Here's a talk by Raghava at TED. . . . With endearing honesty and vulnerability, Raghava KK tells the colorful tale of how art has taken his life to new places, and how life experiences in turn have driven his multiple reincarnations as an artist -- from cartoonist to painter, media darling to social outcast, and son to father.
What you make out of it can make a drastic impact to the way you look at life . . .
Good morning, oops its 2 in the noon. Yet again I am sittin at kalmane Koffees, the first sip of coffee for the day . . . rejuvenates you so much and add to that Soothing music to the ears, Playing out loud to keep the unnecessary words from around me out of mind. Just came from the Office, told akbar I'll be going for a movie, not sure as yet, The show is scheduled at 3:30 pm, close to place where I am right now. . . . It all depends on how interesting are the things around me at 3 pm, that'll decide the fate of the movie. . . .
While I finished writing what u read, I thought of stoping writing for a while until something interesting comes to my mind . . . Wanted to think a bit about something that came to me last night. It was Gandhi. I remember this very famous statement of Gandhi, which I am pretty sure You all would know, "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE". . . . When I thought about it a li'l more deeper to understand the meaning the way I could , the MAN was rite - "HE was the Change He always Wanted to SEE" . . . He meant every word he said.
[continued writing while thinking at the same time]
When Gandhi could be the change, why was it not possible for the rest to be the Change???? In history there have been very few people who have been able to stand up against the System, Be it Gandhi or Be it Bose . . . . A million people who could not be the change that they wanted to see, just followed the MAN. . . Followed everywhere the Man took them. . . .
people who never believed the Man were neither with the Man following him nor being able to be the change they wanted to see or be. . . . So what is it that the MAN have it in him that makes the millions follow, never go against the intentions, believing in the Man, trusting & having faith in the actions of the man ? ? ? May be it is the conviction that the Man showed in the Change that the people always wanted to see . . .
Coming back to where I started, the statement of Gandhi - Be the change you want to see, here you'll find that he wants every man to be the change they want to see, but had it been a serious consideration amongst the millions, then there would've been a million changes, WHO would have ever had the control over these million changes. . . . its better this way that No one ever understood What Gandhi said. . . . But in fact Gandhi should have said that - "I AM THE CHANGE, YOU WANT TO SEE" - therein lies the Ambiguity of Being. . . Being the MAN you are or Being the MAN People want you to be. . . .
Power of Gandhi's words is that, The EGO of the MAN is hidden or buried deep inside, He becomes the ego of everyone of the millions who follows him in the belief that he has rooted in their minds. . . .
So in order to be the change everybody want to see, You have to be IT[change], You have to be the change above YOURSELF, fight yourself, emerge victorious for the beliefs, because the MIND is the biggest BATTLEGROUND, there ever has been. . . if you can triumph here, the rest is just a piece of cake. . . .
Well Gandhi is HISTORY now, that was "his-Story" the world knows and yet in today's context, Its very unfortunate that I'm unable to find a leader "who is the change I want to see" and "I cannot afford to be the change everyone around me wants to see". . . I cannot be, I Love myself way too much, My Ego doesn't allow me to be Gandhi. . . .[i am representing a large section of people - that's the reason Why i am addressing it to a leader]
But like Gandhi - "I am the Change I want to see". . . unlike him "I am not the change YOU want to see"
. . . . . Oops so many of them . . . . yeah, all these dots, yep, I mean all the dots I've used everywhere . . . . if I never meant any of these dots I wouldn't have used them, seriously . . . . Since I use them so very often, suddenly I found that there were too many dots on my blog. . . Here's why there are so many dots. . . . . when there are a few dots following a sentence then it only means that I would still mean to say a li'l more and since the post are already long I rather use dots to say the rest . . . so more dots would mean lots to say and hence you'll never find any of my posts ending with just a single dot . . . . . . a dot is always followed by a few more dots . . .
