Site Conversations: And the concerns towards understanding our own role in the technological abuse amongst ourselves!!

(C) Deepak Gaba

How the talk veered,  from concrete quality, project schedules and deliverables - to arresting misuse of AI features, screen times, and brain rot- is not so uncommon to the site “meetings”! The comforts of being surrounded with all that we love- building materials, possibilities, owners, contractors et al- and the comforts of the site office- the feeling of beings Gods is not difficult to move onto!-)

The concern at hand was our own role in the rising mediocrity amongst the younger of us - with the rampant misuse of the technological tools, AI tools at forefront- and the concern of how this would lead forward. Yeah- the benefits of technology being understood well, as well as the mediocrity not being universal to all. Well understood was the smartening of many of the Youngers.

The explanation to this was led by Deepak, the owner- who put the healthy mind space In a circle , the mind in the technological space as a square- and as the square would grow, the circle shrinks. No

Prize for guessing that the square is about living lives in the Technology! His theory- those living in the square box- numbers of them would grow! Exponentially so. It’s so comfortable to be in it. 

The result would be a future where there would be very few of the rounds left- fulfilling Nietzsche s promise of the rise of the superhuman!! Rising above the slaves around! 

scary. Yeah- he believes there is a dot too- where the round mind has to escape to- for growing itself!

As he put it, the only way to stall the process is - to point to the others the result that being in the square would lead to! I do not agree with him- about the leaving out of those who do not understand the dangers of being in the Box & thereby be condemned to the slavish side of being! There is, as educators, a way that is to be found- to largely make awareness of not being caught in the trap of it all. 

Yeah! 

Anyways- Let’s make great buildings meanwhile- forever, or as long as we can- with character, passion and human idiosyncrasies!! 

A trip down the Lucknow lane! Where All is well!!

This was my walk into the rediscovery of the Lucknow City.

Having known it through my academic years and then this as my romance study in my affair with traditional urbanism and now the latest use of the city as housing the family! 

Besides the walk- I vouch that the sham e awadh exists. The city, socialist and capitalist architecture non withstanding- the city and its extensions are bustling with the vibrancy that has always been! 

Now, before we digress into the sharmaji chai wala s, the basta cachori walas, the chedirams, the royal cafes, Ganjing etc etc- 

This is a limited walk into the old city, lucknow. Adjoining the King George Medical university ( with a chatarapati Sahu ji statue outside, behind the Imambaras, and the Lalji Tandon marg, maked by a colonial Oblelisk shaped fountain and with a British indo Saracenic half crescent gateway as the landmark ( a chach wala and makhan malai seller to mark activity landmarks-) ( yeah- urban design talk!!-)

Well. From the gateway- pushing in /or out is the Beniwal road. The famous chikan market!! Yup, this walk started from here. 

With no goal- or ever changing ones actually, certainly no purpose, and no agenda. I did manage to get lost soon enough. 

Happy to report that the Chikan work market precinct adds pretty much soon! taken over by sarrafah (silver/gold) market and thence the gotakari and then- ah- it’s a commercial street! The goal now was to note the various precincts! 

Till it suddenly opens up to a community space with a masjid on edge! 

So I push the goal of the walk to checking on the architectural styles of the area! For

No real reason but fascination with them! 

And le presto comes the perpendicular street and the eateries there! And then the conundrum of everything- scissors sharpening shops, lehenga houses, you name it! It’s a community street!!

Yeah- so I let myself get lost! Oh- maybe I should check on the religious demography of the area! There did seem Hindu names in the middle of others, till I walk

Further to totally Hindu names in an area! Yadavs too!-)

And schools! Lots of them! Madrasas, government, private- common to them being the board that says “English medium”!! 

Kachoris later - with the sure feeling of the general direction of my walk being towards the Gomti- it’s out suddenly! On the big blank Lalji Tandon road! Very sure it’s a product of the modern town plan!!-) 

I reach back the starting point- one ganna juice later!  And into the air conditioned car to where I am writing this from- the ShEROs restaurant next to the Taj!! ( yes they have one in lucknow too- albeit a hotel-)

And what a place! Run by victims of acid attacks- one of whom asks me to sit and read/write with no compulsions to order food from them! 

You know- life is good!! This place is good! People here are good! The history here exists good! Communal harmony does good! Social fabric is good!! 

All is well!! 

DELHI- 6. Walk into the city of the King.

Thrown out of the Gallows of the insides of the ground, through unending and ever rising escalators- surrounded by more of themselves- and into the huge block of concrete - just outside the city walls of shahjanabad ( read Old Delhi) - you reach there!!
Welcome to Delhi -6!! 

Before anything else- this monstrous of concrete block, with its tentacles into the bosom of the earth- is called a metro station! And is next to another monsterity called the ISBT- which it makes look timid by comparison now! 
Leave this aside and behind and take the road into the city of the king- shahjanabad! On the Lothian road- in the direction of the Lothian cemetery- where are buried stories and people of the past! 
Let that be a story of another day! 

