Desert Rose

“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’.

For more than a year now, I’ve been travelling by train to my native on a weekly basis and been crossing the vast expanse of land adjoining the Cochin International Airport. Initially, when I saw people at work and panels, I thought it was some airport extension business but now I know that Cochin was prepping to mark its place in the world history, technically. When stray dogs and their ‘rights’ or freedom to kiss in public or a celebrity’s wedding can take up so much attention and writing space, I thought this definitely deserved a little more attention than just a headline - “India’s Cochin is the World’s First Solar-Powered Airport”. If  humanity is to survive , it's going to have to embrace alternative forms of energy and ditch carbon  at  a real fast pace. India's making a pretty big stride in that direction after declaring Cochin International Airport as the world's first facility of its kind that runs entirely on  solar power . So I am jus...