P.S. - this is not the continuation of the previous post . . . its only to acclamatise the reader to the dots . . . . lots of them . . . . :)
Statutory warning: reading this might just make you stop reading any more posts on this blog, those who are following the blog may just find the reason to think again. . . . :) Its all about nonsense that I've written on the first few pages of my Diary. . . well its not personal except the experience of writing the nonsense. I am pretty sure You would ascertain me, to be one those Psychos who have this multiple personality disorder, Well I myself think the same when I am among the people, When I am alone I write, even if it is nonsense. . . So Here's a preface into what I'll be writing below, its something that's written on the first two pages of my diary and some more that follows from the 4th page onwards . . . . Well what's on the third page is already on the blog. Lots of details will be included, so that makes what I write on my blog will be more than what's on my diary. . . .
Chapter ONE:
date 24 feb 2010
Here Yatisa Writes. . . .
I was heading to a site, when the client called & canceled the meeting, I headed straight to Kalmane Koffees, got the corner seat. . . I was carrying my Laptop, so worked on a small Idea that I had on my mind over the last week, till the battery died down. Then I started writing what you are reading now. hadn't bothered to see around, all the people till the battery was alive, for I knew every minute of battery was very important. Once the laptop was shut n packed back into my bag, I raised my hand to order my cup of filter coffee. . . Looked around to find that the place is flooded with people around me and all of them were busy in conversation with their good company. . . But I guess I had the best of the them all - MYSELF . . . . Yatisa.
Now I can overhear people talking - blah blah blah, not exactly by the words but something that sounds like a remix of an old song - with the beats. you only wonder if the beats were necessary after you hear the song completely . . . Celebrations, proposals, Philosophy, casual talks, Business talks - everything was happening rite in front of me. . . . But couldn't decide whose talk was the best to turn my ears, to grab a few words of wisdom, then common sense prevailed, decided it's really not worth the effort to sneak a few words. . . .
Meanwhile finished my coffee, two heavily built men, whom I had seen while coming inside the cafe, are still standing at the door. . . Suddenly something happened to me n I decided to not write any further. . . [don't jump in to conclusion that the nonsense ends rite here, hold your breath. . . . the story goes on] Remember I told in the beginning I was seated at the corner table, now I am looking around the place - Here's what I find. . . .
A man is selling Puppets on the road - colorful sight
Lights flickering all around like foto flashes switching On - A twilight zone, sun is almost set, Can see the silhoutte of the 4th block Complex. . . .
Toy vendor is talking to a stranger - no business. . .
New Customers are pouring in . . . .
Kalmane officials are still busy discussing something seriously. . . I guess the two men at the door are the bodyguards of the Owner of the place. . . .
Crazy what the hell am I doing. . . . .
Sister called up to tell me - Sachin 186 n.o. off 136 balls, that's so so good . . . for the first time I felt as if I was missing something . . . .
Business picked up for the toy vendor. . . .
Two tribal girls eating corn - yellow[bright] costumes look just perfect, I guess they were not eating the American corn, I just hope it was desi - perfect picture, ain't it?????
Table in front of me is now occupied by a known strangers, that makes it difficult for me to sit in front of them and concentrate on what I am doing . . . .
CONCENTRATION - why is it necessary . . . .
Time to end what I am writing - not worth writing anything more than what I've already written. . . . In fact, it ended the moment the acquainted strangers took the seat in front of me. . . . :)
Ahhh, Its such a bloody relief, that I found this piece by a friend of mine who had taken the pain of documenting our maiden Cycling trip - A trip to Nandi Hills. Unfortunately the one that I had copied from the orkut with the comments from the members was lost due to my negligence at taking back up of my stuff, I got hold of this piece of work That "the Lady" had mailed to all the people who were part of the expedition. . . . Thanks Shvetha for writing everything that we had been through on that day, I remember the day very well it was 15th of aug. . . . This definitely is not a short one very much like my other posts, this one's longer than Usual . . . .
“PiT-ST0p NaNDI”
Last 15th Aug while meditating at Matrimandir in Auroville, if some one ever told me I would be cycling to Nandi hills next year, I would have dismissed it with a laugh. Such is life. It’s most unpredictable and best kept it that way.
