Strings Of Life

Sometimes it is strange to think that some wheels of you life were set in motion when you were not even aware of them. Small and seemingly insignificant events that all secretly tie up together to form a network of life ......a web that gets tugged as you tread on them and realise how far and ow deep it has spread.

I remember watching the Berlin Wall fall on television when I was a small girl. I really dont remember it in very much detail...just that my parents explained to me how nice it was that two countries got united. I faintly remeber the wall crumbling, people rejoicing and waving banners....

For the time being that was all to Berlin and Germany in my life. But there things were moving on slowly...and within a few years of the fall Sony Corp. and Daimler Chrysler...(Benz at that time) bought two huge chunks of land near a divided and derelict plaza called Potsdammer Platz. When I was far away from architecture busy doing high school mathematics an architect called Richard Rogers prepared a master plan for the new Potsdammer Platz...a revival of public space and image of Berlin. The site was for very long the largest construction site in the world. It stands as an excellent example of urban design and creation of public place through private agency....a mark of German unification and a symbol for the democratic capitalist state.

And today this mega site is so important to me ....I am banking my post graduate thesis design on what I have learnt from the masters work. About a decade ago Renzo Piano and Helmut Jahn wove a story with form and today I have to weave a new story on my site based on how they essayed architecture and urban space.

Life keeps gathering strings as we move on and when we search for new things in life these strings lead us onto the small little lanes of the past where clues to our futures are hidden.

Mid Summer Night Wars

Evening power cut time is perhaps the liveliest time in my corridor. Immediatey after the shouts of protests and despair the chairs are pulled out. Everyone settles with their phones and water. Then begins mosquito madness.

The quiet of the night is pierced by the faint yet shrill drone of the tiny wings. The peaceful mind is disturbed by the slight itch here and there. No amount of repellents help, the cream wears off in some time. Neither does flapping clothes or waving ones arms. The

There is feeling of vengeance and hopelessness at the same time. Part sleepy and part overworked souls versus the miniscule blood sucking creatures, is a fantastic war to watch, at a distance of course. Some like to just keep them away and some retaliate with the vigour of a patriotic soldier….fight till death…err sleep. However all in vain, the mosquitoes prevail and bite to their insignificant-micro-hearts content.

The hours are endured with the hope that the battle would end in victory. There would be electricity and small red/orange/green lights would begin glowing at the sockets. The faint fragrance of repellants would fill the room and spread to each corner like shown in the ads. Spreading like a mist and taking mosquito's on the way.

Aaah……triumph against the torture of the arthropods………


Till then swat away like a valiant soldier……..

Little Boy Blue

Today evening tea time had its new story. Chai, rusk, brad-aumlate and Maggi at Dhyani’s in the evenings have become the only time when in am not burdened with mtext, osnap and tedious-entangled thought processes.

The small sparse cove became a stadium gallery today, with some boys from god-knows-where were playing a cricket cum catch match. The half basket ball court size is hardly enough space for four teenage boys to play cricket. Nevertheless the enthusiasm was not marred by lack of space. They were enjoying the two pace length run ups and oddly placed sweeps with their bruised bat and ball. The amateur spin deliveries sometimes resulted in some nearly window pane shattering trajectories.

So essentially Striped T-shirt, Lemon T-shirt, Green Shirt and Faded Patchwork Jeans were having a good time. Along came Little Boy Blue cycling like mad, jumped off after resting the cycle against the parapet of the sunken court ….his eagerness to join the quartet obvious. I was expecting an Anita Desai kind of storyline to unfold…the kid would hang around wait eagerly, the teens would ignore him and the kid would become sad and leave.

Well I was in for surprise…Little Boy Blue was not interested in batting or bowling, he was just eager to catch attention. For a special reason though. He took two steps down to the sunken court and absentmindedly fidgeted with something on his neck. A faint glimmer of a gold chain. He jumped down the rest of the steps and landed on the court, sprinted to the disused basketball hoop stand and slid to the other side. Stripes noticed but played on. Faded Jeans faltered at the next ball and the ball rolled in Little Boy Blue’s direction. He grabbed it …actually seized it and the opportunity to catch attention as well. As he threw the ball back to Stripes he flashed a smile and discretely pulled out a chain with a small flat gold locket. Very very discretely. Stripes gave him an ‘ohh’ look and raised his brows as if to say ‘very nice, very nice…’He then shot the ball at Green Shirt and they all resumed playing.

Clutching onto his blue collar as if, would he let it open the chain would fall, Little Boy Blue ran to the steps. He sat for a while grinning and then ran up to his cycle and pedaled away furiously……to show his new gift to someone else.

Birds and Childhood Memories

Today I spotted a hoopoe birdie on campus. After years of having seen the bright black and white striped – orange headed bird the psychedelic patterns created by the flutter of its wings reminded me of my childhood days.

My Dad’s office has a really large lawn with lovely flower beds, that bloom into a riot of colours in spring. Purple yellow and pink pansies, hollyhocks, white and pink flocks, zinnias….oh and yes…Californian poppies my favorite!! I learnt all my flower names in this very lawn. In fact I learnt a lot on these lawns.

I learnt how to cycle, on my electric blue two wheeler with training wheels. When Dad used to get back from office at six, I used to shower and get nicely dressed and powdered tog o for my daily cycle rounds on the road around the lawn. It used to be grey tar, green grass and a spray of other colours on the flower beds.

I learnt that they are called flower beds, and that when the flowers dry the mali will preserve the seeds so sow them next year so that lovely flowers bloom again. I also learnt about flower buds, leaves and stems. And about myriad other words related to flowers….bouquets, garlands…

I also learnt the names of different birds including the hoopoe, while these feathered ones settled for a splash on the puddles of water in the lawn. I learnt the scent of freshly cut grass… and of wet earth.

Unlike many kids nowadays I never had bird or flower picture books. I had them performing live for me. I could see a bunch of flowers budding and blooming, the bees and grasshoppers flitting over the flower beds and the grass greening with the splashes of water from the fat hose pipe.

I wonder if my children will ever know what freshly cut grass smells like….if they’ll ever have the patience and opportunity to monitor the growth of a hollyhocks stalk and wait for it to flower……..

Roasted Coffee Brains

Barristaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!

Grande Mug........ Dimaag Ki Batti Jalade.........

This is for the hundredth visitor to my site......................:-P

http://www.teamwlp.com/mf/congratulations.gif

really loooooooooooooooooooong shot!!