's easier for those you don't expect absolutely anything from to catch you off-guard . . Those in the inner-most circle have to try harder and are easiest to catch red-handed . . A lot also depends on the Want to surprise . . Hmmm . . .


I'm writing this post from my mobile phone , lying down, watching TV and thinking at the same time . . . 'Technology' , they say it is . . . I'm loving it !

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."

“Economics, at its core, is the study of incentives.” I likes! :)

Recently I have been asked the most fundamental of questions- about myself- my basic aim, interests, and path of life- and I have been digging through myself for the answers.. Suddenly it feels like I’m all grown up; feels like its time I know and manage it all- feels like I must act responsibly.. It is not about my life alone anymore- I am beginning to affect another’s life, too. It feels strange; abnormal, somehow- I don’t feel like staying here- I want to go and eat ice cream! Something new is on my shoulder, and it will remain there for the rest of my life... I am not complaining; I am simply amused by what time brings us- new sets of glasses every few years!

I was reading through the earliest posts of my blog yesterday, and I found so many errors- grammatical and otherwise- and my immediate reaction was to correct them; but then again, I realized that this is never ending- I will constantly be recognizing mistakes over time... I guess this is what it means to be learning all your life- to keep upgrading the scale of measurement of skill and quality.. Even Sanjay Mohe keeps recognizing lines he should have changed, spaces he should have dealt with differently.. This means, though, that we can never be satisfied with ourselves till the very end, when there is no more time to learn. Not a stable mental condition, is it?

They say one does not get everything in life. To understand what is more important and move accordingly, is being mature. Mighty difficult, I must say!

“ Optimist, creative, self-made, ambitious, respectful, caring, cheerful & most important her rustic kannada (trust me even my maid servant can speak better! These are some of the traits that were, and will be, eternally associated with Amrita. The kind of importance she attaches to simple things in life (like our every-sunday-lalbagh-jogging or khara-baath or 'Corner House uncle') just goes to say how much she likes to celebrate every single moment of her life. A born 'talk'aholic and definitely a people's woman, it would never be hard for a stranger to instantly pick up an exciting chat with her. She detests judging people and this lets one be his/her self while talking to her. Wishing her all luck & happiness in life ...cheers! ”

I was amused by an advertisement on a big hoarding today- someone trying to sell a platinum ring, showcasing it as ‘very rare, very you’, and trying to reach out to an entire city! Does nobody else see the irony here? ‘rare’. And they want the entire country to buy it. Huh.

Red ‘goes’ with everything. I like the effect it creates- it is both bold and dangerous at the same time; creates interest and caution simultaneously- stands out immediately. I would never wear a green shirt thinking it was ‘bright’, but red- anytime. :)

Do mosquitoes breathe?

I was reading the editorial of the newest India today where he talks of how shallow the word ‘great’ has become. How often and lightly we throw it around; and I completely agree. ‘Great is a highly overused term in today’s inflationary India. It could be a victory against Australia. A speech at a political rally, or even a movie at a multiplex. In this cacophony, perhaps it is time to pause on the nature of greatness.’ I think we all agree. The measurement system for human intelligence, talent and work has deviated- it’s a whole new scale- maybe there is a need to redefine today.

I simply love Anju atya. I don’t know why, but I told her that she has been ‘wasting’ her skill all these years- what with family issues and all. I keep thinking that she could have been something; she could have made a big impact with that kind of talent. But when I saw monalisa smile (again) today, I realized I must not be so quick to access- “I know exactly what I am doing, and it does not make me any less smart! You stand in class and ask us to look beyond the image, but you don’t. To you, a housewife is someone who has sold her soul; someone who has no depth, no intellect, no interests-”. Hmm...