Yeah. Walk to the St James church. The street on way may remind you of the Mall in Shimla- cast iron colonnades- and railings to match! Bigger in scale though! Don’t miss the old gun houses and the new car upholstery shops, please! It’s almost a going away era - so note before it goes! 
You will not miss the Christian installations on the road- charitable to date! With collection boxes in place! 

Right, keep ahead - past the back of the old delhi railway station- an almost newest one about a century ago! Works as much the same now! And a host of gorgeous British buildings in this area- taken up the initial British settlers to the Mughal courts- and now by the election Commision and such of the present government! And don’t miss the battery gate and the commemorative granite obelisk by the east india company army after the Mutiny of 1857!! It sits right in the middle of the road and you d know how the army still prefers the obelisk for its central feature of the national war memorial of the day! It’s tradition!!-) 
Tikonia park- the triangular park- and you’ve reached the St James church. Restored to its glory- and with a guard to not let you in! Well, I managed!-) 
The park is a study in western public space making in Indian context, and actually works- if you can look beyond the visual clamour!!

Yes sir- on one of the edge of this space is the erstwhile Delhi College of engineering. Now a college for women. Don’t please shed tears on the apathy to
The glorious structure of the past- but do enter the inside to visit the marvellously restored Dara Shikoh Library ( which maybe never did belong to him- maybe the estate did) now renovated to house the partition museum! Kudos to InTach! 
Do sit in the main hall for a while! 

And then you move forward to find- yes- Delhi 6!! The GPO with that PIN code no!! ( for the zennial s - that’s PIN is not only a computer code-/) amazing colonial form- still functioning- and a inquiry of urban design into why is being allowed to hold a sub city area for itself with no usage!!-)

Ah- you can move forward to find the Lothian cemetery! The gates of which are closed! It is an ASI protected monument- but the guard, I guess, has other things to do! That there are young people making Instagram reels inside may make you think there is access to inside. Ask them and you d know- it’s over the wall!  Lovely tombstone architecture- but climbing the wall is not what I do anymore!!
If you retrace the route and reach the metro station back- you d find the piece d resistant of this walk- a bar which sells beer at Rs Fifty!! 

Do Enjoy!! 

The Reversal of Architecture & its meaning!!

If this sounds complicated- please do visit the Jaipur House located National Museum of Modern Art- Main Building!! It became the main building , from being the building, when a Extension was deemed to be added to it to take up the complicated museum activities that this building was found restrained in doing. While, I do state, that I am not aware of the brief for the extension- I am  sure that the colonial architecture, with its urban location & references, must surely have needed to be respected!!

Ah, But does it not!! The Architecture of the building has been reversed!! The new extension exists. & in deference to the new, the main & historic & important main building is now to be entered from the , wait for it, back side!!

Uff!! & since you know the succession of spaces in a formal colonial space meanings in architecture of such buildings, you know the meaning of such negation!! So the central hall, with its peculiar & grand circular two way spaces , entered from the patio & the foyer, in the time since it was first made & till at least I last visited, is now entered through a timid back gate!! Voila, to make it of meaning, a sculpture sits in the middle facing this wrong side, only able to point out the wrong in the building!!

The Experience of entering grand spaces the opposite way is to be seen to be believed!! The two sides, delicately detailed staircase with the royal motif at the end looks seriously violated!!

& then the circulation goes all wary!! & in this is the current exhibition on modern masters – itihas- ( history) going on!! Amongst those on show is the legendary artist “Baba” Sanyal!! I dare say they will not agree being reached there in the wrong way!!

That the original space in the forecourt has been closed, & now over littered with sculpture, is just the continuing bane of the problem. The quarantined forecourt does give away the sadness of the mood that the “main” building now is engulfed with!!

& I am not to comment on the Architecture of the “new” building!!

This is why, probably, the architectural community is rather wary of interjecting in historic precincts!! Because we can go so wrong!!

Three Man and a Boat!! ( bears no resemblance to the original title-)

On my annual trip to the river banks at Delhi!!

There were actually two of them, trying to assuage the dogs who were trying to bark out the intruder dog on the other side of the cesspool of the waters called the Yamuna at Delhi!! Strewn with plastic, smelling of the sewers in our that the city generates, and just across the chronologically set symbols of development- the barrage, the metro bridge and the new Yamuna bridge!! Yes, there were the left out idols of many immersions- all deities being represented in Many sizes, to thankfully claim spirituality to the river.!! 

I had met them when I came in. They had offered to row me to the inners of the cesspool ( waters! ) for the immersion i was there for!! Lathis in hand and the look of the hinterland Indian - did not inspire me much!! Well, what water to go in anyways!! So we passed by! 

And then I came across the bathers!! Yes!! A couple , a set of friends and some others!! Well, looks like it was purnamasi ( full moon) and the dip is mandatory!! Really- in this water ?!! Yes- it's holy you see!! Didn't i just rest my idols in it?! Yes sir!!  And then, as I watched them do it, did they have to take that water into their mouth?!! 

Turning around, the place takes another meaning!! The morning sunlight, the primeval space, the idle idols, the moving in people setting up to perform puja's!! Yes, it's the river Yamuna- the beloved of Krishna and the sister of Yam!!  

