Damp squib

It’s 2019 and global warming is upon us. And as predicted by a lot of environmental scientists, we’re in for a globally wet period (Glaciers and permafrost are melting, hot dang of course we are!) Here in Pune we’ve finally had the rain warnings and schools and public institution closure and advisories to the general public not to step out. The rain has been relentless and I haven’t seen even a bit of sunshine for more than a month. And damn do I miss it. This is normally how Pune’s rains are: bits of sun amidst spells of constant but not too heavy showers. But we left normal behind a few years ago. These days I feel damp all the time, things don’t dry fast and my toes feel constantly moist! I mean... I prefer my toes to be as dry as possible.

Okay so I want the rain too, obviously. But it’s been too long since I saw even tiny amount of sunshine and if I’m not going to be able to get a glimpse of it soon, what I would want in return is a fucking fireplace (with real crackling flames and glowing embers) so that I can feel dry for even a brief moment! (Also, have you ever thought of how comforting the sound of crackling flames can be?) On second thoughts, what am I really complaining about?... Pune isn’t flooded. It’s just been raining a lot.  But I cant help bit wonder if it’s not next on the flooding list. Also... I really do genuinely love the rains and just wish I had someone to share my damp squib mood this damp squib season with.

Deflating

I draw occasionally and enjoy it. Comics, sketches, watercolour etc etc. Ive always enjoyed it since I remember. And I particularly liked drawing during inktober 2017 and 18. My drawings are fun and lighthearted and people want to see them in person when they visit me. So I thought it was a good idea to show my drawings to keep my my five year old nephew entertained for a bit when visited last weekend. I thought he too would like them.

But the moment I showed him the first two, he said they were 'nice' and it felt like he wanted to move on to something else. Instead, I persisted and showed him two more. He quickly cut in and said "They're all nice but enough now."

Trust kids to cut one's ego to size!

It’s electric!

Three years ago, my mum and I decided to sell our old reliable Maruti 800 to a mechanic who in the past had offered to buy it from us whenever we decided to get rid of it. He thought it was a really good car even though it didn’t have air conditioning or a fifth gear.

So we had a buyer.

But we didn’t just want to sell it off, we also wanted to buy a new car. And since we were in 2016 I put my foot down and said that if we needed to buy a car it should be electric or we shouldn't buy a car at all. If it were all my money I would have bought it in a heartbeat, but I had to convince my mother who was part sponsor and also majorly sceptical about it. One thing working for us was that we both wanted a small car. Not just a small car but the smallest available. And we both weren’t interested in buying a Tata nano. So it only took her a little bit of coercion and a test drive.

So the Reva e2o

It was the only small electric vehicle one could buy in the country in 2016. So here it was. The cutest zippy little noiseless car with two doors (The last of the two door lot apparently.) I drove it wherever I could. To my work sites and college 30 kms away or even in the local area. I pushed it to it's limits, got over range anxiety (It's a real thing, believe me) and added another thing to charge in my life (Phone, computer, etc etc) Oh and it also needs a software update every once in a while and most troubleshooting happens remotely. Such a fun little car! And now, I've driven ten thousand electric kilometres in it already! Yay!

Productivity goals

I like listening to music while I'm working and I encourage others at work to listen to music too. I bought a good set of speakers for office because I believe productivity increases with good music playing in the background. Today, I introduced our new intern to the set of speakers connected to his computer and now he's spending more deciding the playlist and switching between tracks than working.

Own goal.

Three things

I turned 35 two days ago and there are three things I want to say:

1. Lately, if I take a holiday from work to finish some personal chores (you know, like one has to every once in a while) I get jittery in the morning and major FOMO for work sets in. I have to remind myself that it’s okay, and others at will handle it. But it’s only after a few phone calls and updates from work do I start to relax and focus on the task at hand. Me from ten years ago would never have imagined that I would ever miss being at work. In the past, I had ability to easily dissociate from work even while I was at work. What the hell happened and when exactly?