With what we call ‘advancement in technology’, arrive newer problems- let’s take the case of cameras. Earlier, we had film roll cameras- the number was finite, and the process of converting them to something we can see was tedious. Now, we all have digital cameras; each image can be viewed almost immediately, and there is no limit. But we have a new problem. The battery. These are very expensive, and recharging them is a tedious process. The battery life lowers over the years, and they simply give way sometimes. With development, come developed problems- it’s almost as if they must co-exist; and I think that the problems have become more and more unexplainable over the years. Is sweating of the hand while you ink a more understandable problem than a virus erasing your entire drawing? Yes. More unexplainable, more irritating- more irritating, more unusable. Does that mean we have to get back to drafting?

To the times we never make an effort to remember, and to those very times, that we cannot get ourselves to forget- cheers!

It’s been a huge ride, this- B.Arch has given me one hell of an experience; every high and low one can think of. I have travelled the country, been understood and misunderstood, felt lonely and crowded, been written off and hailed to glory, been invisible and recognized- all at the same time. When work was crap, I was into volleyball- there I was ‘famous’; everybody knew and wanted to know me. When I got back into the studio, I was invisible again; nobody cared. It was a funny ride; memorable nonetheless- time well spent.

I have realized recently that everything in life is a phase. Everything comes to pass. No phase repeats; there is no absolute truth- no absolute value. Nothing remains from one to another; only memories, and those too, if you allow them. I seem to be a different person in each phase; different circumstances that define the phase seem to define me, too. Right now, I am standing at the end of one; I am waiting for another to begin. Something is missing; something is out of place. There are a few people who try to smuggle themselves into more than a phase; they are amused by the difference in me. I do not understand- feel like I am at the hands of some absurd power that I cannot see; something that makes ‘life’ what it is. I don’t know how to understand this word- ‘life’; maybe it’s a string of continuous phases- maybe the only thing common with all these phases is in fact, life itself.

Today I was asked to design a farm house for a family friend, and for a bizarre ten seconds, I sensed a void in me- felt like I was asked to ‘design’ after a long time. Felt like asking a fundamental question- felt like looking up the meaning.. I felt something similar when we were asked to ‘study’ for first semester structures- I had forgotten how to ‘study’. That was amusing, but this is dangerous.

“Imagination is primary; knowledge is secondary।”

When I am overwhelmed with emotion and don’t know what to do with it, I write. I don’t know where the words come from; it’s almost like I am in a sub-conscious state- nice state to be in! hehe... I have never really been able to pin down the source of what we call ‘ideas’- where do they come from? And why do they arrive like a hurricane in the head, and leave us all excited? What is it? Is it a function of one’s persona? Then why is unexplainable? Is it a ‘property’?

There are some people that you come across in life, and they never leave you the same. All they have to do is be themselves; and their impact on us is un-imaginary, unparalleled. Its amusing, really- it’s very, very rare; I am glad for the existence of these... one such is a colleague- shiny. You just have to be with her for ten minutes, and you immediately feel like putting her in a glass box to safeguard her; she is too precious to be lost into this world- although it is this very world that made her. She gives me hope- to be appreciated for what you are; and not evaluated at the same scale as the rest of the world. Patri se hatke bahut kam log soch paate hain- kho na jaayen ye- tare zameen par.

I have experienced the purest and deepest form of friendship once; something that I will cherish all my life... Time, though, is slowly etching off the soft memory; soon it will be a story I tell my disinterested grandchildren...I have realized, lately, that nobody really cares. Nobody really wants to know the depths of a person anymore; nobody understands either. Memories and how they make that person are meant for that person alone. Maybe except your parents. I do not know where they get it from- the unconditional concern and love; I cannot ever see myself being as selfless. Ever.

I like writing about writing, reading about reading, and talking about talking. Nobody does that. I remember doing something similar in a ‘creative’ writing competition in school- I ‘creatively’ wrote about creative writing! I narrated a story of two teachers in school judging a creative writing competition, and how they didn’t understand an entry which ‘creatively’ wrote about creative writing. Hehe... I had SO much fun writing it; I made that particular entry win the first prize in my story- ‘creative’, don’t you think? hehe...

