This day last year was a profoundly sad day for me. My mentor- Abhijit De passed on and some parts of a world I was building for me came crashing down. A year later, I find myself re-building, re-evaluating and re-calibrating. I’ve worked with him on various projects from when I was still in college till last year and that experience and learning has been invaluable for me. He encouraged me, guided me with his erudite design philosophy and his appreciation for all the finer things in life. Not just to me, but to so many of us. And everyone one has their own special connection with him.
Today I’m at the very place I really got to connect with him, understand his life philosophy and his work. This was during our second year study tour to Auroville, when he was our design guide. It was his very first study tour with students.
We chatted over long Auroville lunches and breaks between study visits to buildings about art, architecture, and symbolism. About learning to brutally criticise architecture. About the very many connections he has with people from various backgrounds. About books, philosophy and food. We spent hours discussing our lives, what it means to be an architect over countless games of rummy in the train. And I started understanding him. In many ways he understood the world, yet couldn’t navigate his way through it. Taking every setback in his stride and using such opportunities to re-evaluate, re-calibrate and rebuild. He- like my father, left me with the confidence which helped me understand and face this world better in the many different ways even they couldn’t. They both gave selflessly, throughout their lives and even after it. What gift could be better than this? And I didn’t even realise it till they left me with it.
So it’s only fitting that I find myself in Auroville today. Where I really met my mentor. And the place I had the motivation and confidence to live in after my father passed on: Re-building, re-evaluating and re-calibrating.