2. I still have major anxiety and self doubt. Just that it’s nature has changed and maybe I’ve learned to deal with it better. But it still sometimes manifest itself in the form of really strange dreams. Difference: most of them are no longer metaphors, but direct, full blown references to my anxiety of the moment. My subconscious gives me periodic reality checks in the form of these dreams. And while it hasn’t stopped me from day dreaming, but at least I’ve learned to compartmentalise the effects of my dreams, daydreams and reality better.

3. I finally got over the mental block of wearing clothes with horizontal stripes. Over the years I’ve been told me that only slim people should wear horizontal stripes so I hardly wore anything with horizontal stripes on it. I finally gave up on that insecurity and wore a tshirt with horizontal stripes on my birthday. To hell with the self proclaimed fashion police, I looked good.

I get results.

So CBSE 12th standard results were out last week and it was the usual:

1. Girls outshine boys

2. Students gets 499/500 (how?!)

Reminded me of this incident:
In what now seems like a different life altogether, I was a part time swimming instructor. I did a life saving and swimming instructor’s course in the long-ish break after school ends and before college life begins. I taught swimming to many children and women of all ages between 2002 till 2009. Many of those who came to me had developed a deep phobia of water after trying to learn swimming earlier. One such case was an 8 year old girl who’s mother wanted her to learn swimming but her previous experiences in the pool were, to put it mildly- terrifying. One of these days, she came in to swim and she wasn’t her usual chirpy eight year old self so I asked her if she was ok. As it turned out, she got 80% marks in her exams. Now I am an eternal ‘can do better’ student who was happy to put in the bare minimum effort and be happy with 70% marks. So my first instinct was to congratulate her! She gave me a weak and maybe condescending smile, I’m not sure which one it was. Then her mother who usually accompanied her to the pool explained why she wasn’t too pleased about it. She always got the highest marks in her class, but because her mother needed to focus oh her sibling who was born that year, she couldn’t spend so much time with this girl that year and this affected her results. I felt so bad for the disappointment this sweet eight year old girl felt and told her about how I never got great marks in school but I still became an architect and a swimming instructor (which in my book is a very cool thing to become) and I'm not doing too bad, as she could see clearly. I don't think she was too convinced but maybe she felt bad for me and made a show of feeling better. She stayed back an extra few minutes to take a few more adventurous (and completely voluntary) jumps into the deep end that day.

Hell yea I get results with my students!

Manel

A couple of weekends ago, I attended an award function organised by AESA (Architects, Engineers and Surveyors Association) Pune, which is in it's 50th year of existence. Though we're not members of AESA, my colleague Pooja decided to send in a couple of entries for the awards and our entries looked quite impressive. We didn't win though, and that's all right. Who knows what the jury of that time, that composition and that situation might be looking for? But I do have another problem with the jury featured below and consequently, the organisation itself.

A modern day Manel

Do you see it? A perfect example of what is popularly known as a Manel - An all male panel. Personally, I have nothing against any of the individual jurors. They might be nice human beings, and I've interacted with a few of them in the past. But together, they symbolise a glaring problem in the professional world- An under representation of women. This organisation- obviously started by a few young and idealist men fifty years ago has grown into a well known and respectable not for profit organisation. Memberships have been open to all genders and I'm sure there are many wonderful women who are part of the organisation, though they were close to invisible during their event. The profession of Architecture is very egalitarian and has had a lot of female professionals who have been working for quite a while now but their visibility and representation in key affairs is still a problem. When it comes to organisation such as these which involves giving time beyond work, many women cannot be a part of it because they have another job(s) waiting for them at home- management of the household, children, spouses, parents or even grandparents. Men, however can shirk off home responsibilities easily. And In most cases without getting any flak from their families. This has turned managing committees of organisations such as these into old boys clubs. Nothing against it. In fact this boys club may even welcome women on their panels, but most women are reluctant to want to infiltrate these clubs and break the glass ceiling. Mostly because it involves tremendous amounts of emotional work and sacrificing one's peace of mind. So what can they do about it? Make it easier for women to join and be a part of important decision making. Keep events based on when it's more convenient for parents to be present. Don't relegate young girls wearing sleeveless kurtas to doing menial jobs like bring trophies on stage (Maybe get young, well dressed men to do it too. After all, equality is what we strive for.) Invite senior women architects to be a part of the organisation and jury even if they aren't members of the organisation. There are enough capable and experienced women professionals out there. In fact, the older and experienced a women is, the easier it is for her to dedicate time towards such pursuits, having been freed of being the primary person responsible for children, parents and home management.