I read an interesting editorial the other day; it spoke of how architecture, more than anything else, is about conviction. It spoke of how ‘accountability’ of built ceases to be entertained once the building is complete. “Where is the factor of responsibility for what one has built post its being built? It seems enough for the architect to have just ‘built’. Period. In their blinkered path to being responsible for their architecture, architects find comfort behind ignorant clients. Historically, true architecture has always been dependant on the conviction in design of its creator. It is this conviction that makes the Taj what it is.”

It is funny how we’re so attached to certain things; I have this over sized sweater that I cannot seem to let go of- It’s my dad’s sweater, and I wear it every evening at home for the colder half of the year. Must wash it sometime, eh? :)

I just finished the last paper of B.Arch today. CA902- Architectural Design- 18 hours, completed in three sittings of 6 hours each. Sounds scary, eh? Hehe... It was fun. Design exams for me are always ‘walk-in’; a good clear (empty) head is the ‘preparation’. :)

Ants retrace the same locus in return mode. I do, too. I don’t know why.

Australian Open has begun. It’s the same problem every year- starts just when you realize there is no time to watch TV. Or rather there should be no time to watch TV. I remember Akhila cribbing about this very thing years ago, when I was helping her with her thesis work. Wonderful lady, Akhila. She’s so warm and friendly; “ANY doubts, you can always call me”, she assures me every time I call. She was the one who asked me to apply to Mindspace; I owe it to her, this entire internship success. It makes me want to be a good senior to my junior. I must treat her some day.

If you draw a graph of the life of a rechargeable battery versus the number of times it is (re)charged, it’s an exponential curve; and at one point, the life simply reduces to a minimum. I have had the same experience with my cell, camera and cordless phone. I would rather buy a new battery rather than re-re-re-re-recharge it and have a life of two minutes. Hu-uh.

I am writing after a very long time. A lot of things have happened; a lot has come to pass. I remember writing a ‘To think about’ list on the front page of my universal book- Thesis topic, Internship, ‘aim’ in life, further studies, etc. It all happened suddenly; one thing followed another, and now its time to look back. Well, almost. I am two weeks away from my thesis viva, secured a place in one of the most coveted firms in Bangalore, have a certain agenda chalked out, and am actually thinking about masters. Not bad. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was any other way for it to be, other than ‘not bad’.

People say I have changed; I think I can feel it myself. Smitha thinks it’s because there are so many things going on in my life that I am not handling all the load well.. I have grown quieter; I don’t need ‘friends’ anymore- I think I have gotten used to being alone. Yeah. I remember telling Mudasir that I wanted to stop laughing as much; I use to laugh a little too much. Change is good, they say.

It’s heartbreaking to not be understood by your own.

To be well read does not demand specifics; yet most ‘well read’ people seem to be blissfully oblivious of major chunks of society. Why is this world so huge? Why does it seem impossible these days, to be a Michelangelo? Why does even the idea seem ridiculous? I want to be a Leonardo Da Vinci - painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, mathematician, everything! I didn’t want to choose between physics and architecture; I had to. And now I am at a point where I cannot think of going back- maybe it’s the ‘structured-ness’ of education that’s taking up my life- ‘self-taught’ has been forced extinct.

I am addicted to Vaseline.

I am totally amused by the way my brother looks at things. His glasses are so analytical; ‘everything has a logical explanation behind it’...Why is the right striker in football paid higher than the one on the left? Why are female models paid higher than the male? Why is cost a good indication of things? Why does the market act in a manner that it does? EVERYTHING has a logical explanation; I am beginning to understand it. It is one of the boons of having a psycho genius for a brother.

I saw the advertisement of TATA TISKON STEEL on my way back home the other day; the concept was simple- they used comparison. 90 percent of the ad area was covered by the image of a pretty girl; introducing her, and adding below that being a fitness freak, her ‘weak point’ is fried food. Then, in a small strip of space left over at the bottom right corner, there was an image of a steel rod, announcing that this did not have any ‘weak point’. See now, I understand the idea, but it is not that effective, somehow. It feels like it was a good try at an ad; something that missed the cross hair. Wonder how differently they could have presented the same idea.