Ah yes, the man!! Well, we got talking!! Knowledgeable chaps!! They tell

Me that that the waters are releases sometime, from the barrage, mostly in night and usually on occasions! And that it is the nazargarh drain that lets in the entire sewer waters of delhi into the river!! What can be done!! 

Yes, they live around here! On that brick enclosure on the hillock!!! The land actually belongs to the state of UP and actually all the safeda trees are theirs!! So the delhi police really don't have a say!!

So much  urban land politics!! Being taught directly by the affected!! Oh, and they have no official license to run a boat- even though those who fish get one! Their names are registered at the police station and they are allowed to do the ferrying and stay here since they help in keeping away people from drowning in the waters!! ( i really think a course in urban administration should be done in the UD department-) 

One of them is from beat muzzafarpur( Bihar) and the other from Bulandshahar. How did they meet?! Long story!! They have been here forever!! 

Of course they are ethical! Just this morning people wanted to row into the waters to immerse the body of a child !! Jal pravah!! Not only is it illegal- they tell me- it is unethical - since the body is bound to come by the shores and there are the dogs and the other animals!! Besides the nearby cremation ghat wala will call up the police!! So they didn't care about their morning earning!! 

Yes sir, So I give them each some money, and since I am being generous- why don't I give some to their other friend who stays with them!!?! Why not!! I do, as he come by!! 

Yes it's Ram Ram all!! We d meet again!! 

The Ghats of Vrindavan.

The Ghats of Vrindavan.

Kassi Ghat, Chir Ghat, & many others.

 From the other side of the City, on the road getting the Delhi janta to the Angrezon wala temple- getting a commute to the original side of the city is a tough task indeed!! Not many go there anyways!!

So, we found two seats in the shared Auto Rikshaw ride, along with some saintly wide eyed types!! & then asked the driver if he could take us to the ghats!! Odd request indeed!!-) & that too when we asked him to be hired all by us & for the journey back too!! Yes, he could do it & would show us around too!! 

& the walk ( drive in partial!!) began as soon as he could drop off the other occupants of the rickshaw!! Passing through the new layer of opulent temple  & ashrams, in architectural style that competed with each other & all others, the ride circumvented the now usual visting temples of the city- the bankey bihari & the angrezon ka temple.Companionship be established- he told us how “Bankey bihari ji” took care of all of vrindavanites, & so honesty was easy to come for them!! 

The first stop was the magnificent red sandstone temple of Madan Mohan- elder to Lord Krishna & the arbitrator of all litigations!! This, he told us, was the main temple of vrindavan- once upon a time!! & right next to it was the original route to the Bankey Bihari ji!! Alas, no one takes it now- since they come by road from Delhi!! – as against the boat by the Yamuna river? Yes!! Ah- he proudly tells us now- he is a local!! & then passing by bumpy stretches of river front architecture , truncated from the river by a new road in between, we stop to take the walk to the kassi Ghat!!Of course there was the Chir ghat in the Ghat on the way- where Krishna used to steal the Clothes off the gopis in the river- & yes that was the tree where he used to take them on!! A tree that old?!! Yes, of course- he told us!! Well, a lone tree on a desolate & truncated Ghat- we better believe his belief!! 

Ah, & the river next to the walk!! Krishna ki pyari- Yamuna!! A thousand boats moored & countless rituals around- we reached the Kassi Ghat!! & You go to see it you want to see public architecture to a river front!! Sublime sandstones, facing the  temples, havelis, ashrams etc. etc. in the Rajashtani Rajput style, mixed just enough with inspirations from Bengal!! The standing Chatris in desolation, the unscathed moorings in stone extending to the river & the very public continuity through all of these!! Keep walking!!-)

The Ghats are not desolate really!! There are the wanderers & the monkeys!! The wanderers are most possibly those who have left their homes & the monkeys are local!! BTW, our guide informs us- there is no dearth of food in vrindavan- what with the no. of Bhandaras being held everywhere!! – One reason why so many wanderers stay here!! & the Ghats aren’t really so desolate!! River Aarti is done everyday & the locals from the region come in nos for river rituals!! & there is even an lawyer from Delhi ( vakil sab) who has bought some property on the river front & is renovating it!! 

Sit down & experience it!!

But we have to be back!! 

Quick walk back- stories of the ghat where Krishna  slayed the river serpent & many others!! We are back in the Ricksahw!! He wants to take us to more of the inner city- but we settle for next time!! & then he suddenly tells us that he is a Muslim!! That all Auto wallhs in vrindavan are muslims!! What?!! Then the bankey Bihari kripa?!! Of course, it is there for all- he says!! He sees no problem with that!! BTW, he tells us, there is a dragah right next to the temple!! Once upon a time, according to him, it had more prominence!! & now the temple has!!  How could I have missed this?!! Well- the crowds- he guesses!!

& then there is anyways Mosques in Mathura where they go to!! & can eat non vegetarian food there!! It is all Bankey Bihari ki Kripa!!

Ah!! Wish we had more time!! Next time