Pictures and words

Join some wooden pieces to make a frame. Stretch the t-shirt and staple/nail it. Cover it with cardboard. Paint to make it attractive! 

The season of internships is back and this is the exact time when thousands of freshly baked portfolios will be spammed to the already filled servers of poor architecture studios. I, another poor fresh graduate am sharing some thoughts on the portfolios. I am not an expert in this nor is my folio the best in the world. These are some thoughts which I believe can be helpful. You can take cues from them or choose a completely different path! 1. The shelf life of a portfolio is about a minute. Good offices receive thousands of portfolios for internships, they(mostly junior staff) quickly skim through the folio and shortlists. So make sure you have more graphics and less text. Because each page will get almost 2-5 seconds. 2.   Design according to the monitor screen.  Your folio will always be viewed on a computer screen unless you send a printed copy. So, make it in the ratios favorable and comfortable to screen viewing. This will allow the viewer a seamless view of e...

A month long journey which bent, changed and destroyed many of my perspectives towards social justice, inequality and life. I was on a scholarship by Spic Macay. It was one of the toughest journeys I have been on, so far, both from outside and the inside.  Sleeping in the park, bathing on footpath and drinking tanker water taught me the value of small luxuries of life, and I was not alone, there were 200 more people. It gave me strength. Little luxuries of life which we generally ignore like a toilet.  It was also a time when I made precious personal relationships with people so devoted to a change like Aruna Roy, Nikhil dey,  Shankar singh, Naurti Bai, Kavita Shrivastava and Gurpreet ji. Meanwhile Shankar Singh became Sankar mama and Aruna Roy became Aruna Nani and Kishan Singh became Kisan Kaka.  I met different brilliant people from all walks of life working towards a strong collective cause, most of them were the people who left high paying high po...

Prologue:  “ I have not slept for more than 6 hours since the time I started my internship. There have been times when I haven't slept at all. Everyday is a beautiful day here. There is no unproductive or bad day at Hunnarshala. I sleep less because I am always so excited and enthusiastic for the next day to come, the next day with challenges, adventure and something new to look forward to. ” I am Nipun, a student of architecture. What you are going to read is the  story  of six months that changed my life. Hunnarshala  is a not for profit company based in Bhuj, Gujarat. It mostly works in the fields of disaster rehabilitation, housing for poor, and social architecture. It is very specific about the use of sustainable and eco-friendly designs and materials in its projects. The involvement of the users and the knowledge of communities is paramount in its designs. I was going to Spain for my internship for six months but my visa got rejected. Around the s...

Train excerpts My college friend, Amarinder Arora recently posted this on facebook. "Recently, while travelling in the sleeper class coach of a train, I overheard this old man humming the following to (and for) his wife- "फूल सी झलक एक दिखलादे मुझको दिल मेरा खुलके झूमे, कुछ खट्टी कुछ मीठी यादें, सब मॅन में पिरो के सो लूँ" One photograph  instantaneously came in my mind, I was once traveling from Bhopal to Delhi in Bhopal express. This journey was different. This time I was alone, no collegemate along. I woke up early. The sun was rising, spreading straight golden light parallel to the horizon. I saw this old lady sleeping. Her husband was awake and was just staring at her. His eyes were reflecting the sense of love and compassion he had for her.It looked as if he was remembering all the good time he had spent with her and how lucky he was to have her, and how he never wanted to lose her. I took out my camera, asked him if I could ta...

Lucky The Magician. The inception of the idea to do a series on the magic show in a small village Mela  (fair) came out of sheer humour. But it turned out to be a different one.  Tapas and I visited the Dhrang  village at the pakistan border, about 40 kms from Bhuj. The village is famous for two things. First its saint,  Saint Mekaran Dada who had a dog named motio and a donkey named Lalio with whom he used to wander into the Rann daily with water and food to quench the thirst and show the direction to the lost travellers.  Second,  A large fair which is held every year on Magh Vad 14 (February-March). Coming back to the point of focus. We explored the fair pretty fairly. The most interesting thing that we came across was a local Magic show. Below is a excerpt from my travel diary about the interesting magic show.                  The Aggarwal family’s roots are from J ammu but they are living in ...