The whole world seems to want to lose weight. I, for one, don’t understand how ‘not eating’ is an option for our bodies. Personally, I cannot seem to get around it. I am addicted to food; for me, ‘not eating’ is not an option that works. Because I can’t not eat. Just can’t.

I have been watching a lot of ‘friends’ these past few days. I’m scarily similar to Monica.

I have been officially appointed my sister-in-law’s stylist. I am to take charge of her appearance- I have to pick out clothes for her; design her outfits and buy her shoes. It’s like dressing a Barbie doll. Only I think she’s prettier...I’M LOVING IT! :)

Standing at the end of my five years of undergraduate education, I felt like it was time to ‘reflect’ upon the times gone by; thinking of the things we learnt in the studio to the things we almost learnt..Hehe...it has been fun. Although, I don’t think I would want to live them again. Like school. I loved it; but I don’t want to go back...It is amusing to stand at this point in life, where everything is going to change in a matter of a few months; and I have NO IDEA what it’s going to be like.

A big stationery store is opening near my home- I could not be happier. I have always LOVED stationery and anything to do with it; have immensely enjoyed the Need For Stationery as an architecture student. NFS...hehe..

This phenomenon of the computer ‘hanging’ is so absurdly described...‘hung’...hehe...I wonder who attached this word. It’s not very imagination-friendly; and so are so many other terms used in the ‘computer world’—-‘windows’. Haha...The first time I heard my brother use the term, I kept imagining a big window in the wall, and packets of information- like chits- being thrown in and out...I used to think, ‘How can they possibly think THIS is more efficient??’ hehe...

Why are we supposed to change our clothes before we go to bed? ‘Because they’re comfortable’-->Does that mean that what we wear all day is uncomfortable? Why is there a constant war between ‘fashion’ and ‘comfort’?

When god created this world, he made one mistake. He should have devised for us, a better way to travel. Physical movement is really, really irritating.

I designed a logo for my brother’s blog. I really like it- very simple, yet ground breaking. Feels good. :)

We keep saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword” and the like- simply put, it’s the ability to reach out to the masses, right? It’s the large numbers that we are overwhelmed by; no one would care about a newspaper if only ten people read it. If five people are interested in what you say, it’s not a big deal. If the entire country is interested in what you say, it is a big deal. ‘You’ve got the power.’ I wonder what the understanding of ‘power’ was back in the Stone Age.

It’s also amusing how everything thickens if it involves large masses. Say a birthday party. Let’s say I have invited ten friends over for lunch. It’s nice and warm; a couple of my friends who don’t like tomato sauce on their sandwiches can ask my mom to make a few without the sauce, and when anyone wants a bigger glass of juice, they can have it. Now imagine a party with 200 guests. Everyone gets the same sandwich and the same glass; the likes/dislikes of the individual basically go to hell. This is only with reference to food- this happens EVERYWHERE; ‘planning’ comes into the picture- we’re making new rules to make things simpler to plan, execute and handle- while losing out on primary choices. At this point on the earth, I don’t think we have much choice left.

Rithvik does not speak or understand Hindi. It’s shocking, actually. I think this is the first Indian I have met that does not know the language.

These final submissions are driving me crazy. I just feel like sleeping now and getting up in the last week of January...

I have been cooking. And very unexpectedly, I am having fun! I love the various aromas; I am amused by how differently we can chop vegetables and how correspondingly the method of their cooking differs- I am enjoying the process...Every vegetable, every spice and every leaf has a distinct aroma, a distinct flavour- its wonderful, really, to see how two different flavours come together- I have been experimenting- left, right and centre- cooking ROCKS! :)

We WON the tournament held in RV today!! I cannot believe it- I as captain, lifted the trophy- oh, it was brilliant! And we didn’t win because we gave ourselves a good fixture- we played league, and we won by beating ALL. Fair and square. The best possible way of ending my volleyball days in college- could not have asked for a better win- more importantly, a better team. We all sang it- ‘Hum huve kaamiyaab- AAJ KE DIN!’ hehe...Now, I have something to tell my grandchildren! :D

When you’re carrying a camera with you, trying to capture the moments of life, I believe that there is no such thing as ‘too much’. I don’t think anyone can take too many photographs- no matter how many photographs you take, you are still capturing only a part of the reality...Ten years later, every moment captured will be precious- more the better!