I admit that I'm quite the hypocrite when it comes to making extra effort to break the glass ceiling. Instead of actively being a part of these organisations (many of which will welcome me and let me rise through their ranks too) I tend to spend my time and energy doing what I really like rather than fight the set system. I used to think that doing what I like and ignoring the boys club was my way of fighting the system. However, I do think I'll participate in similar events in the future if not join such organisations. Representation in any way and form is what matters after all. Baby steps.

Arrr... C.C!

The colourful concrete boxes of Chennai

Have you looked around your urban setting and noticed the sameness and boxiness of buildings? Rectangular blocks with flat roofs and a disproportionate looking unsupported cantilever at the entrances. Balconies and projections that stick out like sore thumbs aided by the numbers game encouraged by the municipal corporations of our times catering wholly and solely for the ease of developers to squeeze out as much (and mostly dead) square footage for profit. On the other end of the spectrum, we have our ultra designer houses with fancy forms with sloping RCC roofs and pseudo greek pediments and a mix of greek (that I call ironic) columns with elaborate plaster mouldings. building infill walls with bricks and covering up all the flaws of construction with cement plaster.

I'm spiralling into a bottomless pit of despair, but haven't you ever wondered why?

One simple reason is that building materials like brick (baked, adobe or flyash) and dressed stones give us a very rectangular module to work with. Structurally, RCC can take up any form required, horizontal and vertical structural elements - columns, beams and slabs compliments these and make it the cheapest. All this results in simple disproportionate cuboid mass repeated and lifestyles adjusted for the so called modern houses. All you need is someone who can calculate the requirement of reinforcement for your cuboid with allied paraphernalia and a contractor who will build the said cuboid for you. Many a times, they two agencies are one and the same. They shouldn't be, but they are.

Le Corbusier, Maison Dom-Ino 1914

So why and when exactly did we start worshipping this listless cuboid? I'm guessing that it partly has something to do with one of the world's (whimsically) greatest architects of all times- Le Corbusier (Corbu, Corby or Charles-Édouard Jeanneret as he is least known as.) Specifically with his Five points of architecture. Sure, it can be interpreted very cleverly, but  most choose not to. But can you really blame him? Post war (World war I and II) Europe of the 1930s and late 1940s required a certain typology of mass housing, public amenities, industry. A fresh and rather democratic perspective on architecture, similar to the change in the social fabric and political structures in many nations. Many of which were coming out of Monarchy or Dictatorship, (while many of the newly de-colonised ones were on the steady path to dictatorship) and transitioning into democracy or communism/socialism.

Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh - Le Corbusier

The many European architects in the mid twentieth century- the movers and shakers of Architecture, the ones who spoke well, wrote well, and well... designed, moved to the new world- The Americas. And brought along with them the the principles of Modernism, De Stijl, Bauhaus and the likes and coined the term - International style. It was like a big boys club. They decided who could be part of it and who couldn't. But the standards and principles they brought with them never moved beyond the principles of typology of mass factory housing and industry which was the cornerstone of the great European change. Industrialisation, two great wars, and political revolutions which brought about democracy (or socialism as the case may be). RCC was celebrated. Forms never thought of before were being built out of this very material. And it spread across the world like wildfire. Cement is an industrially manufactured standard material, as are steel bars. And the two combined together gave us a standard, yet flexible building material which made building larger, taller and bigger buildings possible. It was celebrated even visually in the form of brutalism without too much reflection. Corbu (Corby, Le Corbusier or Charles, as he is less known as) along with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and a few other European/British Architects landed in Chandigarh because of various factors which I won't mention here (Pd. Nehru, etc.) The cousin and other architects along with many of their Indian counterparts and planners worked on the masterplan, public buildings and housing for the city. Corbusier not only worked on projects in Chandigarh, but also in the wealthy city of Ahmedabad. The need for mass, cheap housing, public institutions and absolute lack of imagination on the part of public institutions and engineers and some architects, R.C.C. started proliferating. And it was here to stay.