It all started with orkut, so let’s thank orkut for doing the Nokia act (connecting people). Secondly, thank prabal, who took the initiative to take on this trek. On the first Invitation I wasn’t keen, but cycling a 5km stretch was on my mind. It was only the night before when Mvj called in and asked bartiya? Let’s cycle till yelhanka!! Fair enough!
It’s the Independence Day. With a bottle of water and my neighbor’s cycle I headed to the main road, where I met mVj. I was instantly comfortable with VJ and the fact that he was my junior in both school and college gave us enough to talk about. The two of us waited at the Ganganagar bus stop for Prabal, Prashant and Yatish to join. They were riding from JPnagar.
We joined in. As we were nearing the Hebbal fly over I was afraid the cycle mite start going backwards, did I have the strength to pedal on a flyover?? And VJ repeatedly said its easy yaar u can do it. But it was over even before I thought it’s impossible and it was the FIRST TIME I HAD PEDALLED ON A FLYOVER!! It was one of my firsts.
Our first break came in the form of a halt at a darshini for breakfast at Kodigehalli. This is where we got a formal introduction from each other, 2 software engineers, one architect and a student. Hogged on our idlis and dosas and when we were packing our bags to make a move THUD!! fell a roof tile on the floor which missed Yatish by an inch!! With his skull intact and thanking his luck we pedaled ahead. Riding on the bypass past Jakkur aerodrome was quite an experience, flat and well maintained roads; we had crossed Yelahanka in no time… I savored that moment of joy. In the meanwhile, prabal and Prashant had taken the lead and Yatish and VJ had slowed down their pace to give me company. It was now time to take a call weather to turn back home or to continue the ride. We chose to move ahead. Cycling on the highway, past villages and picturesque stretches on a few bumpy roads, I wouldn’t complain about them, as there were barely a few countable ones. In about forty five minutes time we had reached the Devenahalli railway crossing. This was an extremely narrow road and was congested to ride on due to HTV. On the curve it was hard to cycle plus a KSRTC bus came behind me which haunted me like YAMDOOT. Thanks to Vj who guided me to the extreme left. But Yatish had taken the lead and the bus was racing rashly towards him. I could only scream YATISH!! The bus had knocked him down the front tyre brushed his T-shirt and he was under the bus with the second tyre just an inch away….for us it looked like he had come under it which caused the bus to stop, and then he rolled out. We ran to him didn’t knowing what to expect. Our man here gave a chamak to Yamraj with a few scratches. And we thank the bus driver and Yatish’s luck. Yatish was in a complete state of shock, his leg shivering; we ourselves took some time to come out of the shock. The thought of having seen almost death was scary. THIS WAS ONE OF THE FIRSTS FOR EACH OF US. We thanked the Heaven’s above and continued with the journey with extra caution and keeping to our extreme left as far as possible. Though we were pedaling, it still took some time for us to recover from the horror we had just seen. We wouldn’t leave this world unless we have served the purpose of our living and that kept him alive.
We passed the Devanahalli international airport stretch, then rode on the footpaths of ITC (riding on a footpath was one of the firsts for me) Here the roads were empty since we chose to ride on the by pass. I forced them to take rest after every km. VJ did freehand riding for as long as I could remember which inspired me to do it for a sec., past the beautiful Jain temple, a little ahead we saw a Shiva temple erected in between two boulders. This temple was built in a single day and it was highly professional and extremely beautiful. How we wished we could stop by for some time, but it would have delayed the journey and the sun would be blazing on our head and I continued to pedal slow…slower ……slowest. This is when the idea of towing came into VJ’s mind. Till the time we could find ropes, VJ held my hand and pedaled ahead and Yatish pushed it from the back holding the carrier. This went on for almost a km; it was also one of my firsts. VJ would always manage to come up with bizarre ideas and freak us, but these were workable ideas. Finally we found a congress banner which we used to tow till we were offered a sturdy long rope by an old man. Kudos!! to Yatish for convincing him. We tied it to our cycle and pedaled ahead. This had drastically increased the speed. VJ and Yatish alternatively took turns on towing me. I also fell flat once when the rope tangled the tyre. I guess I fell there because there was water near that place and we would have missed it otherwiseJ towing continued for sometime. I had recovered a bit and switched back to cycling. I HAD ALWAYS WISHED TO GET MY SCOOTY TOWED ON THE ROADS, BUT IT CAME IN THE FORM OF A CYCLE. If you desire for something the whole universe conspires to gift that to u (from The Alchemist) it’s just the wait that gets longer. Be patient!!
