Desert Rose

It was in my 9th grade that I decided what I'd pursue as a career. I am not able to recollect when it all began and how I picked up Architecture as a potential profession. I remember my parents taking me to career counseling sessions and doing everything in their capacity to make sure I take an informed decision. When I look back, I believe I tailored the results of those sessions myself. In my head, I had that career implanted - so every questionnaire and every one on one interview - all boiled down to a career in design.  But what I strongly remember is that I never chose architecture because I wanted to run my own firm or work in an architectural studio - I don't believe I said that out loud! To be associated with the construction industry with a deep understanding of design so as to execute and get a project running was why I took this path. I knew it before I started my studies, but somewhere down the line, with the fraternity being inclined towards only the obvious career...

“I could have been blank and usual. I would still do my job which was to merely block. But when some minds thought, I turned out to be much more. Much more than blank and usual. Now there was meaning; there was color; I was beautiful and I felt alive. The envying look in the eyes of all those people who walk in to use the pool, especially the gleam in the eyes of kids – and I realize that I am crafted well and have a significant role here.  I feel like ‘the wall’ and not just a wall.” PS: This is the wall along the pool side of one of the latest project I worked on with Good Earth in Cochin. Recycled bottles and blocks with mud plaster – that is all it took to make this ‘the wall’.

I’ve probably known about the Taj Mahal since I was seven years old; it’s one of those iconic monuments whose form is burned into your world imagery at childhood. I’ve seen it on the calendars, the incredible India bus, cards, as pieces of decoration, on television but I hadn’t ‘seen’ it until last month. From my childhood days, I remember asking my father to plan a trip so that I could see the Taj Mahal but he would say that summer break was too hot in Agra and winter break was too cold and that both these timings would make me fall sick. And of course the rest of the year I had school. (I am sure he tried but probably it wasn’t time yet.) So after a really long wait, Desert Rose went to see this symbol of love last month and yes she loved it. The Taj Mahal is one of those works of genius craftsmen that when you actually experience it in person you finally get it. You get why you’ve seen pictures of this place since you were a kid; you get why millions of people com...