One of the most important ingredients of RCC - Cement has it's own history. Cement in many forms has been used from the times of the ancient Egyptian civilisation and the Romans. Development of Portland cement began in the 18th century, and was being manufactured on a large scale in the 19th century and made it cheap. Standardisation of the material made it cheaper. Using it with locally available sand and aggregate to make concrete made it even cheaper. Using this concrete with some percentage of expensive steel bars to make RCC, one got a very economical and robust structural material. Cement however, is not a very environmentally friendly material. One tonne of cement production releases nine hundred kgs of Carbon dioxide (through fossil fuel burning and the process of breaking down calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide). RCC and concrete both requires a lot of water to set. It absorbs more heat than brick/mud. And it's not something that can break down easily. A lot of energy is used to break down Concrete structures and recycle them. 

Raddi

This data is available publicly, yet concrete is the biggest building material in large growing countries like China and India. Why don't we use better building materials which most of the times are made with something very local? Or something that is environmentally and financially sustainable? Is anyone working on making cement and the industry less polluting? Why isn't concrete used sparingly and sensibly? We've been building without today's version of concrete for millennia, after-all! As the great Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan famously sang: The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind (Although to be clear, he wasn't singing about cement but it's is definitely blowing in the wind with so much construction happening around us.) Cement is really really cheap. How cheap? It's cheaper than raddi. Yes, the raddi that you sell to your neighbourhood raddi wala in exchage for a few ₹more. The amount of money one gets from a kilo of old newspapers is about ₹9/- here in Pune. Cement costs ₹300/- per bag. Each bag contains 50 Kgs of cement. That makes it ₹6/- per kilo of cement. Take that, sustainability!

Horns and Saxophone

I've had a long running thread on twitter about my favourite songs featuring brass instruments and Saxophone (Yes, it's a wind instrument but hey, my thread my rules.) Compiling them songs here: 

Blue Swede: Hooked on a feeling

Cat Empire: Sly

The Sonics: Have love will travel

UB40: Can't help falling in love

CAKE: Short skirt long jacket

Stina Nordenstam: Little star

Ray Charles and Margie Hendricks: Hit the road Jack

The Jacksons: Blame it on the Boogie

A.R. Rehman: Tu bole main bolu

Amy Winehouse: You know I'm no good

Boyzone: Picture of you

Macy Gray: Freak like me

Stevie Wonder: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Asha Bhosle: Raat Shabnami

Rolling Stones: You can't always get what you want

Spice Girls: Stop

M83: Midnight City

M.I.A.: Boyz

OMC: How bizarre 

Patric Carney and Ralf Carney: Theme from BoJack Horseman 

Louis Armstrong: When the Saints go marching in

Herp Albert and the Tijuana Brass: Lonely Bull

Apache Indian: Boom-Shack-A-Lack

Herp Albert and the Tijuana Brass: Tijuana Taxi

ABBA: Waterloo

Adnan Sami: Meter Down

Air: Ce Matin-la

Chicago: 25 or 6 to 4

Dee-Lite: Groove is in the heart

Kishor Kumar: Eena Meena Deeka

Ricky Martin: La Copa De La Vida
Santana feat. Rob Thomas: Smooth
Corinne Bailey Rae: Put your records on
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run   
Suresh Triveni, Surya Ragunaathan, Veera Fauzia Saxena: Life me fair chance kiska?
Ezra Furman: Body was made

Rebirth Brass Band: Do whatcha wanna

This list will be updated with more songs featuring brass instruments and Saxophone.

Next up: Maybe a list of favourite songs featuring the Harmonica

Wonder Thunder

I was drawing a quick comic today.  And this panel specifically when I was reminded of a poster in an ex’s Loo: 

‘YOU CAN EITHER SIT AND WONDER

OR THINK AND THUNDER’