We had finally managed to reach the nandi grama circle with the help of a bunch of grapes, a banana, 2 coffee bites each and a half km ride on a tractor.( THIS WAS ALSO ONE OF THE FIRSTS FOR ME). It was a lovely bumpy ride. We wished it would go on for a little longer…..
Once at the circle… there were a few shops in the vicinity, first things first we got our cycles repaired, relaxed on the stone bench listening to radio city and with high spirits pedaled ahead. After a km I could hardly pedal, gave up, there4 we walked, no strength to carry the weight of my cycle, v exchanged cycles. We would ride 100 mts and walk 800 mts, Yatish and VJ hit upon the novel idea of towing on this uphill. This requires a lot of courage and stamina!! These guys actually towed me on the hill. And it was indeed a tough task. We resumed walking again. Sun was scorching down on us. I regretted giving the tan lotion a miss... With little breaks, walks and pedals we covered a distance of 4 and a half km. at this point VJ was extremely thirsty and hungry too. For almost half an hour we requested every vehicle on road to give water but in vain. We pedaled ahead and found a couple resting on a stone bench who parted us with Fanta. Ok!! It’s aerated, its pesticides, it could be dirty water who cares, it quenched our thirst. Thanking them we moved ahead. Cycled for a while, walked a lil ahead we had covered a distance of 5 and a half km. these guys would have done it if they were on their own. I couldn’t do it any further. We loaded our cycles into an overcrowded tempo and hopped into it. (ONE OF MY FIRSTSJ) always wanted to take a ride on tempo; the crowd was like an icing on a cake. It gave more impact to the ride. On our way up we spotted Prabal and Prashant walking uphill with their cycles. A few seconds later we had finally made it to nandi!! Each of us were excited bout it, but with no networks and coin bhoots around, we contained it within us.
We reached the hill top at 1:15 mins, went around the place took some pics. We decided to head back home when it started pouring heavily so we took a climb up the hill. After a few flashes and poses we came downhill giving Tipu drop a miss but we took a detour and we were at the Tipu drop, despite of not wanting to see it, it bought us to it. As we came down and it was 3:30, 15 mins stop at Nandi stretched to 2 hrs. As we unlocked our cycles, the rain gods decided to descend on earth, which delayed our start for some time. When we finally did start on the very first curve I banged into Yatish’s designer cycle and skidded to get a few bruises on my credit. This again delayed our home coming. For a moment in that pain I had a strange feeling that the hills wanted us to spend some more time and acknowledge its presence and beauty. I thank god for this fall, which made us aware that there was no breaks in my cycle; it kind of saved me from coming under some drunkard’s vehicle. And hey!! I had cycled a distance of 45 km with no brakes for the first time… this is no joke! We started our journey down hill. It was for this pleasure of riding down on the curves that inspired us to do the uphill task on cycle. This wasn’t all that pleasurable any more, for I was riding on Vj’s cycle, I could hardly pedal on that. We were faced by a new avatar of VJ the more caring and the protective side of him. He kept screaming directions KEEP LEFT!!!,, KEEEEPP LEFT…!! DON’T GO ON THAT END … WATCH OUUUUUTT LADY!!! THERE’S A STONE, THE ROAD IS BAD, LEFT LEEEEEEFFFFT!!! Brakes mele gyaana iralii!!! UFFFF!!! He kept screaming all the way down the hill. VJ rode ahead of me to keep a check on the vehicles and road and Yatish came behind me like a guarding angel. We had done it, reached the Nandi circle in no time. Again a stop at the cycle shop for little fixes. We took the pic of 5 of us on cycle. When it was all done my mom called in, she was in tears... cos she wasn’t able to reach us for the past 4 hrs and was scared that something had happened to me .she ordered me to reach home ASAP!! We did try speeding up but my body was aching, Vj and Yatish lubricated the speed by towing me again for another 5 km. switched back to riding for another 4 kms, when Vj and Yatish managed to convince a lorry driver. He promised to drop us till where ever he could. We hopped on to the lorry and continued the journey ahead when it suddenly started pouring heavily. We again thanked god for having taken care of the situation. Vj’s communication skills (which need a spl MENTION) came in very handy. He totally “pataofied” our driver fella!! In no time we were in Bettahalusur. As soon as we got off the lorry the rain continued to pour down. The lorry guy boarded us into another lorry which disembarked us at kodigehalli. From here we cycled back home and reached home in 15mins. With a stop at the cycle wala for little fixes. This marked the end of the trip for me. Vj cycled towards Dinnur and Yatish headed for Indiranagar.