Diwali was great fun. Watching the *two great movies* was the highlight. I like Jab We Met more than both.

I visited a place recently that I had visited once as a kid; a park as a venue for a drawing competition- I think I was in 6th or 7th standard...I was with my school friends then- I remember Manjunath most distinctly. We used to call him ‘koli’; I have NO idea why. Hehe...I haven’t met him in 8 years now; he moved to Bihar as soon as we completed primary school. I wonder what he is doing these days- He was my dearest friend; I hope to bump into him on the street someday...The world isn’t really that big a place, you know..:)

I think the word ‘safety-pin’ is a bit out of context to its use. ‘Safety’? really? I wonder.

On the way back home today, I witnessed a minor accident ahead of me- a truck scraping the side of a stationery bus while getting around it. I was behind a car which was immediately behind the bus; the incident was to change the fate of that man in the car- he was about to be two hours late to wherever he was headed. Such rotten luck. And to think it was in NO WAY his fault. The same with all vehicles headed in the direction of the spot- terrible, terrible mess. If carefully seen, though, these kinds of incidents also provide a variety of entertainment; the two victims screaming at each other, neither listening- background music provided by the honking vehicles waiting for a clear road, and onlookers occasionally walking up to the scene with bitti gyaan. There are some things we should just laugh off, I guess. But then, it’s really not possible at that moment, being in the driver’s seat of that car.

I think the time of the KHANS is over. The time of the Kapoors is here. Shahid, Kunal, Ranbir, Sonam, Kareena.

I like the semi colon; it brings a wonderful sense of continuity to a sentence- I like playing with the semi colons and the hyphens; they make for very effective dramatization tools.

Riding with meeta on the bike to college for volleyball practice 6 30 in the morning makes for the best memories ever. Hehe...It is funny how women never run out of topics to talk about..even on a bike in killer wind.

I really like ‘kaka-angadis’; they are these really tiny miscellaneous shops most visible on the outskirts of the city...Hardly 2m x 3m in plan, they are capable of stuffing a lot more than you think. They ALL look more or less the same; a row of glass jars along the front facade, placed over a counter which is unusually high..a thousand small plastic packets of chips, gems, and the like- hanging from a corner- effectively all these result in you never being able to see the ‘kaka’...There is something nostalgic about them; I feel good every time I visit one. Maybe because they’re gonna be extinct soon.

Every second person I meet in Bangalore is a software engineer. Softie, to be precise. :)

I wonder who invented the concept of ‘mass-bunk’. It’s awesome! Hehe...it’s the biggest and most relieving escapist activity EVER. We’re ALL looking to escape, aren’t we? Why is it always easier to do the wrong thing? Why is it always difficult to do the right thing? Why does it need courage to stand up for what is right? If it were simpler to do the right thing, no one would do the wrong thing in the first place! Imagine- it would be a nice, warm world...

Development of design intent into the architectural form is one big roller coaster ride. Somehow, all through the past few years, I have not been able to categorize or tabulate; there is no one ‘certain path’. Somehow, every project offers different sets of variables- time, mood, friends, weather, pressure, expectation, and help. For every new set of combination, a new process seems to have dawned. Maybe it will stabilize once I start working with a certain fixed set of people.

I love drawing architectural sections. I (more often than not) start arriving at my built form through sections. Its fun, and somehow the whole site is not stuffed in your face. You’re taking one plane at a time, and simplifying the issue; seems more effective to me.