THANKSGIVING: Firstly, I thank Orkut and Prabal and Prashant for getting us together, MS word; without which this documentation would have been impossible, my neighbor for lending me his cycle, Yatish's luck, for standing strong by his side all the time, Monkeys who spared us with the meager food we had, tractor wala; who gave us a bitti lift, the lorry driver who went out of his way to help us, with not just boarding into another lorry but also giving his contact no. if need arise. Thanks to the couple who quenched our thirst with fanta!! May god bless them!! Also a spl thanks to VJ and Yatish for having towed me without which I might have not reached the hill top. Lets not forget the universe which watched us, protected us gave us the strength and took care of us.
Let this be the beginning of many more rallies to come in the near future…
Also this is my first attempt into documenting a trip so forgive me if it gets a bit too boring but this is what it was like….
Off late this is what I've experienced, internet has made us believe that we are all connected. . . but it always leaves me with the question - are we ? ? ? When I face off with these people, I'm often connected with online. . . in the real world. On the net I am connected with so many people, some are friends, some are friends of friends and some are those who are friends just because we share mutual friends. . .
In the virtual network, we often share our thoughts and opinions about things we believe n think n like or obsessed with, others who opine the same agree, some like it and some don't . . . But the point is how much ever we are connected with these people over the internet, we always tend to face a strange situation when confronted in the real world. . . . the very same thoughts that we may have agreed upon in the virtual world. . . words don't come easy to even start a conversation when the person is in front of you. . . . we feel like strangers all over again, as if to start everything from the beginning. . .
I feel whatever we put on the internet never goes on for a long time in our minds, probably that's one of the reasons, why I often find myself asking people did I say that to you, they return with a quick reply saying I saw that on the internet. . . . You never really know who reads what you type on the internet but its nevertheless important to type though, at least to keep those thoughts posted . . . just like the one I am writing now, which I am not sure who'll ever read this. . . But it sure becomes a data bank of thoughts that you've gone through, and its always nice to look back at them later. . .
The internet does help us be in touch with the ones we know personally, but those who know you because we share mutual friends in those social networking sites, I am not sure if it does help at all. . . It may definitely help us start a conversation and suddenly you may find that the one you knew in the virtual world was a totally different person altogether . . . I believe, as long as what we portray ourselves as in the VIRTUAL WORLD is more or less the same as what WE are in the REAL world, we will be connected. . . . connected in the true sense of being connected . . . :)
Its really been a been a long time since I wrote anything about architecture, in fact I've never written anything about Architecture on my blog . . . I wanted to write about architecture on the UW blog but due to differences in the opinions between me n my partner, this post finds a place on my blog. . . . in order to justify why it took such a long time to write something - well, I would say, just like In architecture, what is very important to come up with something "worthwhile" to show off is "THE TIME". . .
One year into practice and still nothing to flaunt with you all, makes me feel miserable, though there's so much in the virtual form to display. That is not something I am interested in flaunting, un-built Idea or should I say "Unsold Idea". . .
So here's what we did over the past year, Though its not something that I will be showing in terms of the pics or photo realistic images or diagrams, nor am i interested in showing that, but I would rather talk about the path, as its important for us to know what we've traversed. . . .
One of the best things about running your own practice is that you are responsible for all the mistakes and the outcome of those mistakes. . . its a steeper learning curve, when you cast work with time . . . the satisfaction that one gets when the idea is realized is immeasurable. . . When i am talking about our own practice, does that give the same satisfaction to the person working for us, may be not but we try to avoid situations that we never enjoyed when we worked elsewhere . . . We try to make sure the office enjoys the privilege of being casual at work, at least at this point in time, yet keep it professional when it comes to our response to our clients. . .
So, What is it that we've accomplished in this one year of practice - nothing . . . but we've survived, survived the test of time . . . Survived the odds of having to make a living out of the practice we do and yet achieve the creative satisfaction that A MIND craves for . . . We've been successful in the first part but faltered a bit on latter . . . Why I say we faltered was merely to satisfy the first task - that was to survive. . . earn our bread n butter, at that point in time "JAM" was a luxury n Wine was never in the thoughts . . . One thing I can say proudly is that we've been to move to a bigger office from our first office which measured approximately 8'x16'. . . and co-incidentally this also happens to be our best design till date, within the limits of time and money, with a certain amount of satisfaction to boast off . . .
So what is it that gives us joy in our own project, which we hardly find in the projects that we did for clients who paid us for our survival, may be our needs were always within the limits of the factors that curtail the design. . . . with a studio space that is connected to the main door through an opening in the partition wall, that can be covered with a sliding display panel that doubles up as a discussion table, with the windows being covered with our trademark sliders that cut off 100% light when we don't need it, with space to scribble our thoughts and a space to pin them up. . . . an extended studio space for the future - just in case, we grow beyond what we actually want to - why I say beyond what we want to, is because then we'll[me n akbar] have to move to the other side from the main design space, where the actual fun is . . . . We'll be isolated then. We also have a Customized TT table which is about a foot shorter than they normally are - in a typical Kaaka tea stall detail that also doubles up as a display space for our works. . . . that's all about the office, do visit to believe what we say. . . . oops almost forgot, its Black n white - we are the colours. . .
We've had varied experiences with clients from different walks of life, some understand what we go through and some don't, and then there are a few who just walk out in the middle of the project. Now its not difficult to handle the first two types of people but the third kind always hurt. It hurts mainly because of the fact that you are so close to realizing what you've been dreaming of and suddenly you find that you are no longer needed. . . That hurts. . . :) But we don't have any regrets about the people who've walked out, We've learned from them too . . .
The survival over the past one year has made us confident of one thing and that is We are NOW prepared to say NO. . . When we started out we were lucky to have few clients who really helped us find a foothold in the profession, They were the reason for our survival . . . They were a source of regular income. So what is it that we did for these clients, WE DID WHAT THEY WANTED, why we did that ? ? ? That's a simple question - The answer is we had to . . . for survival, to keep the practice going, find new clients in the hope that they'll help us quench our thirst for creative satisfaction. . . . Then finally came the day when we decided, this is it, its time to say "NO", No to people who want us to do what they want us to do . . . When I say No to those who want us to do what they do, I mean - drawing the line exactly where they want us to. . . .
When we did say no to these people who helped us survive during the tough times, the first thing that stuck to us was Fear, Fear of being able to find new clients, to be able to survive . . . It was never easy to say NO, but it was inevitable, given the fact that we were heading nowhere doing what ever we were doing . . . In future, we hope that we find people who'll be able to meet their needs with our efforts being rightfully channelized to achieve an "end product" that both the client and the architect can say with pride "it belongs to me" . . . .
